Birthing Class Week 2 - Oh Baby!

Tonight we had week 2 of our 6 week birthing class. It was great. It was a lot better than week 1. This week we saw a video of a birth, a handsome man wore an Empathy Belly and we did some relaxation and breathing techniques.

Let's start with the Empathy Belly then we'll get to the rest. As you can see from the picture, the handsome man in the Empathy Belly was me!
I was selected by the teacher to wear it. It wasn't because she saw something special in me (so she says) it was simply because I was the first guy to enter the room. First up, the chest belt. This was designed to make it difficult for me to breathe. Simulating Baby C compressing on Allison's diaphragm. She had me take a deep breath, then push it all out. Once I pushed it all out. She pulled HARD on the strap and made it really tight.
Next up, I got a huge rack and a big old belly. It weighed about 20-25 pounds. Then she added two 10 pound balls to each side which would simulate Baby C moving and got the weight up to 40-45 pounds. Lastly, she added a patch under the belly that would rest/press on my bladder.

I had to wear it for 45 minutes to an hour. I was supposed to tell the rest of the class how I felt wearing it. We never got around to it, but I'll tell you fine people about it right now. The teacher untied my sneaker and asked me to tie it again before I got back to my seat. I tried, to just bend over but I couldn't reach. Then I tried to take a knee, that didn't work either. Some will say I cheated, but I did what I needed to do. I put my foot up on the TV and tied it there

It was difficult to breath. I could only take small shallow breaths. I was not able to take a deep breath at all. That was bad but not that bad. The worst part about it was the sack that was pressing down on my bladder. It wasn't bad when I was standing up, but when I sat down OH BABY! I had to go. I felt a little bit of pain and just wanted to go to the bathroom. It got used to it after about 10 minutes, but every once in a while if I adjusted...I felt the pressure on my bladder again and had to pee. I don't give Allison a hard time about going to the bathroom so much and after this experience I'll make sure I don't.

Another thing I noticed, I had a hard time figuring out what to do with my hands and arms. I couldn't put them down. Couldn't cross my legs and rest them on my knee. What to do with them? I just looked around to see what the real preggos were doing and just did that. the gold old hands interlocked under the belly.

The last thing she had me do was lay down on the ground as if I was in bed. It was tougher getting out of the chair than I thought it would be. I got on the ground and waited for Allison to take a picture. Funny thing, she was taking a video! I tried to get up. Couldn't bend. I tried again...and fell backwards. That's when I started laughing and just did the roll to my side and creep up technique. It was pretty cool. I'm sure this is nothing compared to what Allison is going through, but it was a nice experience.

Next up, we saw a video of a birth. I'll just say, it wasn't that bad. A few close ups of things I didn't need to see. I feel like I am a lot closer to the women in the video than I was yesterday and I should send them a gift. Gotta wrap this up. It's been another long blog post here. The breathing exercises were fun. We had some mood music and the teacher said some soothing things. I felt a little relaxed, but it didn't work all that well for me.

The last thing we did was the He-He-He-Hoo breathing. I get an F on this. I did it for about 20 seconds, then I started laughing. I was doing it wrong. I knew I was doing it wrong, but I couldn't correct myself. I laughed again and that was it. That got some of the other groups laughing and I thought I was going to be asked to leave the room. So, that's my homework, practice the He-He-He-Hoo breathing.