Saturday, March 8, 2008

Pre-Natal Class Adventures

Last week I had had my 2nd week of pre-natal classes - Yoga and aqua-aerobics. As I've mentioned before, I'm really enjoying my time in these classes, especially since the first 30 minutes are devoted to pregnancy-related topics. That being said, I do feel like a bit of an outsider. To be honest, I've always felt like an outsider around other women. I could always relate better to guys than to girls. Guys are very WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). Girls aren't. There are mind-games. There are subliminal messages. There's competition. There's sizing up. I don't give a snoot about makeup. I could care less about the crap you read on Cosmo. I think sachets are dumb and useless, and I think that getting smelly soaps from The Body Shop has got to be one of the most useless and annoying gifts EVER.

Having spent 4 years in engineering school followed by almost 7 years of work in IT, I've hung around my fair share of guys. I'm used to it. Most of my close friends are guys. I can talk about computers, and I can be totally silly around them and crack dirty jokes without the disapproving look that most girls would give me. Now, being pregnant, I seek refuge with those of the same sex, since, after all, guys have NO IDEA what I'm going through.

So anyway, back to the main topic.

Monday's topic in my Yoga class was breast-feeding. The instructor had us go around the room, saying how far along we were, and how long we wanted to breastfeed. Everyone around me said that they wanted to breastfeed for as long as possible (which actually translated to 1-2 years). Then it was my turn, and I said, "for as little as possible" - i.e. between 1 and 4 months. Dead silence. Clearly I'd committed some crime in preggers-land. To each his own, is what I say. My personal preference is to not have a kid with teeth and who can walk on its own sucking on my boob, thank-you very much. I know some mothers breast-feed for that long, but it's just my personal preference. Who knows...I may change my mind and do it for as long as 6 months, but that's as far as I'll go.

I definitely appreciate the importance of breast-feeding, and certainly the importance of breast milk. That's why even when I stop breats-feeding, I'll probably still feed PK some breast milk for a little while longer. The session was definitely very enlightening, and I learned a lot (probably more than I ever wanted to know but still had to know). For example, milk ducts can clog, and the best way to unclog them is to have the baby suck on your boob (disturbing, I know). Boobs can get hard if there's too much milk in them, so the best way to relieve the pressure is to just manually squirt some out. There's the right and wrong way for a baby to latch onto your boob. Breast milk digests more quickly than formula, and is therefore better to give to a kid over formula in the early days, in order to prevent SIDS. Kids get confused by boob nipples and bottle nipples, so you have to ease them into things. So ...much...information...brain...exploding...

Thursday's aqua-aerobics class was equally-enlightening. We were asked to go around the room and say how far along we were, and list some of our good and bad experiences with pregnancy. When it came around to me, I started going on about how I was nauseous for 3 months. Then when that was all over and I finally got my energy back, I got 3 colds in a row, in the span of 1.5 months. Then I went on to say that the weight gain was a real shock to me, and that I found it really disturbing at first. Finally, I ended off with, "But I guess it's all getting better now, so I guess that's a good thing..." Awkward silence. I'm sure that if anyone was in both the Yoga and swimming classes this week, they'd start referring to me as "crazy anti-breast-feeding pregnancy-hater girl". Hey, I tell it like it is.

I will re-iterate, however, that PK is very much a wanted child. I just happen to be a creature of comfort. What can I say? I like the status-quo. This whole pregnancy thing is totally new to me and it has its ups and downs. In hindsight re: the swimming class though, I should've said that the best thing about being pregnant was PK itself. It's true. I might have a funny way of showing it, but I am glad that PK is on its way.

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