Masaki....do you and Amanda have parents nearby? I'm sure they are excited and apprehensive as well.

Two of the greatest moments in my life were watching my grandsons' births. Being there with my daughter and her husband was so special. Lots better than owning a Ferrari!

Oh yeah Masaki, those 3am feedings are great. You will really appreciate the sleep you didn't get during your residency.

That being said, it is a small price to pay for the joy she will otherwise bring!

Anthony

Change is always a challenge, and it's good to be aware that you are taking on a big job, but the great thing about kids is that you get to grow with them. You don't have to do it all at once.

You have smarts, a good heart, and a lot of love for Marika's mother, Masaki. You're going to do great. You are going to enjoy that little girl so much you will be amazed.

Masaki & Amanda

That special bond you will develop immediately makes those worries go away. I agree with Richard.
I consider my son the greatest achievement of my life.

Masaki, my sister is a physical therapist and the first few years out of graduate school she worked at LA Children's Hospital where all she worked with were infants with deformities and major birth defects. When she became pregnant, she was experiencing much of the same fears and anxieties as you since all her experience with babies and infants was with the "not normal". She ultimately had 2 beautiful, 100% healthy sons.

Marika is going to come into this world 100% beautiful and healthy....besides, she's going to have the 2 best (and nicest) parents ever!

Thank you all for the emotional support - it's much appreciated.

Had our 2nd to last Lamaze class tonight - practiced positions for labor and various breathing techniques. Our instructor had all the guys in the room stand up, go next to a wall, and have us slide down the wall supporting ourselves by using our thighs to push ourselves against the wall in a sitting position. Tried it for 60 seconds with my thighs burning. Then she had us do it with our pregnant partners coaching us by having us do breathing techniques - darned if it wasn't easier to do with somebody distracting you! Maybe there's something to all of this Lamaze stuff after all. :D

Masaki

You two will do great and Marika is lucky to have such loving parents! Macy

Masaki writes: No doubt about that! The Lamaze method provides the laboring woman with a solid, stationary target. :) Be ready to duck, Masaki!

Howling!!

Pets are WAY easier....

Marsha - I'm gonna be counting off to Amanda from across the room. Our instructor also stressed "Ladies, please make sure that you trim your fingernails before you go into labor" ... I think all the guys will really appreciate that one! :)

Masaki

Masaki,

Based on my experiences in watching Paige, Lamaze is great...for about the first 5 minutes. After that, all seems to be forgotten and your gentle reminders may get you yelled at, cursed at, or even worse. :eek: :ohmy:

Anthony

Anthony - that's what I'm afraid of ... :( Think I should bring along a tape recorder to capture her words for posterity so I can play them back to our kids when they're older? :D

Masaki

Masaki, do you really like living on the edge like that?? Keep in mind that tape recorders make excellent projectiles.

Maskai: Listen to Marna Lou - Joanna

LOL Joanna. I have to tell a story we laugh about now. While I was giving birth to Alden, I felt a contraction and breathed through it. My dear husband watched the tape coming out of the monitor, which for some reason did not register what I was experiencing, so he informed me that I was, in fact, not contracting and went back to arranging a racquetball date with our ob who was in the room at the moment.

George had that monitor for lunch.

I KNOW Masaki is MUCH smarter than to even consider a recording!! It reminded me of when we were newlyweds and I complained about his snoring; a few weeks later, he presented me with a tape recording of what he SAID was my snoring!! It's taken 38+ years to figure out how to stop HIS snoring; pull the covers off of him during the winter! Am not sure what I'll do this summer!

MarnaLou - too funny! I'd suspect that I'd find my tape recorder in places where the moon don't shine! :)

Masaki

Masaki would be very correct if that recorder were to ever make an appearance in the delivery room!

Masaki and Mrs. Masaki:

First, kids DO depreciate like Ferraris!

Second, I would not go with this Lamaze stuff. My first grandson was born October 1 2003, in Atlanta, GA. We got to the delivery room just at the time the baby's head was "crowning". My daughter had taken advantage of all that medical science has to offer. I was prepared for the scene of a lot of pain. Instead, my daughter said "Oh, hi, Dad. There are some cokes over there and some chips there too." Had I come to a birthing or a ball game? And if so, where is the beer? Well, seriously, the birthing process was smooth and painless for my daughter. And grandson? Well, he is already chasing the girls. (Now I wonder where he inherited that tendency?)

Well, bottom line (no pun intended) is that relying on medical science for pain relief during the birthing process is a very good thing.

In fact, in one of the most touching things I have ever witnessed, my daughter reached down and completed the delivery herself by pulling my grandson out!

Neither I nor my wife could believe that medical science had developed to the point where child birth could be so painless as what we saw. And the neat thing was that my daughter was not "out of it" at all, but was fully awake and aware of all that was going on.

Considering what I saw in the way medical science has found ways to make painful things not painful, I actually had a root canal done by my dentist a week or so ago ---- and that was just fine too!

So my advice (for what it is worth) is to take advantage of all that medical science has to offer to assist in the birthing process (and root canal work too). It was a beauiful thing to watch my daughter loving her new son right after he was born, and having her not all beat to heck by the pain. I felt that she was actually better able to imediately bond with him, because she was in good condition.

Just some words of advice from an old man.

Thanks, Richard :) :) :)

Well having given birth to three kids, 2 by the Bradley Method and one by Lamaze, that actually turned back into Bradley, when I dilated from 4 to 10 in like 7 minutes.... my opinion is go for whatever works - if Amanda wants a natural childbirth, then thats what she should have and Masaki, you should just be there and do whatever she wants. I would do it again in a heartbeat, and never regretted one minute of it.

We have 4 Grandkids, and all 4 of them have ended up being born by C-section, for various reasons.

Oh yeah, forget the tape recorder, just forget it! Amanda, if he does that, then he can give birth to the next child and you can record it!!!! :D :D

Anyway - if the Natural Childbirth works and all is well, I highly recommend it, it was the best thing I ever did in my whole life.

Having given birth 4 times (only one with a really effective pain block, which I loved), I have to say, in the words of Bill Cosby
"Give me morphine!"

The Lamaze is just to get me through until I'm 4 cm dilated or until I'm in too much pain...then I want my epidural! :) I know my pain tolerance and it's not very high.

JoAnn, I like how you think with the tape recorder!

We call it Lamaze but it's really a birth preparation course. And we are certainly no advocates of "natural childbirth" -- whatever that actually means, in this day and age. :) We will certainly be taking full advantage of pain relief! (I might need some myself)

Masaki

In the form of a Todd Cosmo, to be sure...

Amanda, that epidural is to die for!

During Braeden's birth, we arrived a bit too late (baby nearly crowning) to the hospital so no epidural was possible. Paige was not happy. In the mad rush, I started an IV on PAige because the nurses couldn't and then (I am not sure what I was thinking) told PAige that she was being too loud and needed to be quieter. She still tells me how close to death I nearly came

OK ladies, let me have it. :ohmy:

Anthony

Uh oh, Anthony...I think you just bought a load of trouble.....run for cover!!

So when is the little fish due anyways?
Pretty soon we will all need that epidural.. or at least the cosmo..

oh and p.s. thanks for the sweet card Masaki and Amanda.

Having done an unmedicated birth the first time, I decided I might have an epidural with the second but I waited too long to ask for it (I just was not that uncomfortable). They put the IV in, gave me a test dose, and then informed me it was too late! It was time for Alden to join the outside world.

That tiny test dose gave me a taste, though, of the joys of the epidural. Some years later I prevailed upon an accomodating anesthesiologist to let me have my appendix out on an epidural. Imagine getting over a surgery like that without the effects of a general anesthesia. I am sure that is one reason I was back to normal in no time.

Anthony, you are very lucky that Paige let you live after a comment like that! We can only assume you were so thrilled about the arrival of your new baby that you lost all sense. :)

Anthony - I was drinking water when I read your post and I nearly spit up the entire mouthful on the computer screen. Thanks for the laugh! I could see myself doing the same thing. :)

Claudia - you're very welcome and thank you!

Robert - might need to bring my own flask. In fact, might want to add that to the birthing bag (making note to myself)

MarnaLou - we figure we'll get it placed when we get to 4 cm and then have them turn it off if Amanda's really comfortable (Ha!). That way, we still have the option of using it if she becomes more uncomfortable.

Masaki

Anthony - funny funny, its actually a wonder that you are still alive and walking around, not to mention posting on LCT! :D :D

I did not mean to be promoting one birth method over the other. In the late 60's, the only relief was medication like Demerol or such that could get to the baby and make him/her drowsy for hours, not to mention us Mom's.....so the thing was to do "unmedicated" birth, and if near the end you needed something, then they would give you what is now called the epidural, except then they would only give it near the end - you know when you were screaming so loud that the whole world could hear you - haha - anyway, I think thats when the Bradley and Lamaze breathing technicques came into play, so that you could get thru labor as long as possible without a lot of meds that would effect the baby - whatever - it was the "hippy" era, I don't know where this all came from - but point is that is where the term "natural childbirth" is from I guess, meaning no meds at all if possible. Wheeewwww, I'm doing the breathing thing now.......hoooo hoooo hoooo, wheee wheee!!

Hey, its a personal thing and I think these days its finally right, the right combination of breathing techniques and small doses of meds, and epidurals, and its a great experience....no matter what, or how its done, in the end you end up with a little baby that the two of you have created together.
Thats my $5.00 worth!!! :D

Joann, Well said. Things are different now.

Anthony, You are a lucky man, that Paige let you live, and by the way, the jury would have understood. :D But I am sure you have made it up to her many times. :D

Masaki, Let it be a lesson to you, my dear! :)

Betty

Claudia, the little fish is due on 6/27 so she may come any day now.

JoAnn, you still remember the whole breathing thing! You're right, whatever works to bring a healthy baby into this world is the bottom line. There's no one right choice.

Ditto what Betty said. Anthony, you're very lucky to be alive!

So how are you feeling, Amanda? Are you still working full time?

Baby stories are going to be so much fun to have on the forum!!

Trish

When I had my children in the 60's, the doctors around here used something called "Twilight Sleep". I never knew exactly what it was, but I was not awake (nor was I really "out") when my
children were born. Both were induced, so I've never felt a labor contraction. Six weeks after Rich was born, a close friend called me to see what labor felt like, because she thought she might be having contractions. She was highly indignant when I couldn't help her (yes, she was in labor).

Pam, I would have preferred that "wake me when it's over" route, but they weren't using that in the mid 70's when I started. Epidural does take awhile to get hooked up, and as you know, if it is not a first birth, things move more quickly. I only had one with the epidural put in after just one hard contraction, and it was bliss. I could push without the penalty and not be distracted by the pain. To this day, that baby is the most cheerful of all of them. By #4, they just ignored you in the labor room if there was a prima para also in labor, and finally started to do the epidural when the baby was crowning. I had her right there in the labor room. Afterward, they told me if I had another baby and the water broke at home, then I would deliver en route to the hospital. So I quit.

Anthony, you are so funny talking about Paige. All of us mothers can relate! Oh, and we are eagerly awaiting the pix of the house!

Sonja and I both moved along pretty quickly every time. She had Andrea in about three hours (also induced) from start to finish. Sarah took the longest, she was the only one who decided to make her appearance with no help. Of course, Sarah still attempts to do everything with no help.

What I remember from my births, since water never broke was this long blue "knitting needle" sort of thing. That's what they used to break my water. Maybe that is what they call "inducing?. Geez, I hope there is no one reading this who has never had a baby!