Ciela sleeps

Finally, we did a decent job last night. Really, Judy and Ciela did a decent job of sorting out the whole feeding and sleeping thing. C. nursed like she's been doing it all her life, and J orchestrated the whole thing while letting me sleep for almost the whole night. I think she's discovered that my help really doesn't help much when all C wants to do is eat.

Ciela made her first public appearance yesterday, debuting before our Bradley childbirthing class. We had the baby with two more classes to go. That may be why we had to improvise the last few bits of the birth. C was a big hit, and behaved herself for most of the half-hour show and tell. All the expected moms and dads were very curious about the birth and asked lots of questions. On the way home, we wondered if we made it sound good or bad.

Prospective Mom 1: So what were the contractions like?

Judy: It was the worst pain I've every felt.

Prospective Mom 2: !?

Judy: But it was completely worth it.

So many things said at the hospital about Judy and me and Ciela indicate that babies from unmedicated births have a better time of it. Of course, its one damn example (all Indians walk in a single file. At least the one I saw did), but the nurses were impressed with how easily and quickly she took to nursing. The pediatrician was impressed with how mobile she was on her stomach. The nurses commented on how well we worked together during the birth (not directly related to pain-killers, but certainly related to our training). And C had excellent scores on all the post-delivery checks.

Okay, trying not to sound like I'm on a soapbox (and lets face it, I didn't have to go through any pain worse than sleeping on a crappy fold-out couch). Just thoughts that came out from Ciela visiting our class and wanting to say that I think all three of us are incredibly happy that we went through this through the Bradley method. Thus endeth the testimony.