Warm feeling results from hospital visits

Most of the time when I'm in New York I spend some time in the Charlie Wood Cancer Center, where my father receives treatments for cancer, and as much as being there stinks, I think my dad has wonderful doctors and nurses on his side. Last weekend, my husband and I got to know some different departments in Middle Tennessee hospitals.

I will use this paragraph to boast on my wonderful husband. I was so proud of him for all three trips we made to hospitals over the weekend. It has proved to me that he has begun to take the future seriously!

We started Saturday morning by going to Middle Tennessee Medical Center for what would be a marathon crash course on childbirth and early newborn care. Jack was glad to share his brother's words of enthusiasm with me on our way to the class.

"Johnny is worried about this branch of the Fowler family," Jack said. First, Johnny was shocked we decided to name our baby a boy's name and now he couldn't believe I had convinced Jack to become a metrosexual husband and attend birthing classes, apparently a Fowler family first.

We got to the class and Jack seemed a bit worried at first -- the only other man there before us was indeed (or so he looked) like that metrosexual-type. In time, we learned men of all sorts take these classes nowadays (Take that, Johnny.) Our class was filled with great variety in terms of both age, race and class. We weren't even the oldest first-time parents in the class, believe it or not!

Several people told me taking a childbirth class was not necessary and that it all comes natural. Let me just start by telling you I would highly recommend this class to any new parent. My teacher was fantastically candid about everything from the early signs of labor to what I can expect from my body postpartum.

Some of the highlights of the class were the relaxation, stretching and breathing techniques; when to go to the hospital after contractions begin; things to bring to the hospital; medical interventions, and videos of natural births versus those with some medical help (which confirmed why I am certain I want an epidural); and newborn care. Even though I will forget some of what I learned, the most important thing I took from the class was a lessened sense of fear after talking about what to expect -- in detail -- throughout the birthing process.

Jack and I also felt pretty good seeing that all the other 17 couples in our class were as clueless about childbirth as us!

I asked Jack to tell me what he thought was the best thing he learned in class. He loved hearing about newborn care and I watched him break out his own notebook (for the first time the entire weekend) when the pediatrician came to talk about newborn care. He really is going to be such a great dad.

Jack said he was glad to learn that babies need to be taken to the hospital if their rectal temperature reaches 100.4 degrees. Also, he found it shocking that a baby who doesn't wet a diaper within a six-hour period should go to the hospital. I know, I know ... He's in for a real treat with the diaper thing.

Aside from Jack's assignment from the teacher to give me a pregnancy massage Saturday night, my favorite part of the class was hearing the nurse endorse epidurals throughout the weekend. Jack kept telling me I am strong enough to give birth naturally. I kept telling him I wanted to enjoy the process and not suffer!

This brings me to our third trip to the hospital. Jack finally took care of a couple of (minor) surgeries he had been putting off for months and years. We checked into Heritage Medical Center Monday morning for the procedures. (Here I will plug our great local hospital where Jack was completely satisfied with the care he received. From my perspective in the waiting area, I was completely satisfied with the quality of customer service I received and saw many others receive throughout the day by the staff and the lovely volunteers.)

After the day surgery, Jack and I headed home. He was in immense pain, but thankfully, the doctor prescribed some medication to help with the pain. Jack doesn't normally take medications, but I had to laugh this morning when I heard him on the phone with a friend. He said something to the effect of "I don't normally like to take pain medications but if they're available I might as well not suffer from the pain."

Hmmm ... I might have to remind him of that when it comes time for the baby's delivery!

-- Sadie Fowler is lifestyles editor of the Times-Gazette. She may be reached at sfowler@t-g.com.