Michelle is now 31 weeks pregnant. That means I have now gone over six months without taking the time to learn too much about what will happen during the birth and how my life is going to change once little Marmaduke/Gus (two working names) is born. Thankfully Michelle signed us up for pre-birthing classes run by the Northwest Hospital.

The course runs for three weeks and takes up three hours on a Saturday morning. Yesterday was our first class and we learnt all about the labor. The mid-wife running the course – Nancy – started the class asking if anyone knew what the first stage of labor was. I knew instantly that I had a lot to learn as I had no idea that there were stages – as in plural.

We watched videos, saw demonstrations on plastic pelvises and cute dolls and enjoyed graphic re-tellings of birthing stories. It was truly great. I needed something like this to kick start me and get me excited about our little bub whom I will get to meet very soon.

I look forward to week two and three where I will get to learn about changing nappies, feeding and other basic parenting skills.