A Week Of Baby Classes

This week I went to Plantation General Hospital for 4 baby classes.

1) Baby Care Basics (feeding, bathing, diapering ... basically your Baby 101)

2) Breastfeeding

3) Baby CPR

4) The Happiest Baby On The Block!

I took pages and pages and pages of notes because I want to get it all right for Baby Carly. Here are some of the interesting tidbits that I learned.

-- Babies don't cry much in the first week. It kicks in strong at week 2 and peaks around week 6.

-- If you play a couple of songs over and over for the baby before birth they will recognize and be comforted by these songs after they are born. Can you say playlist!?!? I've selected 3 Carly Simon songs that I'm now going to play for the belly every day for the rest of my pregnancy, which are "Tranquillo", "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Hush Little Baby."

-- Babies lose weight when you first take them home (hopefully moms do too) and return to their birth weight around 10-14 days.

-- Use a toothbrush to wash their hair.

-- Wine in moderation while breastfeeding is fine. Really!?!?! I made the teacher repeat this one. She said yes it is A-OK to have an occasional glass of wine while breastfeeding. That is very good news!!! I hope Baby Carly likes red.

-- If babies are breastfed their poop doesn't stink. Talk about incentive!

-- The Baby CPR procedures were changed in 2005 for the first time in 40 years.

-- I learned the 5 S's of baby comforting which include swaddling (to mimic the womb environment which they are used to), the side position (their "feel-good position"), shushing, swinging and sucking. They gave me a 2-hour DVD on all of the above that they said I should watch 6 times before Baby Carly gets here.

So I'm all done with my baby classes. Now I have about 2-3 months to study for my final exam!!! I hope Baby Carly will give me an A+.