"Clay Sculpture Night At Prenatal Class"

Really, the title does say it all. Last night, at prenatal class (#3/8, we brought the snacks), we learned some pain coping mechanisms, some physiological things about the act of birth, and we made clay labyrinths.

Sorry, labORinths. (Their spelling.)

Now, I know some of the women in the class are embracing this wholeheartedly as a paradigm to encompass their experience of becoming a mother, but I sadly could not subscribe to the idea of tracing the labyrinth as a metaphor for anything. Yes, it was a little diverting. I guess I'm just not that New Age. I was filtering out the mumbo jumbo & having fun getting OCD with the clay. I let the man roll the clay flat & create the shape, but I was in charge of finishing. The man got the trimmed bits off of the edge & made a baby out of it. And also the occasional sotto voce smart ass remark.

I wrapped the baby in moist paper towel & the labORinth & the baby up each in saranwrap. Now they're sitting safely in the microwave, and we are so going to kiln those. I think the labORinth may have more of a future as a trivet than a device for labor.

The pain coping things were good though - there's lots of good information wrapped up in the emotions. What I'm finding most interesting is how everyone else seems to feel about the whole thing - there's a ton of FEAR out there, my goodness! And not just little fear, but big, monster hiding under the bed, world is going to END fear. And some of the ladies in my class should be really congratulated because they're taking steps to deal with & confront their fears.

Of course, scheduling an elective caesarian is also taking steps to deal with fear. And really, who am I to talk? I'm afraid of goldfish.

All right, the kid has just given me the series of kicks that I interpret as "You've been sitting up way to long, Mama, go lay down because I like the night life, I want to boogie."