We started infant care classes last night and spent the evening learning about the differences between disposable, biodegradable disposable, cloth and some other diaper types. The problem with the biodegradabe diapers? They biodegrade in sunlight but diapers don't get to bake in the sun, they get tossed into a landfill and then they take just as long to break down as the other kinds. From some accounts that's about 500 years.
Anyway, a large variety of people there, a couple of lesbian couples, some younger but most of the class were a couple of years older than P and me. All had interesting stories, interesting jobs and there was a fairly high percentage of people who worked in child services of some kind or another. One other person in PR, the Director from Alladin Systems which is right up the street from P's work.
The instructor was funny, had been teaching the course for 24 years and loved sharing horror stories about "blasting out" of diapers in inopportune places and times. In fact, "blasting out" was a general theme of the class. Get used to it, it will happen, no diaper is proof against a fecal explosion of Biblical magnitude. It will happen. It will happen. Get over it. Be prepared, clean the baby up and move on.
But it was fun in a I-could-be-doing-something-else-with-my-time-way but it was also something we needed to get started on. We've got birthing classes coming up too and I'm sure the reality will continue to set in. Not that I haven't been on board the baby train all the way along. Its just that there are these incremental moments where the baby in P's belly becomes more and more real, like when its moving around and she puts my hand on her belly to feel its little pushes that will soon grow into full blown kicks.
And we learned that safety pins are archaic and unnecessarily dangerous. If that little Cabbage Patch doll had been a real baby, it would have bled out by now (though maybe that would have helped wipe the incredibly creepy expression off its face?). No, no, I think we're going to be going te velcro route. Velcro closure cloth diapers for the most part, I think. Disposables when we're away from home.
The PR Director and her husband were returning students as she had given birth a week ago on the 2nd when her due date had been the 28th. The little boy was healthy if a little small but he didn't have to stay in the hospital longer than his mom and he was very sweetly sleeping through the whole class.
It was, on the whole, a good time and we both learned an awful lot. Two more Tuesday nights of this and then a short break before we break into the six birthing classes.
Oh yeah, the numbing agent in the cortisone in my shoulder wore off by about 9:30 last night and it took some getting used to, having the fiery shoulder. But it was alright in the end and I have greater range of motion now though I was cautioned against over doing it on the shoulder. No tennis, no volleyball, no throwing, no heavy lifting with the upper body. And no wiping out on my bikes either. I'll have to work on that last one.
And, final thought of the morning's post, anyone who watched The Shield last night is probably just as shocked as I was. A pretty dark and twisted turn of the story involving a police captain getting captured by two lowlifes and being forced to fellate one while the other took a picture of the money shot. Damn, and this was on cable tv? I bet the show's writer is having an absolute blast writing the storylines out on this one. The show continues to push the boundaries in all directions. A few shows ago, the protagonist forced a prostitute to take his gun in her mouth like a penis to save her life. Its a very whacked show but its also very, very good.
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