Wednesday, Sep. 08, 2010
The Parent Class
John Beaudoin, Journal Publisher
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I will be the first to admit that I had, and still have, a lot of questions about raising a newborn, being a father and just baby stuff in general.
Sitting through a two-and-a-half hour newborn baby class answered some of those questions. Of course, it raised as many as it answered.
Such as this: how is the 19-year old next to me ever going to survive this process if he cannot even look at some of those photos without turning white? And why were we not taking more bathroom breaks? There’s a room full of third-trimester pregnant women here…
Anyway, the wife and I were probably two of the oldest in the room during the class. Others looked to be in their early to late 20s, with maybe a few 30s in there.
The class was largely informative for us at least. I cannot speak for all the new parents-to-be in the room, but I know we got a lot out of just going over some common sense stuff.
Don’t let the baby sleep on his or her stomach. Check.
Don’t microwave the milk. Check.
Don’t get freaked out if the kid has an odd-shaped head. OK.
Don’t leave the baby unattended. Got it.
One of the best parts of the class came when we were asked to “swaddle” and change a diaper on a plastic baby.
My dummy baby seemed to have a lot of attitude to him (or her), but I got through the swaddling OK. The couple in front of me wasn’t so lucky. The mom-to-be was heard loudly wishing there was some Velcro on the blanket – just like on the diaper – that would make this whole swaddling experience a little easier.
The nurse promised us that swaddling our newborn would almost assuredly cure all ills, crying, tantrums and other issues. Super.
We also watched what appeared to be an infomercial on how to bathe your newborn. The only uncomfortable part of this video was that they kept panning to people in the room who were seemingly all there to watch this live demonstration. It almost felt like Ron Popeil was going emerge at any moment and tell us a little about his food dehydrator.
At this point in the class, most of us had survived for nearly two hours – although the couple in front of us decided to bail after the swaddling lesson – but the kid near the back thought this would be a good time to start texting someone on his phone.
Dad instincts kicking in already, I almost wanted to tell him to look up and pay attention.
My favorite lesson from the newborn class was simple: Our little ones do not have an agenda and they are far too young to be manipulative. If they are crying, there is a reason for it.
Now, if I start crying, we have a big problem.
John Beaudoin is publisher of the Blue Springs Journal. To respond to today’s commentary, call 816-282-7001 or e-mail jbeaudoin@bluespringsjournal.com.
