Important life events all tie into horseback riding...

Hi all,

I did a great post about a new phrase that Juice and I use all the time, but then it got lost in cyber space as I tried to publish it. So look for that again in the near future when I can stop being mad at Blogger for loosing it.

Last week Juice and I went to our first child birth class. It was interesting. I think the only thing I didn't know about was the placenta. Yes, I knew it had to come out after the baby was born but how it looks when it comes out was a surprise to me. And how big it was! That AND a baby fit into my belly...Fascinating!

Anyway, we also learned about labor, when to call your doctor, what to do if you go into early labor, etc. The class was 4 hours long, and we go for the next few Saturdays. It was funny because as everyone walked in, you could see the other pregnant mothers checking out each other's bellies. I'm still the smallest one, even smaller than some of the ladies who are due in July! There is one other couple whose due date is before ours, and everyone else is due after us. We are also the only ones who are not having our baby at Shady Grove Hospital, which is where the class is. And why is that, you ask? Well, our local hospital is Shady Grove. It's about 10 minutes down the road from us. We decided (okay, I decided) to have Butterfly in Virginia at the hospital near my work called Inova Fairfax Hospital (http://www.inova.org/inovapublic.srt/ifh/index.jsp). Momentary laps of sanity, I think since it can take us up to an hour to get to this hospital in rush hour traffic. Although that's only during rush hour...it takes about half an hour mid day or after rush hour. And it is right across the street from my work. Also, my OB's practice is across the street from my work too and since I have to go there a lot, it was easier on my to just have to walk across the street instead of driving back home for every appointment.

So why did we decide to do our birthing class at Shady Grove? Well, they offered Saturday only classes. And we only have to go to 4 of them instead of 6 weeks of them. Inova doesn't offer that. And it was cheaper, we got a free breastfeeding class along with it, and it's so close to our house.

What does this have to do with horseback riding as my title suggests? Well, besides going over labor and birth in the class, we also went over some relaxation techniques. How to get your mind out of the way so that your body can work through the contractions. Every single thing she said I thought, "Oh, I used to do that when I rode." or "That makes perfect sense, that helped me when I used to ride." For example, we talked about muscles in your bodies competing for oxygen. And since your uterus is one big muscle and its working hard to get the baby where it needs to go, it needs all the oxygen it can get. If you clench other muscles, they steal the oxygen and make your contractions worse. So if you can relax the rest of your body, your contractions are a little more bearable. And you can relax your body by taking one limb at a time and telling it to relax. I used to do that all the time when I was on an especially hyper horse. I would start at my feet and move up my legs...Relax, relax, relax. Not only did it help me stay ON the horse, it also helped the horse relax because I was relaxed.

Another thing our teacher showed us was the pelvic tilt. It's used to help open up your pelvis to allow the baby to get into position, and also to strengthening your back muscles to help during labor. She showed us how to do it, and I thought, "Oh, posting." (That up and down motion that you do when a horse trots.) So I already knew how to do it.

So thanks Mom and Dad for letting me take horse back riding lessons. It's helped out in ALL aspects of my life...amazingly enough!

Love,
Safire