Hypno-Babble

We went out to lunch with Toi (isn't she gorgeous!) and her son Trey yesterday. She and her husband were one of the other couples in our hypnobabies class. There were three couples in the class and she is the one that came closest to the desired med-free birth. As you know, I wound up going full steam ahead with all the available medication the hospital had to offer (and don't regret it one bit) and the other woman had a C-Section. Pretty disappointing results, frankly, that only 1 in 3 are able to use the hypno-training. And Toi confided in me that she felt ALL of the pain. So although she went med-free, it's really 0 in 3 for pain management.

Neil, of course, feels vindicated. He thought it was hooey from the get-go, but I was so afraid of the epidural (a needle in your spine, I mean, come on!) that I was looking for anything to avoid it. I should add a disclaimer here, the mind is a very powerful thing, the effect of placebos proves this. I suspect I never really committed myself to the hypno approach, never truly believed that it would work and therefore it didn't. I do think that if you fully believe that it will work, that it can. That said, I'll probably just pre-order the epidural next time.

I've heard some people say that the circumstances surrounding a person's birth influence the kind of person they are. When I see Trey, I believe this. He is the calmest baby. Meanwhile, my beautiful child spent a good chunk of the lunch showing us her tonsils. And you can see how happy she is in this picture. That's the patented Sophie pout, by the way, with full lip extension. Clearly, she had a difficult birth. Boy, am I in trouble in years to come.

On a side note, Sophie now officially has a second tooth coming in! I thought it was my imagination at first, that it was just the sparkle of her gums. But no, it's another tooth. Since I've committed to breastfeeding for the long haul, I'm really glad my baby is getting her teeth early. Not.