My husband loves this analogy. Just recently we watched the movie “March of the Penguins” and were amazed and astonished at the adversity that these creatures go through just to have a baby penguin. Marching for up to 70 miles to go inland from the ocean to lay an egg that will hopefully survive the harsh winter weather. And at times, even after laying the egg, the severe Artic winter will persevere and the baby penguin will die.

When we were arriving at the hospital for our childbirth class on Monday, we weren’t sure where to go so I said “Let’s just look for other pregnant women and follow them.” My husband laughed when sure enough, we arrived at the hospital and there were several pregnant women making their way into the building. My husband said “Look, it’s the march of the penguins!”

Of course I have had some time to digest some of the information that we were given and thanks to Stephanie, I have had some encouragement. But I can still hear the gasp of breath from the women in the class when they put an example of the dilation size on the overhead during the class. The nurses immediately realized the reason for the gasp and said “This is not actual size.” We turned in our books to the page with actual sizes and still were shocked but a sigh of relief went through the room.

According to this pregnancy web site, the baby is now 2.5 lbs and more than 15 inches.

Oh, and another thing that I learned. Did you know that an epidural is not a shot but a tube/line in your back that continuously provides blessed numbness? I had heard that the needle was long and scary, but I assumed it was just a one-time shot which is why most doctors will not have one put in until you are 4 cm dilated.

Another fact: 90% of women have some sort of pain medication, only 10 % go natural.

I am also trying to find statistics on girl to boy birth ratios. In our class, we have about 20 couples. 3 couples do not know what they are having. That leaves 17 couples. Of those, only 3 couples are having boys. That is about a 3 to 1, girl to boy ratio. I am just wondering if that is common. Of course my husband made a comment that “Our son shouldn’t have much of a problem finding a wife with this ratio.”

Finally for today, based on his continuous movement and kicking of my insides, our son is either the next Dirk Nowitzki or Rafael Septien. Sorry Sweetie, I just couldn’t put a Steeler name in this blog. And no, his first picture at the hospital will not be in a Steeler jersey.