School's Out

It's been more than 10 years since I graduated from the U of M.  Which means I'd spent an entire decade avoiding the classroom setting.  It was a pretty good run for a time, but I'd had just about enough.  I've never really had a strong desire to go back to school.  I'm doing enough learning on the outside. 

Which brings me to Sunday.  And our 6-hour birthing class.  I can't really say what my emotions were going into it.  While I was looking forward to acquiring some of the vital knowledge that one needs to be a parent, I knew the classroom setting held the potential for sucking.  I was envisioning outdated videos, lame other couples and a know it all instructor preaching in absolutes.  Fortunately every nightmarish scenario played out only in my delusional head.  The videos were current (although occassionally awkward), the couples were all pretty chill (although one girl had all the insights into being the best parent ever) and the instructor was a cute, sweet woman who at one point asked everyone if any of us had ever sucked our wife's nipples 8 to 12 times a day.  Everyone stayed quiet.

The breastfeeding videos were really up close and personal.  I saw boobs from all angles, of all sizes, of varying degrees of manipulations.  For much of my life, the possibility of seeing boobs was the goal of that day, that month, that year.  But by the end of the class, I was boobed out.  It was certainly instructional.  It was definitely educational.   It was just boobs in a wrong kind of light.  The negativity was quite temporary though.  We're back in business now.  Boobs rule again.

There are some things I will not be immediately proficient at.  I won't be an expert diaper changer.  My calming and soothing skills are going to be pretty raw.  While I can be productive on very little sleep, I do not yet know what kind of ability I have to wake up continuously once I become asleep.  But surviving and thriving during the unknown is really what makes a good parent.  Or so I think right now.  And that I will be just fine at.

And it won't hurt to have the real life version of Tami Taylor by my side through everything.  Having a loving, caring, understanding wife is really my ace in the hole.

But having a loving, caring, understanding husband might just be hers too....