Alright. We’re adults – heck, we’re OLD people, and we have lots of friends who have done this lately – so we “know” how this whole baby thing works. But I must say, “knowing” is one thing, and watching it on video while realizing that soon it will be YOUR BODY going through it, well that’s something entirely different ;)

Last weekend we spent 14 hours (two 7-hour days) in an INTENSIVE Childbirth Workshop at a place called Bini Birth near our house, led by a really cool doula named Ana Paula Markel. Honestly, she was fabulous. Very real, very funny. She’s brazilian with an italian background, and from her accent to her confidence and humor, she was a blast to listen to. Except for when she was holding up a spongy version of a pelvic bone and squishing a stuffed baby through it to show how everything worked… Not so funny.

We learned a TON (the stages of labor sure sound like a marvelous bonding experience). And, as will only happen in LA, we had stars in our class. Cameron from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off & his wife (who are both SUPER sweet, by the way) were one of the 12 couples in the workshop. In fact, our whole class was filled with nice folks, which is what you want when you see an illustration that shows the tiny space where your intestines (remember, they’re 25 feet long) get crammed at 9 months of pregnancy, which explains a lot.

Anyway, the message is that “it’s all worth it”, and while the jury’s out on that in our case, I sure hope everyone’s right.

Best part of the weekend was getting to meet our friends Brad & Jenn and their cutie pie daughters, Grace & Hazel (pictured above) for an action-packed dinner on the town. No better way to wrap up a childbirth class than to watch potty training happen in a restaurant with a less-than-desirable public restroom (great job, Grace!)

Seriously, we’re super lucky to have great friends & family around us to remind us that it IS all worth it.  Plus, we have 10 weeks left to block from our minds those videos… YIKES.