Newborn Infant Care Classes - Class Two

Well we successfully made it through our second and final Newborn Infant Care Class. This class was 100% hands-on. The emphasis of the class was on the following:

Sweet Baby Mika



• Changing Diapers

• Holding a Newborn

• Bathing a Newborn

• Swaddling a Newborn

We were each told to "grab a baby" from a table of babies. I grabbed this baby who we thoughtfully named Mika which is the #1 contending name that Jon's mom wants us to name our baby. We figured if we don't name our actual baby Mika, this would at least be paying respect to her. The babies were not like real babies and because their arms and legs were not flexible, it made most of these tasks almost impossible. 

Me swaddling Mika.



If we had to grade each other on swaddling, Jon would get an A+ and I would get a D-. I personally would consider swaddling a mathematical calculation and in all fairness, Jon was a math major in college and I was not (I will just leave it at that and not reveal my academic ineptness at math) so it was only natural that he would be better than me. I mean, you are after all folding the blanket into different geometric shapes and geometry and me.....we don't mix......EVER!! 

Changing Diapers was not biggie for either Jon or me. We both have done it numerous times. However, there were at least 4-5 people in a room of 20 who never had changed a diaper before which was interesting to us.

We bathed our babies and Jon and I split the duties. I took the top half and Jon took the bottom half which is by far the more complicated half. It was nice because we learned about cleaning the umbilical cord, cleaning a circumcision, and cleaning the important areas in general.



Jon holding Mika.  See, he looks like a pro!



And finally, Jon and I felt like naturals with the holding the baby section. The instructor showed us 10 or so holds and made us practice. She also made us practice talking to our plastic babies which was by far the most awkward part of the whole class.

I think the most entertaining part of the whole class however was the guy who fell asleep in class and his wife kept nudging him to wake up because she was mortified. But he just kept falling asleep and you could tell he was going to get the ass-chewing of his life when he got home. You can fall asleep during a movie, watching TV, during history class, but you do not fall asleep during Newborn Infant Care Class when your wife is 8 months pregnant.  I don't know about you, but I smell a Father of the Year trophy in his near future!