We went to our second pre-natal class last night, and we did the ice thing. This is where you clutch a piece of ice in your hand for 60 seconds to simulate a contraction, and then practice coping with the pain in various ways. You have to hold onto the ice quite hard to get a good pain sensation.

Apparently all those karate classes have some positive benefit, even years after the last one. I'm better at pain coping than I expected.

Today we had a midwife appointment (35 wks 2 days) and I had a nasty shock when, as we arrived, our midwife asked if it would be okay if a nursing student sat in for the clinical part of the visit. I know this can happen with normal medical care, but I somehow expected that it wouldn't happen since we'd opted for midwifery care. We compromised -- my wife, the midwife, and the nursing student did part of the visit, and then we kicked out the student and had the rest of the visit.

I should emphasize that I was the only one who had a problem with it; it didn't bother my wife at all. But to me it felt like a betrayal of trust, somehow. In a sense it's a good preparation for labor, or rather, for the kind of labor we hope to avoid by having the baby at home: a person you have decided to trust comes up to you and asks you to make a snap decision on a subject you haven't considered.

Now what?