Grannyhood is nearly upon me.

There are less than 6 weeks until Baby X is due to arrive. I spent the last two Saturdays attending prenatal classes with Jade and Ken. People have been giving birth for thousands of years. You'd think the process would have remained the same, but they've totally changed things.

When I was the pregnant mother, we called prenatal classes "breathing classes" cuz that was the main focus of the sessions - how to breath correctly and survive the process. This time, in eight hours of classes we spent about 7 minutes talking about breathing. Now they say just breath in through your nose and out through your mouth in whatever way feels natural or right at the time. Well, with me coaching, Jade will be deep-cleansing-breath-puh-puh-puuuuuhing because that's what will feel natural to me - even after all these years.

We toured the hospital. Yes, things have changed. The birthing rooms are huge, have personal use phones, tvs, birthing balls, private showers and jetted bathtubs and all manner of things at your disposal. Every mother gets a private room in which she has baby 24 hrs a day, the rooms have double beds as well as hospital beds and plenty of play room for any siblings and visitors. So its sort of like getting a day or two of practice before going home. Unlike the days of old when 4 women were crammed in the same room, separated by a curtain, and babies were only in momma's care for a few hours a day. We stayed in these shared quarters for 4 or 5 days, listening to strangers snore and depending on nurses to be caregivers then went home to face reality. So change can be good.

It's time to take stock of the accumulating pile of goodies at Granny's house.

Jade keeps saying, "I still have to get...."

And invariably my reply is, "I think I already got one."

And so I have dug through all the closets and rounded up all the gender-neutral items. I'll keep anything definitely boy/girlish until we know the sex. There is quite a pile - but really it's not as bad as it looks. Ok, it's bad. They definitely don't need anything newborn.

For 15 bucks, I got this great little vibrating musical bouncy seat that will stay here at Granny's house. That's one thing - I may be a quantity accumulator, but I'm a bargain finder. (usually)

I dug out Baby Kenny's sweater and shawl that he wore home from the hospital and washed it up with Ivory Snow. They smell so yummy.

I try not to be a controlling mother-in-law, but I am assuming Baby X will come home in the same outfit as daddy did.
But no pressure to conform to Granny's wishes.