We have a slightly different post this week about a lovely couple attending one of our classes – Lucy and James may be fictional, but nevertheless we explore their potential feelings, emotions and experience… So enjoy being a fly on the wall and have a peak into their (fictional) life! 😉
Lucy and James are expecting a baby. Their first baby.
They are very excited, and so are their families. This is the first baby for both families in a long time! Neither of their sets of parents live locally, but they will be on hand and try and help as much as they can in the first few days and weeks.
Lucy and James went to visit Lucy’s friends last weekend. They’ve just had a baby girl – Bella. She is adorable of course, but they felt she was so tiny in their arms that they both sat there holding her, feeling awkward, tense, and scared they were going to somehow ‘break her’. They couldn’t wait to give her back to her parents!
On the way home, Lucy brings the visit up: “I didn’t think it’d be like that. I was really uncomfortable. Is this how we are going to be with our own baby? The classes we’ve been to didn’t really cover anything around holding the baby or some of the other things we’ll need to do! Changing nappies, bathing the baby… We don’t know how to do all this! Do you think we should try and find another class? There must be something that covers this?”
Once home, James gets on the Internet and within minutes he finds a class that seems to tick all the boxes.
“Luce, look. There’s a class coming up in 2 weeks in West London. BabyNatal Practical Baby Care – it’s 3 hours, and it covers all the bits and pieces we were talking about, and more. Do you want to go?”
“BabyNatal, you said? I’ve heard of this brand before, not sure where. Yeah, let’s go if you want. Hopefully there will be other people like us who don’t know what they’re doing!”
So James goes ahead and books the class.
The day of the class comes, and both Lucy and James feel nervous. They haven’t said anything to each other, but they are both a bit worried about being uncomfortable and ‘out of their comfort zone’.
“What will we do for 3 hours?”
They get to the address – this looks like a private house.
“Are we in the right place?”
“Sara?” they check, hesitant.
They go in – Sara seems friendly. The setup is nice. There are A LOT of baby things out there though. And dolls.
“Do we need all this stuff? What is this? What are we going to be doing??” they worry.
But they smile politely and nervously.
Two other couples arrive, and after a quick round of introductions, both Lucy and James realise that the other couples are on the same boat.
One couple mentions having young nieces and nephews, but they just play with them – they still don’t feel they know how to care for a baby!
The other couple moved to London from New Zealand – they have no family here, and their parents will try and come, but they live in a flat, where space is an issue, so they’ll be on their own with the baby at the beginning and most of the time.
Sara also mentions that she has intentionally kept the class small and in a ‘private’ setting, to give everyone an opportunity to feel ‘safe’ and ask as many questions as they like in a non- judgemental environment, with people who are in similar circumstances.
Lucy and James start to relax as they go through the elements of the class and get to hold a baby doll – now knowing how to do it and having been told they’re not going to unintentionally hurt their baby. They change her nappy, put clothes on her and bathe her – they can really start to see themselves doing this!
Lucy and James feel comfortable – there’s a lot of information to take in, but they feel that trying things out actually helps them remember more. And as they practice doing things, they come up with questions they hadn’t even dreamt of before. When they don’t, the others do. Or Sara anticipates their next question. It’s great!
They’re actually having fun and cracking a joke here and there!
Towards the end of the class, James is still holding a doll after practicing the tiger-in-the-tree position that Sara showed them. He catches himself playing with the doll’s toes. Lucy looks at him, smiles and grabs and squeezes his hand.
All around them, everyone else is listening to Sara concluding the class, seemingly unaware that they’re holding dolls, not their real babies.
And it hits them – they’re going to have their baby very soon!
It’s time to go – they thank Sara and honestly tell her that have learnt a huge amount. They can’t imagine not having been to this class – so lucky they found it!
On the way home, James tells Lucy: “I can’t wait until our baby arrives. We’ve got this. We can do it – I can see it now. We’ll be great parents”.
Lucy is feeling a bit emotional: “We should go and visit baby Bella again”.