We had our first baby class last night. It went pretty well, except that it didn't cover the topic we thought it was going to.

I'd been told that the name of the class was "Infant Care and Safety."

Instead, we watched an astonishingly cheesy video on post-partum concerns - not for the baby, but for the parents. Depression, adjustment, relationship changes, sex, going back to work... Like that.

And then the nurse who was leading the class spent a while trying to answer our questions, which were mostly about the actual labor and delivery. And while I appreciated that, and while she was very enthusiastic and reassuring, it didn't have much to do with infant care.

And then, at the end, she took us into the maternity ward's nursery and brought out one of the new babies (along with the baby's mother and grandparents) and showed us how to give a newborn a bath.

And that was about it.

Mildly busy weekend ahead. We need to go to Sam's Club, for kleenex; and the Babies R Us, for a shower gift for K.T. and a sample item from the Musical Parade set so we can take both our designs to the paint store to make sure we pick a matching color of paint. And then we need to go to the paint store and pick out a color to paint the baby's room. And I need to go to the bank. And of course K.T. and I will be editing on Saturday (only one more chapter after this week!) and I have some other shopping to do.

Not a super-busy weekend, like the 20th-22nd promises to be, but a fair amount of running around.

Particle is very excited this morning. I have no idea why. I know, I know - how much insight can there really be into a 7-month-old fetus? But I can piece together at least some of her squirmy motivations.

She moves when I haven't eaten for several hours - except that she doesn't usually start kicking for breakfast until about 8. She kicks a little if I eat something high in sugar. If I get tense, she gets tense.

She either kicks strongly a couple of times a minute - which can go on for as long as ten minutes - or I feel lighter sensations that I think of as "squirming" that only last for a couple of minutes.

But this time she's squirming, and it's been going on non-stop for at least ten minutes. Assuming she's shifted into a head-down position by now, it feels kind of like she's rubbing her legs together like a grasshopper. Alternating with that, she's either punching or head-butting my bladder. It's a good thing I haven't had much of anything to drink yet today.

Is this a new development on her part? Or is she just extra-hungry this morning? I guess I'll find out after I get this entry posted and have some breakfast.

--Liz