Sunday we went back to the natural childbirth class. It was a little less interesting in the second session as the teacher went through areas like packing bags filled with mood lighting, post-partum, massage, two meditation sessions, and another labor movie. Sarah was amazed at how calm the woman was giving birth in the movie. The more low key session was fine because I wasn't up for taking a drink from a firehose on Sunday morning as I was falling asleep. We had been painting on Saturday all day and then watched Bubble Boy until late at night.

In the evening my family including mom, dad, Lisa, Dave, Sarah and unborn Madeline walked to Fenway to see the Rolling Stones open their 2005 tour. On the walk over my mom told us about her labor with Lisa and me.

When Lisa was born in 1971 it was difficult to find a hospital in Boston that allowed fathers to be in the room during the birth. So they went to a religious hospital that did allow it. My mother had Lisa naturally with no anaesthesia. She went to the hospital at 2:30 AM and was laboring about 24 hours. Including sleeping after the labor she had gone for about 36 hours without food. The next morning someone was ringing a bell as they went from room to room. My mom thought the bell meant that it was time for breakfast and was ready to put her order in for a big mound of food. A man walked in wearing a frock and he bent over to ask her "Do you have any sins to confess?" She just replied "I'm Jewish." and waited for the priest to leave to exclaim to my father how ravenously hungry she was.

I was a faster baby as the second. She went to the hospital at about 2 am with me and I was born the next morning at 8am. They gave her an epidural for the last 15 minutes of pushing, which in retrospect didn't seem worth the trouble.