We need to take the temperature where?

We took our Baby Care class on Saturday, which was a lot of fun. It turns out that a few of the couples from our childbirth education class (which is 5 weeks long) were enrolled in the same course, so that was nice.

The instructor is a NICU nurse, who also does home visits for kids with developmental delays. She was extremely knowledgeable and nice. No question was too weird for her. She didn't even get mad when I asked if the baby would smell bad when it was first delivered. I really wanted to prepare myself in case the answer was yes since the baby hasn't bathed and has been swimming in poop and urine for the last 40 weeks. Not such a strange question when you think of it that way, now is it?

Anyway, we learned how to diaper the baby, give it a sponge bath, take its temperature (Adam will definitely be doing that duty), when to call the doctor, normal baby appearance (cone head, cradle cap etc.) nail care, cord care, dressing the baby appropriately for the weather, burping, feeding and lots of other stuff that I can't remember right now. They gave you anatomically correct dolls to work with which was funny.

The nicest part of the class was too see all of the future dads in action. The mom gets so much attention during the pregnancy, it is easy to forget that there is someone else that is equally excited about the baby's arrival. They were all so sweet and sincere in their desire to learn and be an equal partner in taking care of the baby. It was very cute to see them swaddling and burping their baby dolls, and learning all of the various ways to hold and soothe a crying baby. Adam said something so sweet today. It was something along the lines that I have gotten to take care of the baby for nine months, and that he can't wait for a turn to take care of the baby. So sweet! Anyway, he may change his mind when he realizes that his big job is diapering (and taking rectal temperatures)! Notice an area that he is responsible for?