Tour!
Scott and I took a tour of the hospital yesterday. It was a big group of pregnant ladies and their support persons (and someone had the nerve to get all upset at the size of the group and say, "I paid for this" like it was supposed to be a personal tour...the rest of us looked at her funny). We started in the friends and family waiting room. We went to the window side of the main nursery next, and she talked about everything that they do there (if you don't do room-in). There were a number of tiny little babies to look at. So cute. We then went into Labor and Delivery (after going through the high security door system...no one without the code gets in! They give you a code for your room when you register at the hospital and you can give it to friends and family to come visit you when you enter L&D.). The L&D rooms were very very nice. Huge bathrooms, spacious labor areas, good lighting. I was impressed. She went through a normal procedure birth (which she actually never specified if there were drugs involved or not...which was nice for the women who do not want any sort of medication). She showed the monitoring equipment, which I was glad to see. I thought it would be much more involved, but it's just two tiny button-like things that they can put on your tummy. MUCH less invasive than I was thinking. We then went to the postpartum rooms, which are very hospital-like. But, the normal stay for a vaginal birth is only 24-48 hours, so I won't be there long. There are only private rooms and they're quite big, so you have privacy and room to spread out. After seeing those rooms, we went to the other side of the nursery, where we saw the red tape on the floor indicating where you cannot take the baby or else alarms will go off. The babies all have ankle bracelets that set off alarms if taken near doorways. We did get pointed in the direction of the room where they do the c-sections and the NICU. We also were told where to go when we came to the hospital in labor (Emergency room!). All-in-all, I'm so glad I went and am really happy with the hospital that we ended up at.
Tonight, I went to the first class on my list, the Breastfeeding class. It was at the hospital again and with one of the two on-staff lactation consultants. The hospital is very pro-breastfeeding, so that makes me feel better about the whole experience. During the tour and during the class, they were talking about things like they're normal when I've heard that you sometimes have to fight for at other hospitals. (It seems this area is very pro-breastfeeding...I don't think I know anyone in my social circle that formula-fed their children - other than adoptions.)
The next classes at the hospital are next week. Thursday, I have the infant CPR class. After that, we'll have our day-long childbirth class.
Today, I finally called a pediatrician to meet. Man, finding doctors takes me forever. But, I have a good feeling about this pediatrician. That appointment is in 2 weeks. I sure hope I like her.
Let's see, on the personal front, I played the symphony concert last week. And holy swollen feet, Batman! I'm glad I don't have any more gigs until this kid is born. Sitting in one chair for 3 hours that you can't get up and walk around or prop your feet up does not help swollen feet! And that was every day for 4 days. And one day, I was outside...and that was definitely more than 3 hours. It took me the whole weekend of propping my feet up constantly to get them down to a proper size. Blech.
Tonight, I went to the first class on my list, the Breastfeeding class. It was at the hospital again and with one of the two on-staff lactation consultants. The hospital is very pro-breastfeeding, so that makes me feel better about the whole experience. During the tour and during the class, they were talking about things like they're normal when I've heard that you sometimes have to fight for at other hospitals. (It seems this area is very pro-breastfeeding...I don't think I know anyone in my social circle that formula-fed their children - other than adoptions.)
The next classes at the hospital are next week. Thursday, I have the infant CPR class. After that, we'll have our day-long childbirth class.
Today, I finally called a pediatrician to meet. Man, finding doctors takes me forever. But, I have a good feeling about this pediatrician. That appointment is in 2 weeks. I sure hope I like her.
Let's see, on the personal front, I played the symphony concert last week. And holy swollen feet, Batman! I'm glad I don't have any more gigs until this kid is born. Sitting in one chair for 3 hours that you can't get up and walk around or prop your feet up does not help swollen feet! And that was every day for 4 days. And one day, I was outside...and that was definitely more than 3 hours. It took me the whole weekend of propping my feet up constantly to get them down to a proper size. Blech.