Our L&D Tour

Last week we went on our long-awaited labor and delivery tour. I have been waiting for this tour for a long time. It's basically the reason we signed up for the 4 week class, so this was our icing on the cake. Before we could see the rooms, we talked about pain meds - epidurals and narcotics...we got to watch an epidural be performed on video and then saw a couple c-section videos. One was an animation- showing how the whole process works and then the other was a real c-section. I actually did watch it and it wasn't as gross as I thought. One couple had to leave the room! I was surprised how much they tugged on the belly to get baby's head out. The stats were surprising too. Thirty percent of births are c-sections! That means only 70% are vaginal....crazy.

We headed over to the L&D floor and I was surprised that it was smaller than I imagined. Not in a bad way, just thought there would be more birthing rooms. I think there were 7. (Hey, I could give birth on a full moon ya know!) It was a lot nicer and more personalized than any other L&D floor I've seen. Each L&D room is private and has a baby warmer right in the room. There's a flat screen tv and a personal bathroom and shower, but other than that it's pretty basic. Our instructor showed us the bed and the monitor and also all the lights in the room. Now there has to be about 10 different kind of lights in this one room. Two of them particularly scared me. They were flood-like lights that illuminated the bottom portion of the bed....so basically where my "you-know-what" would be. Scary.... I think I literally gasped when our instructor turned those things on. Maybe I can tell Sophie to follow the light....lord knows she'll see it..it'll be bright enough!

So after delivery they would move me to a postpartum room, down the hall. It's bigger (again private) and has a bigger tv and couch for Spence along with a bigger bathroom and windows. The night after my delivery we get a special parents dinner and Sophie goes to the nursery during that time. I'm not sure how amazing a filet mignon will be at a hospital, but I'll give it a try. Last resort - there is a BW3's, Jimmy John's and a Pei Wei right across from the hospital. An average stay for a vaginal birth would be 2 days. A c-section is 3-4. They only allow visitors 2 at a time and no one under the age of 14 unless it's a sibling. So that leaves my nieces and nephew out. :( I am bummed about that - but hopefully they will be able to see the baby soon afterward. All in all, I was very impressed by the L&D floor and the staff seems very accomodating.

The tour made it real that Sophie was on her way. It's a good feeling. Knowing that I will be in those rooms in a month and a half is surreal. I can't wait for that moment when Spence and I get to meet our daughter.