Magical Mystical Tour

Tonight we took the long-awaited "hospital tour":

Part 1: Meeting in the lobby of the hospital with other pregnant women and an L&D nurse. Pregnant woman in cute brown dress was talking VERY loudly before we started, and it made me hate her. SHUT UP pregnant lady. No one wants to hear your life story, especially not your mother-in-law, who is ignoring you right now. As I share this with Sean, he remarks "Umm...could my wife have her epidural NOW? And a margarita?"

Part 2: L&D nurse starts her speech. HUGE focus on safety, nurses all wearing ID badges, babies wearing alarm anklets, matching numbers on their bracelets to numbers that mom and dad have, and on and on. Sean leans over and whispers to me "Are there a lot of kidnappings here??" Nope. Just a VERY safety conscious hospital. Now I have more things to worry about. Like someone snatching our baby, or mixing him up. I think I'll draw a little smiley face on his foot with magic marker when he's born, just so I know he's mine.

Part 3: More helpful info. On the big day, we check in at the Emergency Room. Dad can park wherever he wants and move the car later. We get our own room for Labor, Delivery, and Recovery....and then move to another private room for post-partum.....unless they run out of rooms, and then we have to share for post-partum, but that's rare.

Part 4: Head up to L&D. It is HUGE. Nurse wasn't joking when she talked about alarms. They take this whole baby-snatching thing pretty seriously. I was impressed by the digs up there. I've been to a lot of L&D floors at different hospitals for work, and usually you just waltz right in and then the rooms are small and kinda crappy. Not here. They have to buzz you in. There's an official-looking nurses station, and a ton of rooms. The nurse showed us the rooms, and gave us a heads-up on which were the best. 3 out of 9 have a separate sleeping alcove for Dad, and a rocking chair. I'll definitely be requesting an upgrade if it's a quiet night over there.

Overall, we were both really impressed with how warm and nice everyone was. The rooms weren't bad at all (for a hospital). There was a "nourishment center" with juice and crackers and a fridge and microwave. They even give you a "Celebration Dinner" before you leave. The only drawback is that there really isn't a waiting room for family and friends that's right in the L&D area. There's one downstairs though, so I can imagine there may be a little party going on there at some point.

Most importantly, there was a huge sense of calm that came from actually seeing everything in person. Checking out the monitors, the hospital beds, the equipment, and the crib that the baby sleeps in. It sure makes it real, but I think in the long run the "knowing" definitely helps.