So, we both got home from work, showered as fast as we could and ran out the door to get to AMC in time to eat dinner before our waterbirth class and hospital tour. AMC is pretty cool in that it has a Chick-Fil-A, Blimpie Subs, and Starbucks attached to it. They have extremely limited to no weekend hours, so here's hoping Baby Ridge decides to arrive on a weekday so we can have access to the yummy food from there instead of the hospital cafeteria. We chose Blimpie for dinner and then headed up to the class.
The class was boring. I knew it would be. I literally knew every. single. thing. But I did expect that, and the class is required in order to have waterbirth as an option, so we didn't have a choice. They really should offer it in an online format though...it would save people a lot of time because the information is pretty straightforward. However, we did enjoy the hospital tour part. We saw the Labor & Delivery Floor rooms with one of the birthing tubs, the nursery, and the postpartum recovery floor. We also learned that they only allow two other people in the room with the mother during labor. Having anyone other than Ethan or Alice (our doula) was totally out of the question to begin with, but it's also hospital policy so even if I did want someone else in the room, it isn't an option. We have decided that we'll let our families know in time to come visit us in the hospital if they so desire, but we will probably only be there for 24 hours as long as everything goes well and there aren't any complications. So, most people will be visiting us at home. (which will be a lot more comfortable than the hospital since the postpartum rooms are on the small side!)
I was very pleased to see that there were NO babies in the nursery! All of them were with their mothers...where they should be. I have pretty strong opinions about nurseries. The nurse giving us the tour said that very few mothers who deliver at AMC elect to send their newborns to the nursery overnight. Rather, they choose to keep their newborn in the room with them. Babies do not leave the side of their mother for one second unless the NICU is required. Baby Ridge leaving us in normal circumstances is not even CLOSE to an option, so I was just very pleased to see for myself that this was a mother and baby friendly hospital.
We have also recently learned that babies born in the fall and winter are more susceptible to whooping cough, which can be carried unknowingly by adults even if they have been vaccinated at a younger age. So, Ethan will be getting the dTap (pertussis) booster before the birth, and I'll get mine in the hospital before going home. Please read the following: http://www.cdc.gov/features/pertussis/ for more detailed information. Our midwife has strongly recommended that anyone staying in our home after the birth for longer than a few hours get the dTap booster as well or delay visiting until Baby Ridge is a few months old. If you're reading this and are someone who is thinking about staying and visiting for longer than a few hours in December/January/February, we would like you to consider getting the booster before the birth. We will not force anyone to do this in order to come visit, but would greatly appreciate your willingness to do so...especially since babies that contract whooping cough can die, or have severe breathing issues like apnea or asthma. I've already been through having to administer infant CPR on a three month old and would really like to avoid a situation like that again in the future if I can help it. Since dTap cannot be given until Baby Ridge is 2 months old, as well as the fact that we're doing a delayed vaccination schedule for Baby Ridge, it's pretty important to us to protect their immune system for a few months as much as we can.
So all in all, we feel great about our choice of midwife, doula, and hospital and are really excited for the adventure taking place in the next 13-19 weeks! Tomorrow.... official viability!
The class was boring. I knew it would be. I literally knew every. single. thing. But I did expect that, and the class is required in order to have waterbirth as an option, so we didn't have a choice. They really should offer it in an online format though...it would save people a lot of time because the information is pretty straightforward. However, we did enjoy the hospital tour part. We saw the Labor & Delivery Floor rooms with one of the birthing tubs, the nursery, and the postpartum recovery floor. We also learned that they only allow two other people in the room with the mother during labor. Having anyone other than Ethan or Alice (our doula) was totally out of the question to begin with, but it's also hospital policy so even if I did want someone else in the room, it isn't an option. We have decided that we'll let our families know in time to come visit us in the hospital if they so desire, but we will probably only be there for 24 hours as long as everything goes well and there aren't any complications. So, most people will be visiting us at home. (which will be a lot more comfortable than the hospital since the postpartum rooms are on the small side!)
I was very pleased to see that there were NO babies in the nursery! All of them were with their mothers...where they should be. I have pretty strong opinions about nurseries. The nurse giving us the tour said that very few mothers who deliver at AMC elect to send their newborns to the nursery overnight. Rather, they choose to keep their newborn in the room with them. Babies do not leave the side of their mother for one second unless the NICU is required. Baby Ridge leaving us in normal circumstances is not even CLOSE to an option, so I was just very pleased to see for myself that this was a mother and baby friendly hospital.
We have also recently learned that babies born in the fall and winter are more susceptible to whooping cough, which can be carried unknowingly by adults even if they have been vaccinated at a younger age. So, Ethan will be getting the dTap (pertussis) booster before the birth, and I'll get mine in the hospital before going home. Please read the following: http://www.cdc.gov/features/pertussis/ for more detailed information. Our midwife has strongly recommended that anyone staying in our home after the birth for longer than a few hours get the dTap booster as well or delay visiting until Baby Ridge is a few months old. If you're reading this and are someone who is thinking about staying and visiting for longer than a few hours in December/January/February, we would like you to consider getting the booster before the birth. We will not force anyone to do this in order to come visit, but would greatly appreciate your willingness to do so...especially since babies that contract whooping cough can die, or have severe breathing issues like apnea or asthma. I've already been through having to administer infant CPR on a three month old and would really like to avoid a situation like that again in the future if I can help it. Since dTap cannot be given until Baby Ridge is 2 months old, as well as the fact that we're doing a delayed vaccination schedule for Baby Ridge, it's pretty important to us to protect their immune system for a few months as much as we can.
So all in all, we feel great about our choice of midwife, doula, and hospital and are really excited for the adventure taking place in the next 13-19 weeks! Tomorrow.... official viability!
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Also, I was VERY anti-nursery, and we didn't use it at all the first time around. I felt it was such an important bonding time, and din't want someone else taking care of my baby. Other than when they'd take her for the first bath, (which I sent Ryan along for) and the routine checks that they do, she stayed with us. My Dad even made a big fuss before we had Pierson, telling me how we shouldn't let him out of our sight, yada yada.
Well, I learned not to make things so black and white. Very soon after Pierson was born, he would periodically have bouts of breathing trouble, where he'd choke and gasp for breath, and it scared us to death. Each time, we had to suction out the back of his throat, because it seemed that there was gunk keeping him from breathing properly. They told us this was normal. (though hadn't happened with Brooke) He also had difficulty nursing, and didn't seem hungry or interested. That first night, we hardly got any sleep, because I was SO scared that one of us wouldn't hear him gagging, and something horrible might happen. We discovered the next day that our ped. wouldn't sign off until the next day, so we had to stay overnight again. As you can imagine, we were so exhausted from 1) me being induced overnight two nights before and not sleeping much due to the pain, and then another night where we were so busy watching over him, so we both decided to send him to the nursery in between feedings during the second night so we could get a little sleep before coming home the next day and having a very excited 2 year-old at home waiting for us. :) I also felt more comfortable that the nurses would know what to do when he's choking, because every time (and it happened a LOT) I just thanked God that I was able to clear his airways that time. I felt most comfortable when a nurse happened to be in the room when it happened, but we were mostly on our own. Well, as it turned out, while he was in the nursery they came and told us that they needed to pump his stomach, because he had SO much blood in his stomach that he had swallowed during labor. They were apparently surprised by just how much blood was pumped out. (also explained why he had trouble nursing/didn't seem interested--his belly was full!) Normally during the pushing process, the contractions force the swallowed blood out of their stomach, so it's rarely an issue, but since I only pushed for 20 minutes with him, there wasn't enough time for the contractions to do that job. We would've had no idea what was wrong had we not sent him back to the nursery with women who know what they are doing and do this for a living, so I was very grateful that we changed our minds in that area. After that, he nursed like a champ, and had no more problems breathing, and it was just a tremendous relief. You may have known exactly what the issue was, with your background, but I had no clue, and was so thankful that we had such excellent nurses.
Very excited for you! :)