Taking Care of You

27 weeks, 1 day

Our second hospital class was on Wednesday and titled "Taking Care of You." It was basically a run through of what postpartum life will be like after the baby is here. Similar to our first class, most of the information was a repeat of what I had researched on my own prior to getting pregnant, but a good experience, nonetheless.

The class started with our teacher introducing herself...and obviously neither Joe nor I paid attention because we can no longer remember her name. I can remember, however, that she is the mother to a 30 year old, 24 year old and.....16 year old. Yeeeeahhh. Can you even imagine an almost 15 year difference between your first child and your last? Yikes!

First off, we did a quick role call and as we were nearing the end of the lineup, one of the dads checked in for his wife and said he would be participating for the both of them, she was unable to attend. I think all the girls in the room did an internal AW because I couldn't even pay Joe to go to a class by himself. That guy is gonna be a good dad!

So onto the class material. The first topics discussed in the class were mostly related to the hospital itself. One of my favorite things about Memorial is that we are guaranteed to have a single room. When we check in, there is the potential that we will spend some time in triage first, but just to make sure I'm really in labor. The triage room currently holds 2 beds so there is a chance that someone would also be in "holding" with me. Although, as soon as they admit me, I will be placed in my own room and will stay there for labor, delivery as well as recovery. No dealing with moving from room to room. This is soo convenient and not always a possibility at other hospitals.

Our teacher also let us know about the fairly strict security policy that Labor and Delivery has. Myself, as well as baby, and dad will get a number of ID bands to wear for security. Mom and Dad are the only two people, besides staff, who are allowed to transfer the baby to and from the nursery. The baby will also have a tag that will stick to the back of his calf. If the seal is broken, meaning the tag is removed in any way, the sirens will be tripped. Also, if the baby leaves the unit with this tag still attached, the sirens will be tripped. Basically, it's a safety measure to keep from abductions. Honestly, I would have never even considered something like this but I'm glad that all our bases will be covered when it comes to safety.

For any family and friends interested, we learned that there are no formal visitation hours within the unit. You can pretty much come and go at any point in time but they do recommend visits between 11am and 8pm. We also learned that anyone under the age of 13, besides a sibling, cannot have any contact with the baby while in the hospital. The baby would either need to go to the nursery, where they can view the child through the glass, or s/he would have to stay in the waiting room. I don't forsee many hospital visitors anyways, our parents maybe, but I guess it's good to at least know what guidelines we will need to follow.

Our teacher took no time in getting into the nitty gritty of postpartum from here on out, however. She got out one of the infamous pads and disposable underwear that I will get to partake in. Honestly, they weren't as bad as I had pictured. Yeah, the pads were big but not quite as diaper like as I had imagined. The disposable underwear actually looked comfortable. Still, the topic of plum size blood clots and episiotomies are not fun topics to discuss on a random Wednesday night. Strangely, the thought of "after pains" makes me more worrisome than all the other body changes I will have to deal with, post-birth.

After scaring the ever living out of us, we moved into the types of care for postpartum health. She emphasized quite a bit that the first 24 hours need to be about ice, ice and more ice. Then for the next few days, heat is important. It sounds like sitz baths are going to be my best friend. Although, the thought of baths makes me want to vomit. (yes, I hate baths.)

One thing I hadn't thought of prior to this class was dealing with stairs postpartum. Certainly they would be a challenge for c-section recoveries, but I had not anticipated the same for a vaginal birth. She recommended that we avoid stairs as much as possible for a few weeks....... We live in a townhouse. It's pretty impossible to avoid our stairs. My choice is to either stay upstairs where the bedrooms and bathrooms are or downstairs where the kitchen, glider and any potential guests will be. Without any coaxing from me, Joe actually commented that it meant he needed to get his butt in gear on our house. Ya, think!

Our final to-do for this class was to take our hospital tour. Honestly, this was the only reason I wanted to take this class. If you hadn't noticed, I'm a planner and there is no way I could feel comfortable in a place that I hadn't seen. If my first visit to Labor and Delivery was for MY labor and delivery, I would be a nervous wreck!

Finding the unit itself was much easier than I anticipated. If you enter the main doors of the hospital, you walk straight into the elevators and take it to Floor 7. Those elevator doors practically open up straight into the Labor and Delivery and the waiting room. It would be almost impossible to get lost. We were lucky enough to get to see freshly delivered Baby Rory who was spending a bit of time in the nursery. She was a chunker (born 9+ lbs) and cuuuuuute! The nursery is an option for parents to send the baby if they want a bit of a break. I like that we can decide.

Lastly, we were able to check out one of the Family Suites. The room was really big! I was very pleasantly surprised. My bed is in the center and each room has it's own rocking chair as well as a big window bench that seats an additional 3. There is also a lounge chair that extends into a bed for the dads. With all this furniture, there was still plenty of walking room. We had probably 20 people in the room and it was easily spacious enough for us all to stand. We also have an entertainment center with a flat screen and DVD player and (huge) bathroom with a jacuzzi tub. It was encouraging to know that the room we will be delivering was a place that we can be comfortable in.

Overall, another positive class. I know that we don't really have to take these classes but it makes me feel so much better and prepared for this whole thing. I really think I would be anxious and nervous had we not done them. Bonus: the hospital is two blocks from a Coldstone so we had our own little date night with a trip for some ice cream after our class was finished. (We even got to witness a prostitute workin it in a hotel parking lot as we left!)