Tour of Northside Hospital

Yesterday Darryl and I took a tour of Northside Hospital. This is the hospital where we are thinking of having our baby (hopefully!). Overall, we were very impressed with the hospital and its facilities. Their specialty is women's care and we found everything to be well structured and friendly. I will be able to pre-register so that when I go into labor I can go straight to a room without having to fill out a bunch of paperwork. The labor and delivery rooms are large and spacious with many amenities: TV, stereo, sofa, rocking chair, etc. After delivering the baby, we will stay in that room for 1-1 1/2 hours for recovery and will then be moved to a smaller family care room for the remainder of our stay. We will be able to have as many people visit in the family room as we want, but only 1-2 people in the labor and delivery room. The baby will stay with me as much or as little as I want, going to the nursery down the hall when I need to rest or shower.

It was very helpful to go on the tour. The reason why we went so early was so that we could be sure that this is where we want to have the baby and make our selection of obstetrician accordingly. I was surprised that I was the only newly pregnant woman there. All the other women were in their 3rd trimester due to deliver in April. I suppose I'm just ahead of the game in some respects. Northside offers many classes for parents to be, some of which are free and will probably be useful for us to take. One is for mothers who want to know how to breastfeed while continuing to work, which I feel would be particularly helpful for me since I plan to go back to work. They also offer programs on childcare and car seats, but no Lamaze. I'll have to talk with the OB about where to get information about those.

Things are still going well. I have times when I am overcome with exhaustion and just need to rest. I am told to expect this a lot during the next couple of months. I am looking forward to my doctor's visit next Monday. I think things will really begin to seem more real then.