Hospital tour, pt 2

I survived the hospital tour, "bad" weather and all. The maternity staff seems very laid back and reasonable. The rooms are not as cozy and intimate as the rooms at the birth center, but they aren't horrible. They are very big with a hospital bed and a pay-per-day TV. The room is for labor and delivery and postpartum stay and the baby rooms in with you. Two guests at a time are allowed in the room after delivery, not including grandparents. The ward isn't as pretty as the one Charlotte had Jakob in, but you can tell it probably was in the mid-90s.

Mike and I saw a fresh baby, all piglet-looking and swaddled, being taken into the nursery for oxygen. The nursery was pretty empty and the floor was quiet. I think there were only two mothers in the ward, both recovering from c-sections. I heard this is common since doctors like to be free for the weekend, so if you show up in labor on Friday, you are pretty likely to get a c-section. Maybe it is true or maybe I should stop reading pregnancy boards full of paranoid, hormonal women. Maybe it is both. In any case, it makes me feel thankful that I am having the baby with a midwife, so if I DO have to have a c-section, I will know that it was absolutely medically necessary. My midwife was just about to come to the hospital with a laboring woman, but Mike and I left before they showed up.

Remember when I was little?

About 8-12 weeks left of this business. I just had to pack away yet more clothes that I no longer fit into. I miss my old clothes. Maternity clothes are horrible. I would recommend buying in the next size or two up during clearance over buying maternity clothes. Maternity clothes are ill-fitting, unflattering, and just plain ugly.

My bellybutton continues its outward quest. It's sort of half-inner, half-outie now. Charming!




I haven't heard back from the midwives, so I assume I am diabeetus-free! Hooray! Mike and I are taking the hospital tour this Saturday morning. I hope it is super fun . I hope it isn't canceled by a sudden flood of laboring ladies. I suppose I should compose a list of questions to ask, but I have no idea where to start...

I see the baby move from the outside all the time now. It freaks me out. She gets the hiccups at night when I am trying to sleep. Do you have any idea how weird it is when something has the hiccups inside you?

I had a dream the other night that Babbit was born and despite the scans that clearly showed she was a she, she was born a he! I was very upset because I didn't have a name picked out yet, and I hadn't written my circumcision preferences in the birth plan, and how come his penis hadn't shown up on the scans? I was very concerned that he was lacking a penis. When I woke up, I told Mike about my very distressing dream and he quite calmly replied, "Well, if the baby is a boy, then of course we will name him Ephram. And if he is born without a penis, we will just leave him to the wolves."