I'm so jealous of everyone getting to do there hospital tour. The hospital where I'm delivering has really stupid tour hours and doesn't fit our work schedule at all. We would have to take off to do it.
@randishane011804 If it makes you feel any better, I didn't find it useful. It was all stuff I could have learned from the hospital website, talking to my doctor, or doing reading about pregnancy/delivery. It was more for DH. I didn't care where anything was because I knew I wouldn't be roaming the hallways there, someone will be taking care of you.
@whataboutscience Thnx! There website is just hard to navigate, very disorganized in general (which scares the crap out of me). I've written down a list of things to ask my doctor about. At the end of the day she'll be delivering and I trust her completely.
I'm so jealous of everyone getting to do there hospital tour. The hospital where I'm delivering has really stupid tour hours and doesn't fit our work schedule at all. We would have to take off to do it.
Meh, I've now given birth to 2 kids at 2 different hospitals and never gotten a tour beforehand, you'll be fine. You got this!
@randishane011804 the only part of the hospital tour that was especially helpful for me was actually locating L+D from the parking area since my hospital is a series of buildings connected by random hallways. If we hadn't been able to take a tour we probably would have just gone over on our own time to make sure we knew where to go.
@megstervt That's a good point. Although at my hospital, a lot of women have to come in through the ER if it's not visiting hours and that is far away and quite a maze to get over there. DH never left me at the hospital since DD (and in turn me) basically were crying the entire time. When it was time to go, the nurses were shocked he stayed and we were parked down by ER still and had to get help finding our car. Haha!
@megstervt That's a good point. Although at my hospital, a lot of women have to come in through the ER if it's not visiting hours and that is far away and quite a maze to get over there. DH never left me at the hospital since DD (and in turn me) basically were crying the entire time. When it was time to go, the nurses were shocked he stayed and we were parked down by ER still and had to get help finding our car. Haha!
Ya, totally depends on hospital policy where to go. For us, you only go through the ER if is late (like 11pm-5am) since the regular doors are locked. The ER staff also take you to L+D if you come through that way which is nice since, again, random hallways. Otherwise you park in the main parking area and go up to L+D on your own. The floor itself is locked, but there's a doorbell to get in.
I actually just found out from a co-worker that the hospital has staff people who accompany all parents out to their car to ensure the baby is in the car seat correctly and the car seat is secured in the car appropriately. I thought this was pretty cool and as bonus they help you get back to your car LOL
I start cervical checks in 2 weeks! And dr says she is in rest position and starting to drop! I need her to cook for 5 more weeks though but realizing now how 5 weeks is really not that far away!!
I start cervical checks in 2 weeks! And dr says she is in rest position and starting to drop! I need her to cook for 5 more weeks though but realizing now how 5 weeks is really not that far away!!
@megstervt Yeah, I was surprised L&D isn't open more hours. I had a scheduled induction and they had me come in through the ER because the L&D entrance was still locked. I would guess that's true for all of their planned c-sections and inductions first thing in the day. Seems strange for a big hospital with a good NICU.
I actually just found out from a co-worker that the hospital has staff people who accompany all parents out to their car to ensure the baby is in the car seat correctly and the car seat is secured in the car appropriately. I thought this was pretty cool and as bonus they help you get back to your car LOL
You would think that the escort would be helpful, but at my hospital, they have a corps of volunteers who do it. Our volunteer was well over 80 and shuffled even slower than I did after my c-section. We were so anxious to get out of there and get home! The slow walk through the maze was torture!
My old hospital had the L/D in the hospital on like the 3rd floor. It was locked from all entrances and elevators. I was a huge facility too (trauma center and teaching hospital ).
The one I am now and the one I am delivering at, the women's center has its own door. Even at night, the door is open. They have their own registration desk too The 1st floor is a waiting room, registration and non-maternity stuff, like mammograms. Then 2nd floor is L/D. 3rd floor (my work), is Mother Baby (post partum), with a walkway to NICU (it sits in its own building, you can enter directory after you are discharged). 4th floor is 2nd part of mother baby, and post women's surgical admit (like hysterectomy from main OR), and then a 10 bed Peds floor (which is locked too). Only L/D, NICU and Peds are locked (my hospital). We are a decently large hospital, like #5 in the state.
@randishane011804 Don't stress too much about it. I am delivering at a different hospital than the first, and I found most of it boring and useless. The first hospital, it had its own entrance and they just locked the doors after a certain time, but there is a phone in the entrance that you just pick up and tell them who you are and they buzz you in. The L&D area was completely different than the rest of the hospital, so you couldn't really get lost. The only thing that I found nice, was that after the tour, they took all of us into a conference room and we all filled out our pre-registration paperwork and were able to ask any questions that we had about the paperwork. The one I am delivering at this time, you enter through the ER and they bring you into the L&D area. The one thing that I noticed about both, is that I really wish they would have shown the father break rooms or where the cafeteria is and such. Since the dad's don't get meals, or if they have family there as well, it would be nice for them to know where it is....because a lot of times you don't know about the dad break room and finding the cafeteria can be difficult. We didn't even know the first hospital we delivered at had a dad break room, until we had already left the hospital. And the hospital for this kid, we decided to look for the cafeteria after the tour and had a hard time finding it. Its like the signs and arrows just stopped in the middle of walking towards it. So weird! The tour literally took like 15-20min, the rest of the 40-45min, was the tour guide talking about purple crying, what to pack in the hospital bag, what it is like when your water breaks, carseats, when to come into the hospital, etc. I would have loved if they had a option to just check out the rooms and space, and be done with it.
@megstervt All of the hospitals in our area walk mom/baby/dad out to the car. They push the cart with anything that was in the room that needs to go to the car, dad carries the baby (in the carseat), and mom walks. Although instead of going to the parking lot or garage, they have the dad bring the car around to the front of the L&D entrance and temporarily park. Baby has to be put into the carseat in the room, so they can make sure that the parents are putting them into a carseat, but they cannot help (due to liability reasons), and then when baby goes in the car, they make sure that there is a carseat base installed in there.
@PhoebeJune1984 Mom walks? Weird how different each hospital is. I wasn't allowed to walk anywhere outside my room. DH was holding our daughter 5 feet outside our room and was nearly tackled for carrying a newborn in the hall. I was allowed to hold our baby in the wheelchair on the way out and they checked her in the car seat in the actual car at the curb.
Our hospital lets you walk around with baby but the baby has a bracelet and if you go past a certain point, alarms go off and all the elevators and doors lock down.
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@YeezusButters Ours have the bracelets and alarms too. My DH is not the type to follow rules if he doesn't think they make sense. It was his baby and he was getting a cup of water right outside the room. He caused quite a commotion.
Our hospital with our first also wouldn't let you hold them to walk in the halls, had to use the clear bassinet, I thought it was so you didn't drop the baby and sue them. They also tried to insist that they wheelchair me out to the curb. They told us they were ready to discharge us and so we got all ready, put baby in his bucket seat, and DH and I walked out to the nurses desk. They freaked out that we had to wait around until someone was available to wheelchair me out. DH and I literally just stood there and stared at them and after a minute they were like, fine, just leave, but don't tell anyone.
I'm at a different hospital this time that seems generally more laid back so I'm hoping they don't give us too much grief about this stuff.
With my first child, they made me leave in a wheelchair but when we were there for our tour, I saw two moms leave and neither of them were in a wheelchair. Maybe policies have changed..
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@datajane The hospital told us the baby and I were both "high fall risks" which was why I couldn't walk and we couldn't carry the baby. On the way out I could hold baby in my lap in the wheelchair apparently? We didn't have the car seat inside and they didn't make us get it.
I was never offered a wheel chair when it was time to leave last time? Weird. Also, my baby had the bracelet on when we left, and no alarms went off..... they just forgot to take it off. The hospital I delivered at was totally not impressive. I pushed the nurse come quick button and it took OVER AN HOUR for a nurse to come by. Even then she had no idea I pushed the button, she was just checking in because. Makes me super confident to deliver there again
Tomorrow marks 2 months from my due date. I suddenly feel like we are running out of time to be ready. In a perfect world, I would deep clean the house and get our downstairs den organized because it's a wreck and unlikely to happen with a newborn. In reality I am one week into potty training DD and while she's doing pretty well, I am terrified to leave the house with her or even go into rooms that are carpeted. We are slaves to a timer right now making sure she tries to go potty often enough. We do need to at least clean up our room and move the crib back in from DD's old nursery.
@PhoebeJune1984 Mom walks? Weird how different each hospital is. I wasn't allowed to walk anywhere outside my room. DH was holding our daughter 5 feet outside our room and was nearly tackled for carrying a newborn in the hall. I was allowed to hold our baby in the wheelchair on the way out and they checked her in the car seat in the actual car at the curb.
Yeah mom walks out of the room and to the car. I am sure that they can have a wheelchair if they request it, but the nurse is also trying to get the mom to be more mobile and get moving to help with recovery.
And nobody is allowed to walk out of the room with baby (in any of the 10+ hospitals in our area), unless it is the mom/support person/nurse walking out of the room and postpartum ward to get to the car. By that time, the security anklet has been clipped off the baby. Anything before that, if someone steps outside of the door to the room (with the baby), the ward instantly goes into lockdown. Like some of the previous posters mentioned, the baby HAS to be laying in the hospital bassinet, and pushed out of the room if they need to leave the room for some reason. My friend's husband didn't know that and stepped outside their room door (while holding baby) to say something to his MIL before she got too far away, and all of the ward doors instantly shut and locked. The nurses then told him he had to put baby in the bassinet otherwise they could keep going into lockdown. Its so nobody can shove a baby under their coat and walk out of the ward. Where I delivered DD, they didn't have separate thick metal security doors, just two sets of doors to get in/out of the ward. But if you stepped outside your door with baby, an alarm went off on the anklet, and the only person that could shut it off was a nurse. DD actually wiggled a lot one night and ended up loosening her anklet without either of us noticing (we were sleeping), and a nurse came in really fast and checked her, checked her anklet, asked us a few questions, and mentioned there is also a silent alarm that would go off if the baby was in the room but the anklet was being messed with (like someone was trying to take it off in the room, to sneak out).
Yep, we use something called a code pink. It's a stolen baby - we run drills on it even in our facility that has no l&d, nicu or peds, all the doors lock down. I'm sure it's happened more than anyone cares to imagine. Unfortunate world we live in.
I'm now to the point where I could legitimately go into labor and everything would be okay. I could wake up and be in labor and have a baby. That blows my mind.
Re: S#!t just got real
Married: October 2014
TTC #1 since September 2015
Ya, totally depends on hospital policy where to go. For us, you only go through the ER if is late (like 11pm-5am) since the regular doors are locked. The ER staff also take you to L+D if you come through that way which is nice since, again, random hallways. Otherwise you park in the main parking area and go up to L+D on your own. The floor itself is locked, but there's a doorbell to get in.
I actually just found out from a co-worker that the hospital has staff people who accompany all parents out to their car to ensure the baby is in the car seat correctly and the car seat is secured in the car appropriately. I thought this was pretty cool and as bonus they help you get back to your car LOL
Married: October 2014
TTC #1 since September 2015
The one I am now and the one I am delivering at, the women's center has its own door. Even at night, the door is open. They have their own registration desk too
The 1st floor is a waiting room, registration and non-maternity stuff, like mammograms. Then 2nd floor is L/D. 3rd floor (my work), is Mother Baby (post partum), with a walkway to NICU (it sits in its own building, you can enter directory after you are discharged). 4th floor is 2nd part of mother baby, and post women's surgical admit (like hysterectomy from main OR), and then a 10 bed Peds floor (which is locked too).
Only L/D, NICU and Peds are locked (my hospital). We are a decently large hospital, like #5 in the state.
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I'm at a different hospital this time that seems generally more laid back so I'm hoping they don't give us too much grief about this stuff.
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Makes me super confident to deliver there again
And nobody is allowed to walk out of the room with baby (in any of the 10+ hospitals in our area), unless it is the mom/support person/nurse walking out of the room and postpartum ward to get to the car. By that time, the security anklet has been clipped off the baby. Anything before that, if someone steps outside of the door to the room (with the baby), the ward instantly goes into lockdown. Like some of the previous posters mentioned, the baby HAS to be laying in the hospital bassinet, and pushed out of the room if they need to leave the room for some reason. My friend's husband didn't know that and stepped outside their room door (while holding baby) to say something to his MIL before she got too far away, and all of the ward doors instantly shut and locked. The nurses then told him he had to put baby in the bassinet otherwise they could keep going into lockdown. Its so nobody can shove a baby under their coat and walk out of the ward. Where I delivered DD, they didn't have separate thick metal security doors, just two sets of doors to get in/out of the ward. But if you stepped outside your door with baby, an alarm went off on the anklet, and the only person that could shut it off was a nurse. DD actually wiggled a lot one night and ended up loosening her anklet without either of us noticing (we were sleeping), and a nurse came in really fast and checked her, checked her anklet, asked us a few questions, and mentioned there is also a silent alarm that would go off if the baby was in the room but the anklet was being messed with (like someone was trying to take it off in the room, to sneak out).
July BMB June Signature
Wow