Hospital visitors

Barbara83 · July 2013

What was your experience with hospital visitors? Did you want to have people come and visit you or did you just want to relax and spend time alone/with close family? Did you even have a lot of free time for hospital visitors?

I guess I won't know how I feel until I deliver but initially I was thinking I'd tell my close friends and family to come visit me at the hospital and some of my old coworkers I still keep in touch with since I used to work at the hospital that I'm delivering in. I'm starting to think it's a bad idea to have so many people close to the baby even if I make everyone wash their hands before touching her. I don't want to risk her getting sick.

Bkuhman · July 2013

DH and I decided we are wanting the first few hours to ourselves. We may even opt for the first day to ourselves. We aren't public ally announcing it or alerting it. We have a small list of people to contact and guests to visit.
We are, also, asking that everyone that visits first wash hands and sanitize before touching the baby and no kissing of the face.

MrsMcC.10409 · July 2013

I had a different experience than most, but to be honest, I can't imagine having all those people after a standard delivery. You're not there for very long, nurses are coming in every other second, and if everyone else is holding the baby, that means you're not. Personally, I'd let immediate family come, but everyone else can wait until you're home. Then they can come, but the price of admission is dinner.

elyse05 · July 2013

I was in the hospital for 3 days and only had grandparents and my sister visit. Everybody understood. And if someone was offended, they'll get over it! I really loved having that little bubble of time where it was just me, DH, and LO with nothing better to do but cuddle! I still hesitate when ppl want to stop by and visit, I went to a family BBQ just to have everyone see the baby at once and avoid all those extra visitors at our house!

TheLittleRedM · July 2013

We are going to set a couple time frames a day for people to visit that way we don't have to worry too much about dealing with visitors all the time. But I'm a FTM and haven't done this before so I really have no idea how all that will go.

queenbone · July 2013

With a c/s I'm in for 4 days so I can spread out the visitors a little bit more. I also let my friend's kids hold my newborns so that isn't an issue for me. Everyone washes their hands w/o having to be asked first.

All my friends/family called or texted to see when to stop by and most waited until day 3 to do it, with the exception of my sons and my mom. Everyone called in advance with the exception of my aunt (uncle's wife) who came with my cousin's 4yr old. She dropped in while I was meeting with the LC who wanted me completely topless on the sofa. Haha, that'll learn my aunt not to drop in w/o a quick call first! .She was so busy trying to shield her grandson from my breasts.

Hilaboo86 · July 2013

I had a breakdown in the hospital from too many visitors. TMI but I just wanted to FART! No one would leave when I needed to BF or change my pad etc. I too thought I would be find with tons of visitors, I made a big mistake. Also like PP I pulled an all brighter due to my water breaking at 130 am and going to bed at midnight.

Good luck to you!

mandyrator79 · July 2013

I only had like 5 hours combined of sleep the two days before my c-section, so I went in really tired. But I just ran on happiness those first few days. I was completely fine with visitors, it was only family but I have 5 brothers and two sisters so just that alone adds up to a lot of visitors. During my c-section I had my boys, parents, two brothers, one sister and my sister in-law all in the waiting room. So they all came into my room as soon as I was out of recovery. I know that would bother some people, but I come from a really close family and I liked having them around and enjoyed watching them meet my baby. Plus none of my c-sections have been smooth so they all really just wanting to be as close to me as they could. They all hung around for like 4 hours, and I enjoyed their company. it also helped keep me calmer since I was being told I was bleeding heavier (my placenta grew into my uterus so they were watching me close) then they would like, and I was having vision problems. everyone plus even more family members came back around 5/6pm and hung out a few hours. then my mom brought my boys early the next afternoon and hung out most of the day. and again most of my brothers and sisters came back that evening. I went home the next morning. so I had visitors most of the time I was there, but I enjoyed it. I am also comfortable nursing in front of all of them, so that was not an issue to me. It was not like I would have been sleeping anyways, so they helped keep my husband and I entertained.

reason00 · July 2013

Ugh the last thing I wanted was visitors.

Pink724 · July 2013

Lillian was born Friday night and Saturday we had the grandparents all 4 and my BIL come visit. It was overwhelming, for her and for me. All she wanted to do was be at the breast and it was awkward with all of those people there. If you don't feel comfortable whipping out the boob in front of them, it is really hard to have them there for too long.

martyn17 · July 2013

We had grandparents and aunts/uncles visit and asked friends to wait until we were home. This worked well for us.

reallylongusername · July 2013

We had D.H.'s family (dad and brother), my family (mom, dad, brother), and one of my friends the day l.o. was born (she was born @ 1:54am, they visited around 2-4pm.), and then my aunt the next day. Before she was born, and right after, I wanted visitors, but the more I learned, the more it was like, Crap. We had told our family one time based on when we thought we would be going to sleep and adding 8hrs. (although we knew we wouldn't be getting 8hrs. straight, or 8hrs. total, we figured that was a good amount of time to say), but then we remembered about the breastfeeding class, found out there was one that day, and that it was pretty much right when we told them to visit...so we bumped back their time based on that...but then realized, crap, we're probably not gonna get to shower before the class. We ended up getting up about 10min. before class and making ourselves as presentable as possible, hauling l.o. to the nursery, and speeding up to the class w/me in a wheelchair. After I felt so gross not showering yet, but it was visitor time, which was okay cuz I forgot about feeling gross. I felt like D.H.'s family stayed a little too long tho'...like I was ready for them to leave at least 20min. before they finally did...and it took them too long to get that they had to at least step out for 1/2 an hr. for me to breastfeed. My family stayed for just the right amount of time. In fact, they left a little sooner than I wanted (since they knew they had to at least step out for bfeeding, and my parents wanted to get back down the Cape before traffic/my dad got tired). My friend arrived at a bad time cuz l.o. happened to be hungry then, but she got to pop in right before it was time to bfeed. She stayed a little too long before she left and I could bfeed tho'...and then l.o. needed her diaper changed so we were busy for an hr. plus and my friend luckily got it and said she'd see us later (although that sucked cuz I wanted more of a good visit). My aunt who visited us the next day didn't even get the okay from us. She had sent me a text and called me, but my phone was charging cuz it was just about dead. This was totally annoying. We had already decided we didn't want any visitors that day/were probably done w/them 'til some point when we got home, and here she was at our door! and of course it was time for me to bfeed
She was cool about waiting tho', and it wasn't so bad in the end. She got to leave when she knew we were tired, and we had finished eating, etc.

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