Brett and I went on our tour of the hospital tonight. Had I not consciously thought about it, I might have spent the entire tour with my mouth hanging open. Compared to Sophia's delivery at St. Peter's in Albany, Clarian North Hospital is paradise. Nirvana even. St. Peter's was like a third-world country hospital compared to this one.
So let's start off with the maternity elevator. Yes, I said maternity elevator. You go in the door of the hospital, and there is an express elevator that whisks women in labor up to labor and delivery on the third floor. That's just cool.
Before we even get to the labor and delivery section, let's talk about the hospital in general. The cafeteria is open from 6 am to 3 am. Yes, that's a 21 hours. The cafeteria at the hospital in NY was only open, like, 6 hours a day, and even then, it was hard for someone that wasn't an employee to actually buy anything there. There is also this super cute coffee bar, which absolutely blows away the little coffee push cart that was in NY.
We then moved upstairs to the labor and delivery unit, starting with the waiting room for guests, which is completely wireless, stocked with coffee and tea, and you can use your cells phones at any time. Visitation hours are also 24 hours, which is awesome. No shooing people out of your room at 8 pm. You give your guests a special code to get through the doors. We saw one of their triage rooms, which was cozy. It was about the same size as the room that we were in before Sophia's c-section. Very nice.
We then went to the c-section recovery room, which I have to say from prior experience, was immaculate. The recovery room could accommodate up to 3 women AND THEIR BABIES. Okay, that was the kicker right there. When we had Sophia, they whisked her off to the nursery while I was in recovery and wouldn't allow us to see her until I was in the postpartum unit. My recovery took longer than normal (almost 5 hours as compared with the normal 2), so we didn't see her for a long time. Plus we weren't allowed to use our cell phones in the recovery room, so family had to wait even longer to hear our news. If I have a c-section, it's going to be a much better experience.
We moved in to the labor and delivery rooms, which were HUGE. Here's a picture:
Gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. Seven out of the twelve rooms have whirlpool tubs. (They don't do water births, but use the tubs as hydrotherapy, which I will definitely use.) Every room has a huge flat screen TV, a rotating arm computer with Internet and games, a DVD player, a mini fridge, and more that I can't think of right now. Best of all, they do the newborn assessment and first bath right there in the room. How special.
The postpartum recovery rooms were great too. Here's a picture:
Aren't they PRETTY! Best of all, they are all private. PRIVATE! I had to share my room in NY, which I thought was odd because I walked past several empty rooms when I could finally get out of bed. Hmm.
Let's just do a quick revisit to the postpartum rooms in NY. There were only 5 private rooms, which were reserved for women who had premature deliveries. All the other rooms were shared. They put me in a shared room in a bed right next to the window, which I thought was nice, until we realized that the blinds that were inside the window were broken and would not open. Four days without natural sunlight can really get to you. I had the room to myself for the first night, which was nice. I wasn't keen on getting out of bed to walk all the way to the bathroom (which did not have a shower), but we could make due. Late in the afternoon on my second day there, nurses wheeled in a roommate. She practically walked in herself. This woman popped out her 6-lb kid in 4 hours and was practically doing backflips in to the room. Ugh. Roommate meant only one thing to me - no one could spend the night at the hospital with me to help me out of bed to the bathroom or help me nurse Sophia. I cried, and I was surprised that my roomy didn't call the nurse on my during the night because I just sobbed. Top that off with the fact that HER HUSBAND stayed tucked behind their curtain for the entire night while Brett followed the rules and went home. Oh...I was mad. I think they felt bad the next night because they found Brett a chair to sleep in and asked if he was going to stay. He ended up sleeping in a straight-back chair with his head on my bed and his feet on the radiator right next to the freezing cold window that we couldn't see out of. Shared rooms also meant I had to lug myself down to the shared shower facility to take a shower. It was like a bad, rusty, old locker room shower. No one could come in there with me - not even my sister. So I could barely stand and was expected to shower on my own. There was also a blizzard while we were there, so more women stayed longer than normal because they couldn't drive home, which totally bogged down the nursing staff. Needless to say, I was so happy when I was allowed to go home.
Now, I am so excited for my stay at this new hospital. Private room, private bathroom, a real sleeping surface for Brett, flat screen TVs (and you don't have to PAY for cable), Internet, 24-hour visitation, DVD player, and fridge. The hospital sends you a celebratory dinner with a bottle of sparkling grape juice. You can also get in-room massages, manicures and pedicures. Other than having just given birth, I think this is going to feel like a vacation. I'm SO excited.
We still have our fingers crossed for a normal delivery, but even if we have to do a c-section, I think it will go better than the surgery for Sophia. I just think the entire experience will be better. Instead of being tentative and worried, I feel completely confident in the hospital where #2 will be born. Now if only we could guarantee that Brett will be home! Let the waiting game continue.
