Baby Readiness Weekend

As Mr. Berg put it, this weekend was all about the baby.

Saturday morning we were up early for our hospital tour. Our town has two local hospitals, one of which is considered a community hospital, the other is a large, regional hospital with NICU, Trauma Center and Cardio Center, etc. Basically, if you're in medical trouble, you want the ambulance to take you there instead of the other place.

Luckily, Baby Boy is being born at the regional hospital. It just so happens, his Mom was born there too. As was his Uncle. And another fortunate thing, his Mama's company built the new patient tower where we'll all be staying once he arrives. We renovated the labor and delivery hallway too, way back in the 80's, while I was being born.... if you want to get down to the nitty gritty details.

Anyway...

I have a good history with said hospital, but haven't spent a whole lot of time there. Other then for my own birth and three trips to the ER in my life time. I was pretty excited to see how everything looked, where we would be, what a typical room looked like etc. I wasn't expecting the reaction I had. My initial impression: This is a hospital, I am not staying here! That bed doesn't look comfortable, I do NOT like that wall paper border, nope, not staying here.

After our tour of the labor hall and where the NICU would be, should we need to go there, we were taken over to the maternity wing. After Baby Boy makes his arrival, we'll be hanging out there for a night or two.

I was excited to see the new floor as we built it and were promptly locked out (for good reason, gotta keep the babies safe). It was certainly spacious, bright, beautiful and clean. However, the minute we walked into a room I felt the same way. I am NOT staying here. This room is small and dark. This room is not fun.

It was only after I was home and on with my day that I could remind myself that I was standing in a maternity wing room with 30 other people, no wonder it was small. It was dark because the lights were dimmed and the window shade was down. It looks sterile because IT SUPPOSED TO BE. The room will be as fun as I make it.

My apprehension died down as the day wore on and I didn't give it much thought again until we arrived at our Labor and Delivery Class on Sunday afternoon. My first impression, nope don't like the instructor. Are you noticing how much of a bitch I've become? Okay, good. Me too.

The instructor got off to a rocky start with me. First off, she got pretty judgey with a classmate over her caffeine consumption. This of course set Mr. Berg off into a frenzy. How much caffeine is okay? How much have you had? OMG is the baby going to go through withdrawal?

No.

I wasn't thrilled with a few things she said, as they all either went against my Doctor's advice or created avenues for fear mongering. Such as caffeine consumption, tail bone pain and baby positioning, labor stalling issues. Etc. However, I had anticipated a few of these things. I knew I wouldn't be the stellar student: I'm not breastfeeding, I will be getting pain medication and of course, I drink caffeine. Every day.

Thankfully, as class worn on, she grew on me. I soon realized that while yes, she was a bit crazy, she had good intentions. She made sure to touch on special needs for several people with pregnancy related issues, she showed us some amazing relaxation techniques for labor and engaged the group in a few well informed talks about pain management, including several types of drugs. Another thing she talked about that I wasn't expecting was what we'd need for Mr. Berg.

I left feeling better prepared, more educated and suddenly, that hospital and my impending overnight stay didn't seem to bad..... I still hate the wall paper boarder though.