Confirmation

After being very wishy-washy about the whole thing, yesterday I finally toured the hospital where I'm expected to have this baby.  It seemed like such a waste of a beautiful Sunday afternoon to drive all the way to Arlington and spend an hour looking around a place I have no intention of going to.  But since I had Ryder, my insurance has changed which hospital they use, so I'd never been to this one before.   And because the majority of home birth transports are non-emergency, it seemed like a good idea to at least know where the hospital is and what to expect if I end up having to go.   (If there is an emergency, I would be transferred via ambulance to the nearest hospital, Prince William, which is where I went after having Kendra.)  I will also admit that I was a little hesitant to go because I was worried that if the hospital was super nice, I would second-guess my decision to have a home birth. 

That turned out to not be a problem.

Now, in the hospital's defense, I started out already kind of annoyed with the whole situation.  I had to leave straight from church, I'd only had time to pack goldfish crackers to eat when I really should have made myself a full lunch, and as soon as I began driving Craig's car (which I hate doing-- it's so low to the ground and doesn't have power steering, so driving it when pregnant is difficult for me), I realized that Craig had left the tank nearly on empty.  Not a great start!  Then of course, I ran into traffic on I-66 (yup, even on a sunny Sunday afternoon!), so that made me late.  And it turns out that this particular hospital was designed as a maze, with two wings that don't line up in any reasonable way!  Luckily for me, a girl who looked like she was working as a candy striper (do they still have those?) showed up at the same time as me and graciously took me to the lobby.  Otherwise I would probably still be wandering around in the wrong wing, desperately asking Siri for help...

So, yes, bad start.

Eventually I caught up with the tour in one of the L & D rooms, and got there right in time to hear about their visitor policy.  Which was how I learned that because it's flu season, this hospital is currently not allowing more than two visitors at a time.  And they have to be 18 or older!  So my kids wouldn't be able to see me (or their new baby brother) the entire time I'm incarcerted lying in!  Which is exactly what I DON'T want.  Especially for Ryder, who just is too young to understand why his mommy would disappear for two or more days.

As the nurse explained the different laboring positions that will be available "after you get your epidural," I decided to raise my hand and ask: "How do most doctors feel about laboring on your hands and knees?"  At least she was honest, with a simple, "They don't like that."  She went on to explain that they had found that holding Mom's knees up to her face really opened up the pelvic floor and allowed her to push well.  Yup, I remember them doing that when I had Bentley.  It was awful.  It didn't work.  And I had to lay flat on my back.

Second sigh of relief that I'm not going to the hospital.

The rest of the tour was fairly uneventful.  Seeing the tiny babies in the nursery got me all excited.  Seeing the tiny rooms made me appreciate my own bedroom.  And there was no tub in the L&D room (just a small shower), so that also made me appreciate the bathroom situation at home.  All in all, I was so glad I'd gone just because now I am even more certain that a home birth is the way to go.


Trying to leave the hospital and discovering that some bozo had parked at an angle so close to my car that I couldn't even get to the driver's side without going all the way around and scaling a small ledge (38 weeks pregnant) and then could still barely open my door wide enough to get in (I'm not actually sure how I managed to squeeze through when the door could only open about six inches) was just the icing on the cake.  That person is lucky that I didn't key their car.  If I hadn't just taught a lesson on making good choices, I might have...