Hospital Tour

I mentioned in my last pregnancy update that we had planned to take a tour of the hospital where I will be delivering. It is the same hospital where Brianna was born, but the maternity ward was under construction at that time and several changes have been made. Plus, we just wanted a refresher of where to go to check-in, park, etc.

We debated on whether or not to take Brianna with us when we went, and ultimately decided that she should go. The hospital offers a "Siblings Class", but the recommended ages are 4 to 6 years old, so I felt like Brianna was just too young for that. However, I wanted her to see the hospital and kind of get a feel for it before she is up there meeting her brother for the first time.

Right now, one of her most used phrases is, "Are we home?" when we are riding in the car. Really, I think she means, "Where are we going?" or "Are we almost there?" So, before the tour, we had gone out to eat dinner. When we got back in the car, she asked, "Are we home?" I explained to her that we weren't going home, but that we were going to hospital to see where the babies are born. She has a couple of books that talk about babies being born, but I wasn't sure what she actually understood. She was very quiet for a minute, then asked again, "Are we home?" 

It takes about 35 minutes to get to the hospital from our house, and pretty much the whole way there she was asking us questions about the hospital and babies. I could tell that she was just trying to process the information. We kept telling her that the hospital is where we will go to get brother when he's ready to come home with us. She has started asking us tons of questions about brother everyday . . . clarifying things like where he will sleep and where he will ride in the car and if he will play with her toys. So, we know that she knows something big is happening soon and that she's just trying to process it in her own way. 

Anyway, so the closer we got to the hospital, the more and more excited Brianna was getting. We finally realized that she thought we were going to get brother right then. Then, we had to explain to her over and over that we were just going to look at some babies tonight and that we would get brother on another day!

Here are Brianna and The Hubs anxiously waiting for the tour to begin . . . Brianna was beyond excited to see the babies!

The tour itself was pretty worthless. Well, I should say that the tour guide was terrible, but we did learn where we need to go to check-in when I am in labor so that was beneficial. The tour guide was a nurse that works in maternity and I'm not sure if she's new or if giving tours is just not her thing, but she was seriously not good at it. For example, when we passed the hospital cafeteria, she said, "This is the, ummm, cafeteria where you can go to get, ummm, food . . . and stuff." Then, when we went into a Labor and Delivery room, she said, "Sooo, this is the labor and delivery room where you will . . . labor . . . and, ummmm, deliver."

Also, one couple that was on the tour with us (who were obviously having their first baby whereas most of the rest of us were second-timers) asked a few simple questions about the rooms and such (like if they will stay in L&D or if they'll be moved to a different room after the baby is born), and the tour guide nurse stumbled and fumbled so much over the answer that she confused the whole room. I finally jumped in and gave the poor couple some actually useful information, and the crazy thing was that I think the tour guide was relieved!

So, on our fabulous tour, we walked by the newborn nursery but didn't really stop. After the tour was over, Chris and I took Brianna back up to the maternity ward and let her look at the babies in the nursery. There were about 6 babies in there so it was great timing, and Brianna loved seeing them! One baby was getting his diaper changed, and when Brianna saw his umbilical cord stump, she said, "Ewww, that belly button yucky!" One of the nurses saw us watching through the window and even brought one of the babies to the window for Brianna to really look at.

She was just fascinated and didn't want to leave. In fact, the next morning she even asked to go "See babies". I hope she's this excited when it comes time to bring Brenson home :-).

Overall, the tour was pretty much a waste of time. However, we did get a ton of samples of free stuff (score!), and I really think it was good for Brianna to see everything. I think she is really starting to understand (as best she can) that soon a baby will be coming to live at our house. I know for sure that she knows some BIG changes are getting ready to happen!