Hospital Tour Day

Our last "to do" item in terms of prep work with baby classes and birthing education stuff was to do a tour of the hospital and maternity ward. We did this today, so now we're all done. Taking a tour is a really good idea-- as the last thing you want to do when you're having contractions is try to navigate through an unfamiliar hospital with only the use of signs and arrows. Its not like you have your own "walking GPS" to guide you or tell you where to park, which door to enter, which elevator is the quickest, whether or not you need to sign in....etc. This is especially important for late night admissions into the hospital, when, for example, the hospital is extra secured with only one entrance being opened (oh, and if you guessed that the open entrance would be the main entrance, you'd be wrong at our hospital). Can you imagine trying to run around the outside of a hospital to find the coveted "open access door" in a condition like this? Yikes!

So, the tour was time very well spent. Hillcrest Hospital is going through a major renovation-- they are adding on a whole new tower and totally revamping the maternity ward. The work on the maternit ward is about half way done--- as they need to do it in small stages (you can't exactly close down one of three maternity wards for the Cleveland Clinic). So, parking lots and entrances are all changed around a bit. Its nice to know our way around any potential detours (in and out of the hospital).

I feel way more familiar with where to go, and we're pre-registered, so there will be no need to stop for admissions paperwork when its go time. That's a nice perk of the tour. Another great thing to know is that we don't have to stop at every information or check in desk....we just proceed to the delivery area. When we call our doctor to let him know that the contractions are coming regularly etc and he says "go to the hospital," he then pages the Maternity Ward and alerts them that we are on our way. This way, they have our room ready to go and completely prepped so we can just walk right in. Its nice that they coordinate all of that for you. Oh, and valet parking is free on the day we arrive and the day we leave...never would have known that if we did tour.

We also were able to learn about the hospital's pretty intense safety and security protocols-- which make you feel very secure about your infant being very safe in the confines of the maternity ward. Once born, Little B will get thoroughly checked over in our LDR (Labor & Delivery Room). Once his/her vitals are checked, he'll/she'll be given ankle bracelets on both ankles. These are coded with an ID # that will match the bracelets that Mike & I will wear. These are then verified and signed off on by our doctor and two nurses to ensure that everything matches. From there, we will be the only ones who the nursing staff will be authorized to give Little B to. So, after baths and/or any check ups that are done outside of our room, they'll verify by the bracelets that our baby is only given to us. In addition, each infant is fitted with a small, special tracking device. This way, at any given time, the hospital's secruity team will know where each baby is. Should a baby go too close to any exit from the Family Maternity Ward (and by any exit, we're talking public & employee only stairways, elevators, and even the laundry shoots) an alarm will go off. All exits surrounding the ward will lock until the specific alarm associated with the infant's sensor is correctly secured again. Its good to know that they are so careful with these newborns. In some ways, its sad culturally that they have to put such security practices in place. Although they haven't had any incidents with their maternity ward, we all have heard news stories of the unthinkable, so its better to be safe than really, really sorry.

Lets see, what else did we learn? Well, we'll be in the LDR until about 2 hours after Little B is born. This will give me time to begin the intense part of recovering and give Mike & I some quality "alone time" with our newborn. Once I'm feeling up to it (and Little B is showing consistently good vitals etc), upto two visitors will be allowed to come back to the room at a time. The hospital suggests that we really do limit visitors and the time they spend in this room during the first 2 hours after Little B is born b/c the nursing team will need to be interacting with us (especially me and the baby) a lot during this time. Having too much commotion in our LDR room can make that difficult. That seems to make sense--- afterall, its just for 2 hours.

Once it appears that I'm recovering well, they will move us to a Post Partum Room. We've requested a private room, and most of their rooms are, so that once in this room, the quantity of our visitors isn't restricted. While we're being switched over from the LDR room to this new hospital room, Little B will get his/her first thorough bath and then spend about 30 minutes under a heater getting all warm. Then, once Mike & I are settled, Mike can go to the nursery to pick up Little B and bring him/her to our room. We'll be in this 2nd room for at least 48 hours after the baby is born (i.e. when they release us to go home).

Visiting hours are from 11am-8pm and for the most part, Little B should be rooming in with us. The reason they restrict morning visiting hours is because the doctors, nursing team, and lactation consultants do a lot of rounds and check ups in the morning. They also offer some "Getting to Know Your Newborn" classes in the morning for new parents covering an array of topics, so that's nice as well. Separate from visiting hours, one "support person" (Mike) can be with us at all times. Should we need a little break (to take a shower or sleep) Little B can go to the nursery at any time for a bit, but they do suggest that having the baby rooming in with us will allow us to begin to pick up on Little B's cues (i.e. "I'm hungry signs," "I need to cuddle signs," "I'm sleepy signs"). So, thats our plan.

Hillcrest Hospital also has a Level II NICU, so that comforting to know. Hoping we won't need to use it, but its nice to know that the Cleveland Clinic's best experts are there if we do need them. Oh, and the entire hospital is connected with WiFi...so the laptop will be going with us, and maybe, just maybe, we'll be able to upload updates with photos and videos onto this site from our room. We'd like to do that so our family and friends who live out of town can meet Little B as soon as possible...even it if is over the internet. Oh, and something else that's really neat: Whenever a baby is born, they play a lullaby over the entire hospital's P.A system. That's pretty neat. It gets played about 4,000 times a year.

So, that's what we learned today-- lots of good stuff!

Reminder: Don't forget to upload your prediction about Little B! We've collected a couple so far-- the more the merrier. Just post a comment with your guesses on the following: When will Little B arrive? What will he/she weigh? How long will he/she be? Oh, and will Little B be a boy or a girl? If you're unable to post, shoot me an email and I'll add your prediction in. Once we have everyone's I'll put them all together on a post --- and then we'll see who's the closest.