Hospital Tour & Update

Yesterday, Bob and I went on a tour of Hillcrest, the hospital that we are going to be delivering Jake. It is very similar to St. Joe's in that there are separate areas/rooms for Labor & Delivery and then Post Delivery. The rooms are fairly small in both areas. However, the nice part is that the rooms in the Post Delivery area have a bathroom complete with shower. When I delivered both Celie & Anna, the Post Delivery area had not been updated yet and they only had a toilet and sink in the room - no shower. So, you had to go down the hall to shower and get ready. That was a bummer.

Also, Hillcrest has a Level 2 NICU, which, at least in the state of OH, means that the NICU can take care of any baby born after 28 weeks. So, that made me feel reassured since we are at 29 1/2 weeks right now. The only time that they transport newborns to another hospital is if there is a surgery that needs to be performed. They have affliations with Rainbows, Cleveland Clinic main campus and Metro. So that is also reassuring, though I am hoping that we won't need to worry about any of that. Because of the NICU being situated in the middle of the Family Maternity floor - you are not allowed to have cell phones on at all on the floor, nor can you have anything that plugs into the wall. They are very concerned about things that disrupt the cardiac monitoring machines in the NICU. So, everything is somewhat limited. But the staff seems really nice and it is very clean. Also, there are a ton of restaurants in the area so if room service isn't that appealing, Bob can run out and get something else. YEAH!!!!

When we deliver, we can expect to be in the hospital for about 48 hours after birth - given there are no complications, etc. So, that is what we are hoping for.

On another note, I had my check up today with my OB. My blood pressure was 110/76 YEAH!!!! So, that is good. I had lost 1 1/2 #'s - so my OB said that I should just try to keep something in my stomach, even if I do not feel like eating much, I should try to eat small meals, etc. Jake sounded good - like a galloping horse. I asked her about what she thought about having to give me/Jake a shot to help him develop his lungs if he is coming at 34 weeks. She said that the shot is only given before 34 weeks and that after 34 weeks, the likelihood that his lungs are good are far better than the risks of taking the shots. Also, she said that babies that have been developing under more difficult than normal circumstances, i.e. hypertension, pre-eclampsia conditions, tend to accelerate the development of their important organs incase of an early delivery. That is why some 30 week old babies can be born and have hardly any issues and a 38 week old can be born and have issues. It just depends on the history of the pregnancy, etc.

So, we are still in the wait and see mode. We are hoping for the 34+ weeks. And we are very hopeful that we will see it. I just have to remember to be slow & rest. Oh yeah, and breathe.