Wednesday

J is at preschool. She took her favorite teddy bear. Her preschool is having "Teddy Bear Picnic" day today.

Last night I had a tour of the birthing area in the hospital. Unfortunately, all twelve delivery/labor/post labor rooms were full so we couldn't see them. They said that was the first time that had happened on a tour. I'll see one of those rooms soon enough. Unless they are extremely full at that hospital, one is supposed to keep the same room for everything from the labor and delivery until she checks out with the baby. All rooms are private. Also (and this is different from where I gave birth to my first to kids), they don't take the baby away after birth to clean it up. They do it right in the same room in which the baby is born. Ten of the rooms have hide-a-beds for the spouse to use. Two didn't have room and so they just have recliner for the spouse to try to sleep in. All rooms are private. There is a nursery one can send one's baby to (and I will at night), but the hospital encourages people to keep the baby with them in their room (rooming in) at all times. I don't sleep with babies in my bedroom. I only had the misfortune of trying that once, when my son was released from the hospital (he was born early) so we had all his presents stored in his crib. He had to stay in the cradle in our room that night, but I had that crib emptied by his second night home.

At the hospital, four matching tags are made. One goes on the mom, one goes on the baby's wrist, one goes on the baby's foot, and one is for the "partner." My "partner" is my husband. Only non-hospital personnel with the tags are allowed to be alone with the baby while it is at the hospital. So unless one makes "grandma" one's partner and gives her the fourth tag, grandma cannot stay alone with the baby while it is there. They told us when we shower, we need to bring the baby into the bathroom with us. I guess babies get stolen often enough the hospital wants to reduce their liability to zero. Also, the only kids under 12 who can visit the baby are siblings. That won't be an issue for us because all my baby's cousins (they're all under twelve) live about 750 miles away. I'll just have to warn my friend who has a daughter in preschool with mine and a son in kindergarten with my son that she should visit with her kids after we're home, and if she wants to stop by the hospital, to come alone. She's not much of a baby person, though, so I doubt she'll be in a hurry to see a baby.

I need to go pick up my daughter and my friend's daughter from preschool.