Last night I went to a late pregnancy class followed by a tour of the hospital where I'll be having Clara. The tour was both reassuring and exciting. The hospital is pretty new and very nice. Every labor room and postpartum room has only one bed (no shared rooms) with bathroom attached. There's a pantry on the postpartum floor for families to store food and access it easily when the new mom and baby are staying a few days. There's of course a nursery for new babies, but the tour guide explained that the nursery is usually pretty empty because our provider strongly encourages moms and babies to room in for the first few days and get used to each other, get a lot of skin-to-skin contact and bonding time. I like the sound of that. The postpartum rooms have chairs that fold out into small beds for the mom's support person (usually the husband) to sleep in if he wants to stay over night.
The late pregnancy instructor also gave us a printed list of supplies to pack in our hospital bags so we're ready to go come the big day. I've added it to my to do list.
With only 5 and a half weeks left (or so), I just can't believe how drastically mine and Jack's lives are about to change in the next month or two. I try to imagine what it will feel like and I can't, really. I just feel sort of awe-struck.
This morning Jack and I went shopping for the remaining baby supplies we hadn't already gotten through our baby showers. Happily, the gift cards we got through the baby showers covered the expenses. It was pretty fun shopping together for tiny little clothes and wash clothes and the like. I think we have everything we'll need for the first 3-4 months. Now it's just a matter of getting it all organized in our rather snug apartment. I've been hitting lab so hard the last couple weeks I haven't put much time into the apartment at all, but I hope to have a chance next week. I'm looking forward to it.
Hey, this is Julie, not Mom. I don't feel like signing her out and then signing in. I *STRONGLY* encourage you to send Clara do the nursery at night, if they'll take her. I did that with Zoey and they brought her back for feedings and in between I was able to get some sleep. However, with Malcolm the hospital didn't have the option of a nursery - they required babies to room in with moms. It was absolutely exhausting. After having given birth, I averaged less than 3 hours of sleep for both the nights we stayed there. There will be ample opportunity for bonding without necessitating the baby to be with mom 24 hours a day.
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