Drastically different... that is the best way to describe the hospital in NH that I delivered at and the one that I just visited where this baby boy will be delivering at! (Did you hear that, baby boy?... please don't come until we get to the hospital!)
In New Hampshire, I had my two girls in a local community hospital. It was a warm environment... I knew some of the staff and grew to know others. It had a really homey feel to it. Mrs. Rutter even gave BOTH girls their first baths. :) Everything was professional, and we got special treatment since there weren't too many patients at one time. I loved that we lived so close to Parkland... it was less than 4 minutes from home. Danny could run back and forth easily... which was great since with Hannah we were having a snow storm, but I NEEDED to see Grace! You know how that is!
Well, on Tuesday evening we went to see the hospital here in Des Moines that we will be delivering at. It is call Mercy Hospital and it is about 20-25 minutes away from our home. It was tough just to find where to go -- the East Tower -- and to find a parking spot. A wonderful nurse gave us a tour of the facility as well as some pointers about where to park -- they even have a valet service! The Labor and Delivery Floor was really nice -- tons of beds and space. It was there that she talked about the 400 deliveries A MONTH that this place has! UNBELIEVABLE! It was nice and new... but not homey. I guess Danny will be the one giving the special treatment to me! :)
Then we went to the post partum floor and saw the HUGE nursery and rooms. Everything is well done and VERY new. It will be great place to have this baby. It is just a large difference from good old Parkland. How many babies do they have in a month....maybe 100? I know that I will have a great experience at Mercy as well... The tour really helped me get prepared mentally.
The tour really helped Grace, too. They showed her the warming bed, baby diapers, and a baby hat. They took her finger prints like they will take Brother's footprints. She got to see the babies in the nursery and even hear one crying. She keeps saying that she is excited to see Brother's feet and little toes so she craned her neck to see the babies' toes through the glass. She knew that we were going to have the baby at Mercy Hospital, but I think this experience really helped her to visualize where she will go to see mommy and Brother Bear.
By the way.... I have seen Mercy on TLC's Bringing Home Multiples show from when they delivered Quads here, and I just read an article in this Sunday's paper about the 25 week babies (15 weeks early) that they have recently delivered... GREAT NEONATAL UNIT!
I loved Mercy and had such a great experience there. I had the experience of delivering at both hospitals and loved Mercy. When I delivered at Mercy all the rooms were full (February was one of those 400 babies a month). It will be a great experience!
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