Sibling Tour of VHC

Our weekends are usually filled with home projects, grocery shopping, play dates for Natalie, and some sort of family time. Two days always feels way too short to get everything done and spend time together, and I only get two days every other weekend since I work alternating Saturdays. 

I was off work this weekend. We didn't start off with plans, but Saturday morning at 9 am I started looking into the hospital tours my doctor has been telling me are offered at the place I plan to deliver Nugget. My thoughts are, "It's a hospital, what the hell could they possibly show me that I haven't seen before?" but they have a special tour for siblings and we needed to make the drive to the hospital to know the route and see how long it takes. Turns out they had one sibling tour that morning at 10:15 and it was the only one I could find before my due date, so we sped up the morning and decided to do it. 

The point of it was to get Natalie familiar with how things are going to work while the baby and I are away from home and she comes to visit us. We don't have a definitive plan on who will be taking care of her while I give birth, or if Matt will be spending the night at home or in the hospital with me. There are a few variables to consider, like if she will still have school (last day of school is June 20th, my due date is June 18th), what time I will go into labor (what if it's at 2 am?) and if the change would be easier with someone coming here to take care of her, or her going to their house. Honestly it's going to be my mother in law who takes care of her, we just need to work out the details (and confirm that with her). 

The tour was aimed at slightly younger children (between 2 and 6) but I am glad we did it. We were shown a recovery room (though I was told the ones we viewed were for moms with twins or moms who are staying a few more days in the hospital, their standard room is smaller), went over do's and don'ts for visitation, saw the nursery with two babies in it, read a story, then practiced holding a doll like a real baby. 

I was glad to get acquainted with the hospital as well, since Natalie was born closer to home at another hospital. Making the dive definitely didn't ease any of my anxiety about making it there in the event of a short labor. It took us 30 minutes and that was without traffic, plus the route was confusing as hell and we almost missed some turns, even with GPS. If we have to make that drive during rush hour traffic it will take well over an hour to get there. To make matters worse traffic will be getting even heavier in the next couple of weeks due to Metro shutting down several train stations for the entire summer, hence more cars on the road. 

I so wish I could just have Nugget at the same place I had Natalie at which is only 15 minutes away from home. I didn't love my experience with the hospital I had Natalie at, but they did their job and got her here safely and that is really all that matters in the end. Unfortunately due to our new health insurance my doctors practice only delivers at an inconvenient location in a different city.