Hospital Tour de Force

From our hospital's maternity tour, we came away with three general observations of note:

1. CMH has something called Kangaroo Care, which we're really excited about, and will explain momentarily.
   
2. Are teenage pregnancy statistics on the rise? Half of our tour had to be high school-aged girls.


3. It's probably best that Nick and I were never in school together.

First, we'll focus on the good news: Kangaroo Care. Basically, rather than be sucked, smacked, sanitized and swaddled before Nick and I would have a chance to hold her, the hospital puts her in direct contact with you for a good hour or so before all of the check-ups. We are very excited about that... especially because it's being true to the tenets of the Bradley Method we learned about over the past few months... most of which I'm not going to miss once that epidural starts dripping. Sorry, Dr. Bradley, I don't think I want to feel the experience of childbirth.

Other than the Kangaroo Care, the only noteable observation from our hospital tour is the high number of pregnant teenagers who were there. We probably had 8 - 10 waddling ladies on the tour, and 4 or 5 of them appeared to be under 20. Maybe I'm just getting old, and everyone is starting to look young to me, but a few of them were with their moms. On a positive note, it does seem that they've timed their pregnancies to deliver in the summer -- so as to not interfere with their studies, I assume? So, we could have some very smart young ladies who are passing these very smart genes and commitment to education on to the next generation.



Lastly, for the past few years, Nick and I have been going to classes to teach us how to best approach the next big step in our life. We took dancing classes prior to our wedding, premarital counseling, dog obedience classes and, of course, our recent Bradley Method class. During our hospital tour, it became evident to me that we may be at the end of our co-ed rope. Basically, this is due to the fact that I am one of those very annoying questioners who decides to prolong the agony of the entire class with lots and lots of questions that pertain solely to my situation. Nick, on the other hand, is one of those students who likes to get through something with very minimal interaction and attention from the instructor. I like a lot of eye contact from the teacher -- and affirmation that I am doing well as a student -- even if it's an hour-long hospital tour. Nick, realizing that he's stuck with me, and knowing by now that I'm going to do this at every single class that we attend, has started finding seats that fall right behind a fairly large person (not tough to do during our maternity classes) so that he can comfortably check his e-mail on his Blackberry.



Sigh.



Nonetheless, I'm signing us up for an Infant-Child CPR class to ensure that we're equipped for the next step.