Hi O. :)
It didn't end up being an early night for us last night so Mommie is sleepy today. I hope you're getting your rest though. After Mommie got out of work yesterday we ran around a bunch. First we went to the library and then to Holyoke Medical Center then to the supermarket and finally home. Mommie got it into her head that she wanted to make a Pineapple Upside Down Cake last night so by the time I was done and dinner was ready it was 9pm. Daddy & I sat down to eat and then watched another episode of the L Word. We're almost done! Yay!
As your Daddy said, we toured the Birthing Center at Holyoke Medical Center last night. A really nice nurse gave us a tour and answered our questions. It's a 9 bed unit so it's pretty small. Mommies get to stay in the same room throughout labor and delivery and if a c-section is required, the same nurses accompany you down the hall to the operating room. The unit is secure at all times so to enter the unit you need to get buzzed in. The labor/delivery rooms were pretty big, much bigger than Cooley (the other hospital) and each came with its own bathroom and shower. If I planned on having a water birth, I would labor in my own room and then once I was in active labor would move to the birthing tub room and deliver there. There's only one birthing tub and it's on a first come, first serve basis so I wouldn't have guaranteed access to it. As with Cooley, if they couldn't stabilize you, you'd be sent to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield and Mommie would have to stay in Holyoke.
There are pros and cons to both Holyoke and Cooley. The pros to Holyoke is that they have a birthing tub, the midwives have a lot of autonomy, their birth stats (rates of c-section, epidurals) are a little better than Cooley, it would be a bit closer for your families to come see you, and they have a very good Oreo pie that your Daddy likes in their cafe. The cons are that the hospital is 15-20 minutes away, it looks and smells very much of a hospital, according to the nurse the unit can get really busy and you can have two recovering Mommies in one room, and that the birthing tub might not be available.
The pros to Cooley is that it's 5 minutes from our home and 15 minutes from work, I wouldn't have to change midwifery practice, it feels much nicer and brighter and doesn't have that hospital smell, and our childbirth classes are through Cooley so we'd have to learn the administration polices of another hospital on our own if we switched.
I think we're going to stay with Cooley. So no water birth for you, sweetie. It's too bad, Daddy was going to get swimming trunks and everything. Speaking of water, one of my coworkers teaches water aerobics class tonight at the YMCA so we're going to go. Your Daddy will probably go on the treadmill or something while I'm in class. Do you know that when I met your Daddy he was training for a marathon? Isn't that amazing? I hope he'll tell you about that sometime. Maybe we'll get to cheer for him at a maraton sometime soon.
It's lunch time for us sweetie, we get to eat that aforementioned cake. I love you dearly.
-Mommie
(23 weeks, 1 day)
