A baby week

Two nights ago, I dreamt of Baby. I dreamt of her birth-- unsurprisingly, I didn't dream of the pain involved (I think my mind is subconsciously blocking out that part of the process)-- and how she looks- a full head of hair and huge eyes :) In my dream, she cried a lot and was *very* pink... It was an extremely vivid dream, which is why I still have a mental picture of it in my head today. I think my mind is responding to what is shaping up to be a baby-filled week for us: starting with our tour of the Birth Center last evening, we have our first infant care class scheduled for tonight, our final ultrasound tomorrow, and on Friday, we're meeting with our doula, Molly, to go through our birth plan.

The tour of the Birthing Center at the C. S. Mott Children's and Women's Hospital was both exhilarating but also a little unnerving. Walking around the hospital and being acquainted with the facilities made me a tad nervous as I envisioned ourselves in one of the birthing rooms sometime within the next two months. Having said that, it has always been comforting for us to know that Mott's is one of the best pediatric and women's hospital in the country and I'm sure we'll be well taken care of in every way. I love the fact that they only have a very small nursery and that as much as possible, they believe in rooming the baby with you; it's the university hospital and hence a teaching hospital, which means that they'll always be experts and professors doing rounds and checking in on you; a home care nurse will visit us at home within three days of discharge to make sure that Baby and I are doing well; and security-wise, they have what our friends like to call the Baby LoJack which basically tags the baby with a security chip such that if anyone but the parents tries to take the baby past different parts of the hospital, the whole hospital shuts down, including doors and elevators. It's a great security measure but we're also seeing the potential for a lot of comedy- I'm imagining grandparents or relatives carrying the newborn around and unwittingly setting the system off and inadvertently putting the entire hospital on lockdown ;)

For the little bit of anxiety it caused, I'm still glad we did the tour- it's reassures us once more that all three of us are in good hands; we now know exactly what to do to make sure we get to the hospital and checked in properly when the moment hits us; and little by little, a bit of the mystique and unknown of this whole childbirth/delivery business is slowly being stripped away... :)