The Baby Business - Part II

Last night, someone reminded me that I never did finish my story about the baby business since at the time of the posting, we hadn't visited the other hospital, St. Joe's. Last Sunday, Kim and I went to St. Joe's. This hospital actually approached the baby business a little differently. We weren't wined and dined (ie. no cookies and refreshments), there were no "gifts" (ie we didn't get a goody bag), and the "tour" only lasted an hour as opposed to two. Maybe it's because St. Joe's is so much bigger and they need to "advertise" their baby business because people just go there. Regardless of the reason, it was not a similar tour.

The information presented was roughly the same, although John C. Lincoln definitely went into more detail about, well, about everything. I was glad we had gone to the John C. Lincoln tour first because I felt it was better organized. St. Joe's took us through trama, surgery, all the bad things that could happen, and then oh yea, if you have a normal birth, this is what you can expect.

When we were done with the tour, we realized that both places had different nice-points and it was pretty much a toss-up as to where to deliver. That being said, it took us a few days but we have decided to deliver at St. Joe's. The main reason was because of the carpool lanes. Sound odd? Well, no knowing when in the world our little Peanut will decide to grace us with his or her presence, we wanted to know that we wouldn't be stuck in traffic regardless of the time of day. The drive to John C. Lincoln would take mostly highway, but that highway is mostly a parking lot both in the morning and at night (it doesn't seem to matter which direction you are going). And there are no carpool lanes. The drive to St. Joe's is also mostly highway, but only one stretch of the way is a slow-moving mess in the mornings only, but it *does* have a carpool lane. So, that was our main deciding factor.

That being said, St. Joe's offers lots of classes as well which both Kim and I will be attending. The first class will be Kim's and it will be in March - Daddy Boot Camp. Our next class will be an all-day birthing class in April. Oh boy - can't wait for that! While we could attend similar classes at a hospital closer to our home, I thought it might be good to be more familiar with the St. Joe's campus so that when everything is a blur, we will feel a little more comfortable. So, let the driving begin!