Checking Into The Hospital

We were scheduled to check into the hospital Monday night, September 3, 2007. They requested that we be there around 8pm.

We arrived on time, but to our surprise they weren't expecting us! Which was really odd because supposedly everything had been arranged a week before.

Finally, after checking whatever it is they needed to check or speaking to whomever they needed to speak to, they finally admitted us. However, they put us in the wrong room!

I mentioned to the nurse that we were a high risk pregnancy and that we were supposed to be in a room with a window directly to the NICU and that I didn't see a window in the room we happened to be in. She said she would check on it. And I thought, "Seriously, did you not know we were coming?"

Eventually, they got everything straightened out and we were put into the correct room.

We decided that it would probably be a good idea if we went to bed kind of early and got some sleep since we'd be having a baby in the morning!

One of the nurses came in and hooked Bekah up to some monitors for the night. I asked her where I was supposed to spend the night. I was shown a chair. A chair? A chair? Seeing the bewilderment on my face, the nurse informed me that the chair folded out into a bed.

After a few minutes trying to figure out how the chair magically transformed into a bed, I finally got it! It was no bigger than a cot! And A LOT less comfortable! Midway through the night I got up and grabbed another one of the chair-beds and laid it out side-by-side with the first. Then I grabbed a few pillows and stuffed them in between the two beds. Better, but not much.

Bekah had her own difficulties sleeping as well. All night her oxygen monitor kept going off. I don't know what setting they had it on, but apparently she wasn't getting as much oxygen as the nurses thought she should be.

Every 5-10 minutes -- BEEEEEEEP! BEEEEEEEEP! BEEEEEEEP!-- and Bekah would take a deep breath and try to get the stupid thing to stop beeping. Since no one was coming in to check on her, I figured it must not be that big of a deal and told her to either take the monitor off or to just ignore it. She decided to do the best she could to ignore it.

The morning didn't come as quickly as we had wanted, but it did come. And our idea of getting a good night's sleep had gone with the night.

Today was the day! Were we ready?