Shopping for hospitals

Nothing much new on the pregnancy front. I am feeling fine. I am at 150 lbs. Once the community college starts back and I start teaching two classes and have to deal with the stress, I am sure I will drop back to an unhealthy 145. I have no morning sickness. I do get these wanging headaches when I think of financing this whole thing in the next year.

I thought that Les would write a little more on this blog, but she says she doesn't know what to write. Perhaps she will have more to say later.

Leslie is sick with a cold. She cannot take medicine, I guess. Therefore she is a little miserable.

As the neurotics we are, we went shopping for hospitals last week and this week. Leslie's doctor is pregnant and is not going to be able to deliver our baby. We have to change doctors anyway, so Les thought it would be a good idea to go to hospitals and compare. I sometimes think we are like Meg Swan (Park Posey) and Hamilton Swan (Michael Hitchcock) from Best in Show. This is the couple who bring their dog to a shrink because it has been misbehaving after it saw the two having sex. Too much? We did call the vet after Henry's first couple teeth fell out. And look at the pictures of Henry in a Santa Claus outfit for Christmas. What type of people dress their dog up? My eye doctor asked me not to come back after he operated on my eye because I irritated him with my nervousness.

Anyhow, Team Neuroses, headed by Ms. Think-a-Lot and Captain Undecided, set out to check out hospitals. We visited Little Company. This is the closest hospital to us. It would be the obvious choice for anyone who didn't give this a couple week's worth of thinking. It has five birthing suites. Only three people are allowed to be in the birthing room at one time, but it is sweet. Have a baby on a night with five other people, you get a sterile white room for labor, another room for delivery, and another one for recovery. The hospital offers SuperMax-like security. Babies are cuffed with sensor wraps and visitors are buzzed in and out. There are plenty of statues of the Virgin Mary staring down like hawks throughout the hospital. And the waiting room, at least the one we were in, had old worn carpet and plastic chairs. The lady who gave our group a tour made it out like it would be hell if one didn't get one of the five birthing rooms. She also went on and on about how if someone comes into your room, make them show you their identity badge. No carpeting in the rooms or hallways. Typical hospital look. Not bad if you haven't seen the alternative.

Highlight of the evening is that we met another couple who live in EP. They are close to the same age and same period in their pregnancy.

Speaking of the alternatives, we went and visited Palos Hospital. The maternity floor had nothing but birthing rooms. All carpeted and clean. No religious figurines giving you the creeps. We can have almost unlimited people in the birthing room, but only two or three for the delivery. Afterwards, it is visitors galore. We can have almost 8 people in the room before we even use our three visitor passes. I have images of Party Monster; I wonder if Michael Alig could arrange a party in our room. The birthing rooms and waiting room have satellite television. There is no security. One can come and go as one pleases. To its credit, babies are probably less likely to be stolen from this neighborhood. It is quite a hike to this hospital, which is not bad for the two or three days for the birth, but I can see it being annoying for all the visits before and after.

We now have to decide between the two. We'll probably decide sometime next September or October. But the nice thing about Team Neuroses is that whatever choice we make, the road untaken will look better and we will spend plenty of mental energy anguishing over our poor choice.