Sierra Vista State Penitentiary

Hi everyone! Everyone is home, rested, showered and relaxed...after a very hectic and stressful few days. It was so funny to come home and read the play by play of my labor experience from someone else's perspective. I read through it as if I wasn't even there and just LOVED all the comments of everyone's anticipation! It was fun!

I won't recap the story itself since Andy did a good job of that, but I thought I would add in some more insight into what it was like. I honestly felt like I was in jail. I kept asking myself if I had broken a law or something. And I didn't even feel that way because I don't like hospitals...it was just all the stinking rules and policies they had...seemed ridiculous. While in labor, as Andy and I paced the halls of the third floor we could see this really nice outdoor courtyard area and asked a nurse how to get there...we were told we weren't allowed off the third floor. Apparently, it freaks the other patients out to see a woman walking around in labor. So, we paced the very small hallway for HOURS pining away for the outdoors. The next day, after Henry was born, I asked the nurse how to get to that same courtyard...it was a beautiful day and I was getting cabin fever from being inside for three days. "You're not allowed to leave the second floor". Wait, what? I thought that was only for laboring women. Nope, babies not allowed to leave either. Interesting because last time I checked, he was my son, not theirs. It's not like I was going to steal him. So, I figured I would at the least walk up and down the hall of the second floor with him just to get out of the room. A nurse stopped me to say that I wasn't allowed to carry him out of the room. If I wanted to walk the halls with him, he would have to be rolled around in his little crib thingy. I murmured a not so nice word and retreated to my cell, er, I mean, room. Since Andy went home the last night and it was just me and Henry in the room, I felt really vulnerable leaving him in the crib thing while I slept in the bed. There's no lock on the room door and with as tired as I was, I just didn't feel comfortable having the little guy out of my reach, so I had him sleep in bed with me. A nurse came in the middle of the night to take my blood pressure and informed me that he wasn't allowed to sleep with me. Hospital policy. I ignored her. She came back a few hours later, sighed and repeated her little story. I pretended she wasn't there. This is MY kid. For Pete's sake!

Now in Sierra Vista's defense, it probably isn't their fault. I'm assuming that someone has walked the halls, dropped their kid and sued the hospital...and that someone else smothered their baby in bed and blamed the facility. But, that still doesn't change my experience and/or frustration. I genuinely felt like I had done something wrong and was being penalized for having a baby. I didn't feel like I was paying thousands of dollars as a consumer for a service (which is what a hospital is or at least should be). I wasn't allowed to leave and go home. We were forced to literally sit around and wait for an echo for over 24 hours, rather than being sent home and come back for the appointment. It was crazy.

I found that the hospital staff (nurses) were either absolutely amazing and wonderful. The type of people that you knew loved their job and you loved them back for it. OR, they were awful. And I mean rude, trite, condescending and rough. There weren't any in between people. It was strange. Luckily, most of our nurses were absolute dolls and made our otherwise less than ideal situation okay. But the ones that were terrible sure seemed to work hard to be terrible.

On another note, we were the "home birth" couple. Everyone knew who we were and totally walked around on eggshells around us. It was funny. The board in the nurses' station actually said to leave our room without a roommate unless absolutely necessary. Every other room was doubled up except for ours. Which was really nice, and I wasn't about to complain, but we didn't request it so it was kind of weird. Just about every nurse we had started her introduction to us with "I know you dont want to be here..." I'm not sure if I should have been offended or not, but whatever. I noticed that we were asked in detail before any and every procedure or test and they would leave the room for us to decide before actually expecting a response. I wonder how many people just go with whatever and don't even ask questions? When we did deny a procedure, it was as if we were from outer space. Someone asked about why we denied certain things in the comments section, and I will explain it, but in another post at another time.

Anyway, very glad to be home. Makes me appreciate home so much more. I love my house, my husband, my (very cute) son and all my amazing friends and family who have showered us with more love and support than I could ever have dreamed of having. It is humbling to see how wonderful a network of friends and church community we have around us. Thanks to everyone who was praying, bringing us food, or just checking out the blog. Love you!!!