hospital tour and kangaroo care

last sunday, mr.co-creator and i went to the hospital tour sa Bayfront Baby Place. the tour started at 3:30pm and ended at 5pm.

sa simula, may cookies and iced tea silang ni-serve. we found it kind of weird. with lots of expecting moms watching their diet, cookies at iced tea pa talaga ang sinerve nila. hehe! hindi naman kami nagrereklamo kasi libre naman sya, pero you would think they would serve fruits and bottled water or juices instead. hehe!

the tour started with the nurse presenting a slide show of the outline of the tour itself, and the services they offer. they offered some pre-baby preps tips too. one thing that made me take a mental note of is the installation of the car seat. it could take as long as 3 hours daw to make sure everything is set right. nyaks! pag kinabit ang car seat, wala nang tanggalan to. hehe!

after that, alay-lakad na. it was a fairly large group, siguro a dozen couples din yon. we visited the (really nice!) birthing suites, the c-section operating area, the post-partum rooms, ante-partum rooms, and the different family/waiting rooms i can't remember anymore. =P we passed by the nursery where a dad is spending time giving kangaroo care to his baby as the mom watches by the window. awww.

speaking of kangaroo care, we were told that if circumstances allow it, we will do kangaroo care with pistoy. basically, ilalapag nila si pistoy sa dibdib ko, skin-to-skin contact, right after nyang lumabas. it helps stabilize the baby's stats daw kasi if he can feel the mom's (or dad's) heartbeat, breathing pattern, and yung mismong warmth ng skin. it's a great bonding experience din, especially the first time the baby looks up at your face as if to say "i'm here!". i think it's kinda nice. =)

if circumstances will allow, meaning walang complications and stuff. they recommend an hour of kangaroo care before the baby gets weighed and measured. in cases na hindi pwede yung mom, pwede rin yung dad ang mag-kanggaroo care. in our case, sana kaming dalawa  ni je. mr.co-creator is already planning on bringing his button down polo para he'll be comfy and wouldn't have to strip off his tees. =)

all in all, it was good we went there. it's not like we will remember everything on The Day itself, but at least we are a bit more familiar with the rooms and what to expect. hindi kami totally clueless. also, na-verify na namin sa reception na natanggap at na-process na nila yung pre-registration forms namin. all set na kami for the hospital trip. =)