The hospital stay

One of the most surprising things about the labor and delivery was the quality of the hospital staff and facilities. I generally hate hospitals, most likely from my experience as an intern moving urine bags from one place to another. But this place was different.

We delivered in Mills Peninsula in Burlingame. The cool thing now is that the Mom stays in a room called LDRP (Labor, Delivery, Recovery, Postpartum). As the name implies, everything happens here. No need to move around, the baby stays with you the whole time, and they even have a cot for the Dad to crash. It was better than a Best Western.

I also realized just how limited an impact the doctors really make on your hospital experience. (Sorry future MDs, but is the plain truth). In our entire stay, we probably saw the doctors for about one hour in total, including delivery. Everything about your stay is all about the nurses...and we were very fortunate to have some great ones.

Of course, the downside is that every nurse has a different (read: conflicting) opinions about ALL aspects of baby care; breastfeeding, swaddling, pacifiers, clothing...Our head was spinning, especially after seeing four to six nurses day.

Needless to say, while we appreciated everyone's help, we are glad to be home and start making our own mistakes...