Sunday, August 2, 2009

Care by parent also to be known as night of no rest



This is from about two weeks ago. Prior to leaving the hospital you (the parent) is encouraged to stay the night in a "care by parent room". This means staying the night giving the full care to your child so that it mimics the "home environment". I was going to stay two nights but that changed rather quickly. I arrived at the hospital prior to 8pm and was ready to take on the job of caring for my child. We were checked in (given the key) and after pulling out the single chair into a bed and trying to get settled we were doing it alone for the night.
It was a nice evening and I was super positive. By the time I got Sebastian settled from his 9pm feed it was already 11 pm. So I closed my eyes for about 20 minutes (lights fully on of course) and settled in to listen to my sons breathing. Before too long the nurse was at the door saying "room service" as she handed me my bottle of milk for the midnight feed.

By the time that was done and I had put Sebastian down I was ready for my hour and a half of sleep when the sound of a baby crying was loud in my room. Even louder were the two parents trying to quiet their crying child in the care by parent room next door. It turned out that the child next door was on the opposite schedule then Sebastian so that night was no sleep. I got through the 3am feed and by the time "room service" came with 6am feed I was ready to check out of the "care by parent room" which in no way resembled our home as we don't have to deal with another crying baby on a different schedule then our son.
So that was my only night of stay at the hospital as I needed sleep and I was trying to figure out why the care by parent room had only a single bed. I thought parenting was a joint venture.

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