L&D tour

Last night, Ian and I went to the hospital for a tour of the L&D floor. The woman giving us the tour told us that they were very busy in L&D that night and might not have a room for us to look at. I was bummed. So in hopes that a room would be cleaned soon, we started our tour on the recovery floor.
Mayo, is big on security. You can't get onto the maternity floor without being granted access. Once you have asked the nurse to unlock the door for you, you need a visitors badge. The room we saw was a double room and a very small room at that. I looked into the bathroom on our way into the room and noticed THERE WASN'T A SHOWER!!! They didn't expect me to give birth and then not shower for a couple of days, did they?!!? The lady told us that if we wanted a private room, we could pay and extra $50 out of pocket b/c most insurance plans won't cover that. The private rooms are the only ones that husband can sleep over in. I'd like a private room, but not so Ian can stay with me. Frankly, I think he'd drive me a bit nutty!! As we were leaving the room, our tour guide mentioned 'tub rooms'. She pointed one out across the hall from the room we were in. I asked her if any of the room had showers in room and she made me feel much better by telling me that most of the rooms do have their own shower or tub/shower. They had a couple of rooms without a shower and those were used last. If I get one of the rooms without a shower, I will be asking to go home ASAP!! Otherwise, I'm happy to stay for a couple of days. I told Ian it will be the quietest and most relaxing time I have for a very long time!!
We went back to the Labor and Delivery floor to try and see a room, but sadly, housekeeping hadn't been able to clean the room yet. So we looked at a triage room. She told us that when we first come in, we will be put into a triage room to make sure we are in active labor. Once we reach 4-5 cm then we will move to a L&D room. I think this is a lot of moving around! You go from triage to a L&D room, then after baby you are moved a floor up to a recovery room. Sheesh.
Oh and the babies wear security bracelets. If you try to take babe across a line by the doors of the floor, an alarm will go off! What else..oh, they don't have you fill out an order for your meals when you get there. That's what they did when I had Ady and then they just brought trays around to all the rooms. Not here. Here we get 'room service' Between 7am and 6:30 pm, I can order food whenever I want and I can order food for whomever I want. And there is a 'nourishment center"on the recovery floor as well, so if I want a snack or some juice I can send Ian down there to grab it for me.
They also have several computers on the recovery floor so that you can send out the required pictures to family and friends that can't be there!
When the tour was over, we all started talking about where we had all come from since none of us were first time mothers but none of us had delivered there before. One lady is here from Washington DC, one lady flew in from Russia to have her baby!!, and another lady was from Sydney Australia! Crazy!!

All in all, looks like a good place to have baby to me! :)