Abigail Rose

The wait for our newest addition finally ended on March 23rd.  I started having contractions Saturday evening about 7ish.  We went to the hospital about 2:00 and Abigail Rose was born at 8:08 am.  She measured 21.25 inches and weighed 7 lbs 7 oz.

Abby got to watch her first KU basketball game just a couple hours later but unfortunately it was her last one till next season.

About dinner time, the nurses came in and mentioned that although we could stay until the next day, we could also leave after 12 hours so we headed home that evening.  It's always better to sleep in your own bed plus even though we didn't get much sleep the first night Wade and I were at least able to take turns and get a little sleep which we probably wouldn't have gotten at the hospital.

 

The next day, an Alberta Healthcare nurse made a home visit to check weight, jaundice, the heel prick test (not sure what the offical name is), watch a feeding, etc.  We were told this service is why their hospital stays are shorter than what we have back home.

Here are the answers to a few questions I've been asked:

• We had great nurses while at the hospital.  My only complaint was that I barely got an epidural even though I had asked for it a couple hours before.  I think this was just bad timing not necessarily an example of bad service - they wanted the doctor to examine me before officially admitting me but the doctor was delivering another baby and then a preterm labor came in and was the doctors next priority.
• We didn't have to pay anything for the hospital stay, prenatal doctor visits, postnatal visits, and newborn visits.  If we would have had a boy and wanted a circumcision, we would have had to pay for that because it is not covered by Alberta Healthcare (and I believe all provinces).  Plus this would have been done in the doctors office not at the hospital.  
• We delivered at the new hospital in Calgary so it was very similar to back home except there wasn't a nursery to send the baby to if we wanted to.  We hear that some of the other hospitals you have to pay to upgrade to a private room after delivery and that the dad's aren't allowed to stay past visiting hours (which just seems so wrong to me).  I felt like the hospital didn't have the extra's that we experienced last time at Menorah.  Menorah had a nice food station in the hall with snack food and although the hospital here also had one it was just water, juice, and crackers.  The cafeteria food was also better at Menorah and they let the dad's order a tray which wasn't an option here.  I know most hospitals back home also give you a free water glass so they can monitor how much water you drink - we didn't have that here and I was feeling a bit dehydrated so Wade had to make numerous trips to get me little glasses of water from the hall.
• We have scheduled Abby's first round of immunizations but I don't have a list to compare them with what is given in the US.  The big difference is that we have to go to the Alberta Healthcare office instead of our doctors office.