My Favorite Overnight Getaway

The food is mediocre, the AV equipment was broken, we only had one real twin bed (and its construction is akin to cardboard), our view was of a run-down brick building, the amenities tend to decrease with each visit, and I feel slightly ill the entire time I am there. Yet, after our fourth visit, this is still my favorite overnight experience, hands-down. How can that be? Let me show you...

'Nough said? Almost... (Of course I have more to say! After all, I'm a writer, not a photographer.)

Our first few days with each of our children has always been a mountaintop experience for me. Josh and I are tucked away in a hospital room with our new little offspring, falling in love with them and enjoying the elation that We got the baby out unharmed. I adore this time, cloistered from the real world, soaking in what she looks like, how she sounds, that she somehow knows how to nurse, that she can pee and poop into these tiny little diapers the size of a band-aid! Not to mention that I am not pregnant anymore (woop!). I just lie there in an automated bed, loving on my perfect new baby with my fabulous husband and eating whatever they bring me. It's bliss.

Which is not to say everything is actually that perfect; it's my mindset (or fatigue, or drugs) that adds the halo. So with a special effort, I will try to accurately record some of the details that defined our 4th stay on the maternity ward:

1. FOOD - Food tastes good when you're really hungry, and I get really hungry after labor and starting nursing, which is the only explanation for my enjoyment of these institutional meal trays. The hospital used to offer a full menu, and the quality was surprising. Now you pick between 2 pre-set meals, and they're on par with a school cafeteria.

But you know what? I didn't have to make them, or clean them up, and no one complained to me about them, so they were de-light-ful.

For Josh's part, the Children's Hospital has a decent food court, but he couldn't help getting wistful for the old Vandy McDonald's, where he could get a supersized hamburger for $2.

2. GOOOD FOOD - #1 means that we had extra appreciation for the two skillet-baked giant chocolate chip cookies a la mode that Josh's dad has brought from Bricktops after each birth. Josh was so excited, I took a picture of him taking a picture of them (left).

the short list

3. NAMES - These two days also give us a chance to Name That Baby! And for once, we already had a name ready and didn't change our minds - Go us! I've loved the name Katherine Grace since I can remember. It was my pretend name when playing house as a girl, and it's always been top of my list for a daughter.

Until it actually came time to name a daughter, and I panicked. Shouldn't we use an Old Testament name like the boys? Or at least a Bible name first? What if it's too popular? Or too old-fashioned now? Do I really still like something at 38 that I loved when I was 8 years old? And what would we actually call her? Will there be 5 Katherines in her grade? And hundreds of Katherine Dennys in her generation?

I wrestled with all of them, trying to love something more unique as much as I loved Katherine. And in the end, if Josh had loved something else, I would've switched, but we decided to go with our hearts rather than heads on this one. And I have no regrets.

On the "What are you going to call her?" question: For now, we're calling her Katherine, because the name is too new for me to give it up yet. I'm sure at some point - in school if not sooner - it's likely to morph into Kat, Kate, or Katie, but for now, I'm just enjoying that Katherine is no longer a figment of my imagination.

4. VISITORS - Maw-maw and Papa Ball happened to be in town for a conference, Gigi and Papa Denny had a clear Saturday (due to a wedding being cancelled! how many weddings are cancelled??), and my side of the family had just returned from my niece's graduation in Atlanta -- not to mention that Josh had flown in from D.C. the day before I went into labor. Plus my parents leave the country on June 29, so I know my mom had been earnestly praying for an early delivery. All of which means 1) my mom's got pull, 2) Katherine's timing was absolutely perfect, though it may have appeared to be 3 weeks early, and 3) they all got to meet her fresh-outta-the-womb little 6lbs of cuteness...

Gigi to Isaac: What are you going to call her?
Isaac: Superman BabyGirl.

5. MULTIMEDIA - I just love that my hubby so missed the word games we have played in the past on their closed-circuit TV station that he was up there, trying to fix their TV. It didn't happen, but isn't he cute trying?

6. SLEEP - If you're on social media, you know that we were horrified to discover the well-baby nursery only keeps babies for 1 hour of every 24. !?!?! In the past, we've sent the baby to the nursery during the wee hours of the night so we could get some sleep, recovering from delivery and preparing for the year ahead with an infant. They would still bring the baby back to nurse, and I've nursed them all for a year, so these 3-hour bits of parental sleep did not seem to interfere with breastfeeding in the least.

Katherine's first "bath"

A couple nurses claimed the baby should stay in the room so we could learn her "cues," but this ignores the fact that a newborn sleeps 23hrs a day and hasn't established regular cues yet, not to mention I will be learning those cues intimately starting the day we get home. Just a few of many reasons it seems ABSURD that hospitals are now claiming the baby needs to stay in the room to promote bonding/nursing. If you're gonna cut costs and charge me for taking care of my infant while actually making me care for said infant, at least be honest about it. Surely this is a pendulum reaching its limit before it swings back the other direction? For all you mommas with births in your future, I hope so!

And come to think of it, there is reason to hope. We chose to use our 1 hour of nursery after the midnight feeding, and the dear Peds nurses who worked those nights kept her until the next feeding, so we did at least get a 3-hour stretch of sleep each day. God bless 'em.

7. PICS - The "Most Improved" Award goes to the hospital photographer. She's not cheap, but she walked into our room the day after Katherine was born (Sunday), when I was in a hospital gown and had not showered in 36 hours and Josh was still wearing the same t-shirt from Friday, and without having any of us use a comb, lipgloss, bath, or even non-flourescent lights, she somehow managed to get pictures we were willing to pay an arm-and-a-leg for... (though still high on hormones and SHE'S HERE, we might've paid for pics that made Katherine look like Frankenstein). But even with 2 weeks of perspective, I can still say, she doesn't look anything like Frankenstein...

In fact, she looks just like a beautiful little Denny baby girl, or Superman BabyGirl, or Katherine Grace Denny, our sweetheart. And our first two days with her were a joy, because she was finally. here.