Hospital Sibling Tour

When I found out the hospital offered a sibling tour for free i quickly signed us up! we wanted asher to get acquanited with the idea of the hospital and laern a little bit about where his mommy and daddy would be when his baby brother arrived. he has been to the hospital before (unfortunately) but we were unsure how much he remembered. the day for our tour arrived and we brought along his doctor build a bear. this is the build a bear that has adorned his cranial band for the past 2 1/2 years. 

upon arrival both asher and the bear were given caps to cover their hair/heads.

i think they stayed on for about 5 seconds. ha.

daddy and asher sat and listened to the instructions given by the nurse. they did family introductions. the kids got to share about their new sibling and she talked to them about where we were going. it was adorable and the kids paid attention fairly well. asher was a chatter bug and wanted to be friends with everyone upon arrival.

i had requested prior to the tour that they stop by the new natural delivery rooms at the hospital and thankfully the room we had our "diaper lesson" in was the natural delivery room. it is much more spacious than the normal rooms, has a queen size platform bed in it, sit in whirpool chair tub, birthing ball etc. i was not only happy that we got to see it but was even more pleased to see how much nicer than are than a standard room. can not wait!

the teacher was assisting asher with diapering his bear. his bear had an oversized booty so the diaper was quite snug.....but he definitely helped and got the hang of what to do! i think he was curious as to why he was diapering his bear after he just got rid of full time diapers at home and has a huge grudge against them (getting him to wear a pull up at nap or overnight for bed is like pulling teeth). he even wakes us up at 2 am to go potty and again at 6:30 am these days to prove he doesnt need them...eventuallly.....

carefully assisting...

so proud his bear is diapered!

next they taught them how to hold the baby. of course asher was ready with his arms out in the proper holding position before any of the kids. he was quite the talkative eager beaver... (ekkk.. just like his mommy). seeing him hold the baby was adorable. CAN NOT WAIT!!!

after the lesson they got to go see the babies in the nursery and the babies gave them all a present (coloring book and crayons) for when they come to visit their parents in the hospital. i feel like asher is more prepared for the hospital experience and we also have a better idea of what to expect upon our arrival. i will be delivering at a new hospital this time and things are very different compared to the other place.

two days prior to our tour, philip and i took an infant and child cpr refresher course through the hospital. i am so glad that we did this as things have changed over the past 3 years. i feel much more prepared for an emergency in the event we had to deal with one. since philip is a carolinas healthcare system employee we got all of the classes for free. added bonus!

only 7 more weeks..... wow.... time flies....