I’m going to keep you in suspense about our decision of when to deliver the babies. In the meantime…

As my days as an inpatient come to a close, I am actually feeling a little sad! People think I am joking when I say that, but there are some things about inpatient life that have been pretty nice.

As any parents of young children know, you never really get a break. In recent months, with work and Sam’s bedtime climbing past 9pm, my days felt non-stop between 6am and 9pm. Then once Sam finally went to bed, I was always too tired to do anything else.

Now enter inpatient life. Here’s what’s nice about it:

• I don’t have to take care of Sam at all! Don’t get me wrong, I love Sam so much, and he is pretty fun to be around these days now that he talks, plays pretend, and asks funny questions. My favorite is how he says that the big kids at daycare went off to “kitty cat garden” (kindergarten) and that they’ll see kitty cats there. However, he is also exhausting, and it’s nice to have a break. His bedtime routine can take hours now, and since he’s still not potty trained (I think it will happen soon!), lifting him to change his diaper was causing me a lot of back pain. Since I’ve been inpatient, Sam just comes to visit. He plays with his toys, eats some french fries, rides in a wheelchair, and then wants to go home. Then I can watch TV, eat my dinner, and do whatever I want for the rest of the evening. And my back doesn’t hurt at all!
• I can keep my small room neat and organized. With our gaggle at home, it is impressive how quickly our house becomes a mess again after the housekeepers come every-other-week. Within a few hours, it seems like there are toys, random bathroom remodel parts, and pillows everywhere. It feels impossible to keep it organized, and soon we will have 18 legs living in our house! Actually, 20 if you count the au pair that we plan to get. Here in the hospital, it’s easy to keep my tiny space clean and organized.
• I live right along the Montlake Cut, and I walk by it about three times a day. This definitely made a huge difference in my hospital stay. +1 for UW over Swedish.
• I’ve had more visitors here than I ever have at home.
• I can get cold ice water with perfect hospital ice cubes with the push of a button.
• I have free time for crafts, practicing guitar, reading books, and watching TV shows.
• The breakfast line at the cafeteria is pretty good! I recently added a 2nd breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, and hash browns to try to beef up the babies (it worked!!). I will miss being able to get a decent breakfast for $4 right downstairs.

Knowing what is coming ahead of us, which is at least a few years of no real breaks, it has been nice to have this reprieve.

I never would have guessed that I’d spend 50+ days in the hospital this year. It feels like a once-in-a-lifetime (hopefully!) experience to be submerged for so long into an extreme medical world of monitoring, blood tests, attending physicians, rotating residents, nurses with many days off in between shifts, IVs, wristbands, calling on a telephone every time I want to get back into my locked unit, and adapting to life as an inpatient where no appointments are scheduled. It has not been easy, but there have also been some surprising side benefits.