We were in two different hospitals and they couldnt have been more different! The hospital i was supposed to have M at, despite being a level 3 NICU, only takes babies 26 weeks and up and i was 25 weeks 2 days when my water broke. The original plan was to go to the other hospital for a week and come back, ha... yeah, that didnt work out
The hospital i delivered at was about an hour and a half (sometimes longer in traffic) from our house but it is one of the largest and best NICU's in the state. When i think about it now i'm actually glad that he was born there (though i hope if i have another we DON"T have to go there) bec/ they have far more experience with tiny babies then our local hospital. That hospital seems to mostly have larger preemies (30+ weeks) so i was glad that at his most fragile he was there. Overall he spent about 2 months there and it got very rough going back and forth with only 1 car and it being winter etc.
Our local NICU couldnt have been more different, they had about a quarter of the beds that the first one had and it felt homey. They would bring you drinks, you could do more for your baby etc there and most of all i could go EVERYDAY! It just felt like a small personal place rather then a big huge sterile place. There were only two doctors so they got to know the kids fairly well and it was just so different. As he got bigger (and more stable) it was nice to be in that environment vs the other. SO, i guess i liked them both for different reasons!
Also wanted to add that i'm pretty excited about being able to deliver at the local one next time (if i make it to 26 weeks) because they are going to be finishing up a brand spankin new NICU in January with ALL private rooms (with couches and tvs and stuff)
