I never spent much more than 24 hours in the hospital with any of my babies. My total turnaround time on #3 was about 17 hours. I checked in at 5pm, had my waters broken at 6pm, was holding my son before 10pm, and was out by noon the next day (and we'd have been out sooner if one of his ears hadn't "flunked" the hearing screening the first time around).
The *last* thing I wanted after giving birth was to stay in the hospital. There's never a comfortable chair to nurse in, sitting in the beds always makes my butt hurt (when I was in once for monitoring with #3, I only half jokingly asked for an epidural for my butt!), the food isn't very good, there's no fresh air because the windows don't open, and they won't let you go outside for fresh air without giving you the third degree. All in all, it was just a place I had no desire to be.
Now that I've actually been in the hospital because I really was sick (and nearly died), I have even more respect for hospital and doctors than I did before but, at the same time, I really, really don't want to be in a hospital at ALL, especially for a happy occasion like the birth of a child. It's just too much of a reminder of that scary, painful time. -- Be well, Barbara
