First experience staying in a hospital in Israel - Ein Kerem Hospital (Jerusalem)

During one of my routine trips to the OB, I discovered that I had to unfortunately go the hospital and be admitted for a few days due to being at risk for preterm labor. I have a short cervix and it was shorter than is comfortable and so they wanted me admitted to monitor me in case I go into labor, which is not good because I am only 24 weeks pregnant. When I was told by the nurse during my appointment that I would probably need to go to the hospital, tears just burst through my eyes. The Ultrasound tech there was really nice, and ended up calling my husband later that day to see if I was okay. In general, your cervix should not be shorter than 25 mm and the day I went to the hospital it was at 19mm and when they measured me again later that same day, it was at 13mm which is scary for it to shorten that much in one day. The timing was of course was "perfect" timing because my husband had just started a new job last week, and now is already having to take time out of work to bring me to the hospital. Thank G-d his job was supportive and understanding and my husband was still able to get what he needed done in a timely manner, along with having to take care of the kids and everything else while I was gone.

One of our concerns going to the hospital was finding where I was supposed to be since they didn't know for sure, but luckily it didn't take us long to find the place I was supposed to check in. However it was a challenge just to get into the hospital. There is one elevator (that we know of anyway) to get into the hospital and it doesn't work very well. There was big line for people to get into the elevator, my husband wanted me to get in, but he would not fit with our wheel chair and stuff so he took it up the stairs otherwise we would be waiting forever just to get into the hospital. Stephan made sure I got checked in and had packed me some survival food and entertainment necessities. After I was being cared for by the nurses, I told him he could go even though I hated to be left alone, but he had just started a new job which took him five months to find, and so there wasn't even any time he could really take off, and we didn't want to risk losing his job over this. We also have kids and I find it easier to deal with things, when I know my kids are being taken care of and that they still have stability. So off he went.

The first nurses that were taking care of me were nice and did a good job. You could tell they were constantly busy doing stuff and trying their hardest to be on top of things. The wait for me to see the ultra sound tech and the doctor wasn't to bad either. After I saw the doctor, they put an IV in me and a steroid shot to help the babies lungs develop, and then told me where I would be staying. I was told to go to the maternity ward on the sixth floor.

Here is a picture of what the room looked like:

The next couple of hours was just getting set up in my room, and hanging out with my entertainment supplies. I was on whatsapp a lot since a lot of people were kind enough to send their concerns, and were wanting updates. I was appreciate because anything to keep my mind busy from worry or negativity was good. I had my laptop also which I was on so I read a lot, and organized our pictures on flickr.  The nurses on the 6th floor were nice too. I asked about meals, and the nurse told me the dining room was on this floor and pointed in the direction it was. Apparently, you just go there yourself and there is a buffet of food there for you to pick, which was nice for hospital food. The food was pretty good too, depending on what they were serving that day. It's still hospital food nonetheless, but  feel like they give better and more healthy options than in the states, where you basically have a few options, and they are all not so impressive or that healthy. Here are the pics of what breakfast, lunch and dinner looked like:

Breakfast:

Lunch:

Dinner:

Dining room:

The hardest part about being in the hospital was not being able to get a good night's rest. It is impossible being in the maternity ward and getting a roommate brought to you in the middle of the night. The combination of crying babies. beeping machines and roommate snoring, forget about it! Also not to sound like a diva or something, but the beds are not as comfortable,  and the pillow is like sleeping on hard play dough or something. Also the room temperature is to warm (i need it to be cold for me to sleep well). I literally got maybe 30 minutes - 1 hr of interrupted sleep my first night there. I thought, sleep deprivation and stress cannot be good for me or the baby. I told a friend what was going on and she recommended I ask to be moved to the 7th floor. She delivered there and she said it's much quieter and it's new. So for the second night I asked my doctor if I could leave early because I couldn't sleep and he said maybe after two days. I talked to one of the nurses and asked to be moved because I couldn't sleep, and she called the 7th floor for me and luckily their was a bed available for me, and they said I was okay to move! So I happily packed all my things and made my way to the seventh floor. My friend was right, the rooms were much nicer and not as warm. The nurses were nice too. Here are some pics of the room:

I started off with a roommate, who was very nice, we chatted for a bit and she told me that her baby is big so she has to decide if she wants a C-section, but there are risks to doing it vaginally and she wanted to go home to figure out her decision with her husband, which the doctor let her go home to do that. Which meant I had the room to myself which I was really looking forward to  because of the real potential of actually getting a full nights rest. However my dreams were short lived. After a lovely four hour stretch of sleep, I was awoken at 3am with the nurses bringing in a new roommate - who was in labor! There was no getting to sleep after that.They were nice but her and her friend were dovening all night, one of them took a shower and there was all the breathing hard from being in labor. I thought to myself, that's it, I am determined to go home today, I can't take being here another night! So, the next morning, I asked the nurses about going home a day early because I was getting terrible sleep, and they said the doctor is supposed to see me today and I can speak to him then about going home. While I was waiting,  breakfast and lunch was brought to me which made me discover a downside of being on the seventh floor. You don't get to go down to get your own food from the dining hall, they bring it to you. Which apparently means you get the shaft when it comes to food. My breakfast was literally some white bread, a hard boiled egg, a couple slices of cheese, a bowl of tomatoes, and a vanilla pudding. At least it made me survive. The doctor didn't come around until around 11:30am and I told him my situation and he asked if I had contractions and how I was feeling, and said it would be fine for me to go home. I would just need to come back right away if I have contractions. I think the issue of not getting good rest at the hospital really needs to be seriously addressed. There are things that I wonder are necessary and could be changed, like is the  beeping that I hear outside my room really necessary? Since I wasn't in labor, did I really need to be in the maternity ward with the other woman and babies? I'm pretty sure stress and sleep deprivation also contributes to pre-term labor so in order to accurately monitor me, wouldn't it make sense to make sure I'm as rested and relaxed as possible? I get that maybe there aren't enough rooms to be able to have your own room, but it seems like it could at least be organized better where patients who do not need monitors on their belly all night and just need to be at the hospital to make sure they don't have contractions, do not need to be in the same room with patients who do need all the monitoring. Anyway, I wish I had more power because I really pity anyone who has to stay at the hospital for an extended period of time because not getting a good nights rest is absolute torture. This is an update, but I was so excited to see it, here is a video from the "Healthcare Triage" youtube channel that I love about the issue of not being able to get good sleep in the hospital and the research done on it:
https://youtu.be/vFclKfulL3w

As soon as the doctor told me I was able to go home, I was overjoyed and told my husband right away. He was coming anyway that day to to visit with the kids because the kids get out of school earlier on Tuesdays. They came and we all ate dinner at one of the restaurants at the hospital which was so nice considering the meals I had eaten earlier that day. One of the benefits of living in Israel is you actually get to eat at the restaurants at the hospital, because most (if not all) are Kosher and there are a variety of different restaurants for your choosing. We also took some yummy things from Roladin home for later. It was so good to see them. That night I went home and had my first shower/bath in awhile and had my first full nights rest in my amazingly comfy bed(all things I realize we take for granted) and the next morning I woke up, I felt like a million bucks! There really is no place like home!

Something that made this whole experience more bearable was the amazing community support we received throughout all of this. There were two communities that helped us, the one we live in now and the one we used to live in when we first made aliyah.  I really believe prayer in cases where you don't have any control, is the first thing you should do when you are in need of help, and so I had asked some friends from the old community we were at for their tefillos(prayers) and I also told a couple friends about our situation in the current community we live in. To which, my friend I told organized meals for us for the rest of the week, as well a few meals every week that I would be on partial bed rest, and organized a tehillim group, and even offered to watch our kids to let Stephan come be with me more which was amazing. I had friends and my sister constantly checking up on me and asking how I was doing and sending their best wishes and prayers. I had friends (and people I didn't know before) tell me about their experiences with their preemies and how everything turned out okay, which is one of the most comforting things to hear because they have gone through something similar which gives me more objective hope.  Another thing that really blew me away was the community we first started in (Nofei Hashemesh) our first year here in Israel, a friend of mine there wanted to help us out (despite us not being local anymore) and asked the community if anyone wanted to chip in to give us a gift certificate to OrderApp where you can order food and have it delivered to your house. She ended up giving us a gift certificate of  1400NIS to orderapp thanks to the additional support of the community. We were speechless and so touched by the amazing chesed of the community, it was such a kiddush Hashem and made us feel so blessed to be Jews.