The youngest University of Iowa patients stretch out at new UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital

Gazing at her swaddled snoozing - and occasionally squeaking and startling - 5-pound 11-ounce daughter, Liz Lambert on Friday said she's feeling more like a typical new mom.

'You have all this sunshine and that huge window, and you have these vaulted ceilings and all this extra space, we feel like we're in a studio apartment,” Lambert said.

Of course she's not. Lambert's daughter Lily was among the 50-some patients moved into the new University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital on Saturday. The Lambert family has been receiving care on the UI Hospitals and Clinics campus since Jan. 28 - when the occupational therapist from Camanche went into labor eight weeks early and delivered a healthy, but tiny, baby in Clinton.

Lily, weighing 4 pounds at the time, was promptly transferred to Iowa City, where she has spent every day of her short life. Still, the healthy preemie has had some change in scenery.

'We've been in a variety of rooms - some were shared rooms at the old hospital - which, as a new breastfeeding mom, is not the most ideal,” Lambert said. 'Then we had a private room in the hospital, and that felt like a luxury just to have our own space.”

When a team of nurses and administrators moved their first pediatric patients into the 14-story, 507,000-square-foot Children's Hospital on Saturday - including Lily - Lambert said she was struck by the technology, the bright colors, and all the other details she never realized she wanted in a hospital. The showers were bigger, the blinds were automated, and the sofa converted to a double-bed.

'It's our little home away from home,” she said.

The $360 million hospital last weekend opened seven floors, including three serving inpatients. Staff moved 52 patients from the old space to the new on Saturday, although daily census numbers vary.

On Friday, the UI Stead Family Children's Hospital had 150 patients, including 85 in the main campus' pediatric inpatient and neonatal intensive care units and 65 in the new facility, said UI spokesman Tom Moore.

Those floors in the new hospital that are not yet open include the ninth and tenth floors, which will house more inpatient beds, and the fourth and fifth floors, which will serve surgical patients.

UIHC administrators haven't announced a timeline for when those levels will open and begin receiving and treating patients. The patient move over the weekend came more than two months after the Dec. 10 date hospital officials originally set for the full opening.

The Gazette last month reported design changes, contractor disputes, and cost overruns contributed to the delay, which administrators announced in late November - just weeks after holding open houses, hosting an official dedication ceremony, and insisting they were running on time.

Rob Kasper, of Cedar Rapids, said the delays caused some frustration for his family - which has been coming to the campus for blood transfusions every month since shortly after his now 11-year-old son Aidan was born with a genetic disorder of the bone marrow called Diamond Blackfan Anemia.

'They wanted to book things out starting in November, so they kind of double-booked things,” Kasper said. 'The services were kind of taxed. The last three to four months were quite frustrating, because you would go in and you would sit.”

UIHC administrators for years have been reporting rising census numbers across the main campus, stressing the nursing staff and confirming the need for the new Children's Hospital - which has 189 beds, almost all of which are in private rooms. Those new kids beds will free up space for adult inpatients in the main hospital.

Before Saturday's move, Kasper said, 'It was cramped.”

And so bringing Aidan to the new Children's Hospital for the first time Friday morning, the father-son duo didn't know what to expect.

'It went great,” Kasper said. 'I came up the elevator, and we were the only person in the waiting room.”

As a parent, Kasper said, he likes the large rooms and open floors. It's quieter. Aidan, he said, likes the big-screen TV positioned directly in front of his bed that - along with the lighting and other technology in the room - is controlled with an iPad-type device. Stepping off the elevator, Aidan also noticed the prime view inside Kinnick Stadium, where the Hawkeyes play football.

'I tended to avoid having our admissions on football weekends,” Kasper said. 'Now I might change.”

Savanna Gerjets, 12, of Humboldt, doesn't want to be in the new Children's Hospital. She was diagnosed with bone cancer the day before Thanksgiving, and to date she's received six chemotherapy treatments. She has 12 more to go. They have been difficult.

Next week, she'll have surgery to remove the small bone in her left arm.

Her dad, Rick Gerjets, said they didn't know much about the new hospital before the diagnosis. But, in the old space, they once had to share a room. They felt somewhat constrained.

In the new 11-floor room, the air is filtered - cutting the risk for patients with compromised immune systems - the windows are massive, and the entertainment is prolific. It makes the challenges a little bit easier to take.

'I like it because it's new and colorful and there's more space,” Savanna said.

'I told her,” Gerjets said to his daughter, 'You could drive a long ways in the world to find hospital rooms set up like this.”

Lambert - back in the NICU - agreed but said the new facility is not what she appreciates most about her experience at the UI Hospitals and Clinics.

'The surroundings are really nice,” she said. 'But there's nothing like the staff here.”

l Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com