Long day's journey into night.......
Dec. 29th, 2008 01:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osodecanelaT'was a bit of an exciting evening.
My husband and I had been invited to dinner by my office manager. She'd made sarmale - stuffed cabbage the way they do it in Romania, something she knows I adore. That with some mamaliga on the side & I'm one happy puppy. This is stick-to-your-ribs, Eastern European cookery, very reminiscent of my bubbie's. It feeds not just my belly, but my soul.
We arrived in separate cars as I was afraid someone would go into labor. Someone did.
Maria was a week early. Generally no big deal. However, this was baby #2 which is often faster than #1 and being a bit early, he was a pound lighter than his older sister was. 30 minutes prior to his birth this little boy was face up. Not a good position to enter this world.
Well mom dilated fairly quickly, & then pushed mightily, spinning our young friend around suddenly & in rather short order he arrived, umbilical cord around his neck. Poor little man was dazed, and a bit bruised & having made a sudden transition to the outside world, appeared to have no idea that breathing was not an optional activity.
I'm not particularly enamored of neonatal resuscitations but this one went well. The little guy went to the ICN for an hour and came back right as rain. Unfortunately his parents, particularly his father were beside themselves until he did.
Neither of the parents speak any English, & while I finished up with the mom, dad had gone off to the ICN with the RN. Ten minutes later, I arrived on the ICN to find a flurry of RN activity around the baby and not one Spanish speaker there to explain anything to the dad. He's a laborer with a grade school education and he was in short, terrified.
I told hm not to panic, that everything likely would be OK. At that moment the baby needed oxygen and was gradually perking up. Infection was a possibility, though not a likelyhood. I sent dad out, promising I'd be out in a couple minutes. In the hallway, I found dad struggling to hold back the tears. I did my best to reassure him, while at the same time explain what was wrong, what we were doing and why. That helped and he was able to compose himself, before going back to his wite. Amen. The last thing we needed was another terrified parent.
By the time I walked back into the ICN, our infant was off of O2, pink and a helluva lot more alert. Time to pry my own shoulders down from around my ears and go reassure his parents completely.
And time for me to head for home.
My husband and I had been invited to dinner by my office manager. She'd made sarmale - stuffed cabbage the way they do it in Romania, something she knows I adore. That with some mamaliga on the side & I'm one happy puppy. This is stick-to-your-ribs, Eastern European cookery, very reminiscent of my bubbie's. It feeds not just my belly, but my soul.
We arrived in separate cars as I was afraid someone would go into labor. Someone did.
Maria was a week early. Generally no big deal. However, this was baby #2 which is often faster than #1 and being a bit early, he was a pound lighter than his older sister was. 30 minutes prior to his birth this little boy was face up. Not a good position to enter this world.
Well mom dilated fairly quickly, & then pushed mightily, spinning our young friend around suddenly & in rather short order he arrived, umbilical cord around his neck. Poor little man was dazed, and a bit bruised & having made a sudden transition to the outside world, appeared to have no idea that breathing was not an optional activity.
I'm not particularly enamored of neonatal resuscitations but this one went well. The little guy went to the ICN for an hour and came back right as rain. Unfortunately his parents, particularly his father were beside themselves until he did.
Neither of the parents speak any English, & while I finished up with the mom, dad had gone off to the ICN with the RN. Ten minutes later, I arrived on the ICN to find a flurry of RN activity around the baby and not one Spanish speaker there to explain anything to the dad. He's a laborer with a grade school education and he was in short, terrified.
I told hm not to panic, that everything likely would be OK. At that moment the baby needed oxygen and was gradually perking up. Infection was a possibility, though not a likelyhood. I sent dad out, promising I'd be out in a couple minutes. In the hallway, I found dad struggling to hold back the tears. I did my best to reassure him, while at the same time explain what was wrong, what we were doing and why. That helped and he was able to compose himself, before going back to his wite. Amen. The last thing we needed was another terrified parent.
By the time I walked back into the ICN, our infant was off of O2, pink and a helluva lot more alert. Time to pry my own shoulders down from around my ears and go reassure his parents completely.
And time for me to head for home.
