Birth of an Angel It rained on and off all day yesterday with a a gray sky more appropriate to late October or early November. We completed our busy day in what has become a succession of busy days and it was almost dark before I finished my last chart. Go home,Tina said as she left the office, you can finish those labs tomorrow, none are pressing. Go home. I looked at her and considered her suggestion, but something told me I needed to clear my lap top and that meant digging thru lab results to make appropriate changes where indicated. We had been drawing a lot of specimens lately so my list was long. Still, such tasks are my obligation so I pulled up my Results column and went to work. I readjusted Cholesterol medications, added some further diagnostic procedures, checked Thyroid panels and blood sugars. All these, I dutifully commented upon and sent the messages to Tina to see that they got done. Suddenly it was dark outside and my phone was buzzing with an are you alright? from Bud. The overcast day had brought an early twilight and I had been too absorbed in my work to notice. After assuring him Id only be a few more minutes, I checked my last lab result, packed my computer bag, grabbed my purse and left for home. My Mini navigated the wet streets and slipped beneath yellow lights with ease. By the time I turned off 94 West exhaustion had settled in. I was ready for a hot shower, a soft bed, and an episode of Hell On Wheels,a series about the building of the Union Pacific Railroad in the days following the Civil War. My grandfather had worked for the Union Pacific back in the early twenties and his railroad watch gleaming from my shelf makes this series of particular interest to me. Then everything changed. I had just gotten out of the shower and was slathering cream on my face when Bud entered the room. Chris just called from the hospital. Theyre getting ready to do a C- section on Susan. My exhaustion fell away, replaced by the adrenalin of a soon to be grandmother. As a nurse, every possibility ran thru my mind. Why a section? Were there problems? Was my granddaughter and her mother in any danger? After all, Susan never had to have a section in the past. OB is not my speciality. I worked some in postpartum at Union City. Assisted with a delivery at Fultons tiny hospital. Completed my OB rotation in college where I was present during one section and watched with wide eyed amazement on several occasions as new life appeared in the delivery room before my eyes. The last time I had been to OB was in 1983 when I delivered my son. I was excited, but I was also scared. As a nurse I have respect for all those minute processes within the human body. I know how quickly they can grow fangs and bite you and then just as quickly meld back into normality. In other words, I know enough to worry, when a situation is out of my hands and lies, instead, within the hands of God. I had had Bud call my nurse, Tina ,to meet us there. As a former OB nurse I was looking for both her companionship and knowledgable interpretations. Tina is one of the calmest people I know and just having her at my side would make me feel better. When its your own family involved, commonsense diminishes into gibberish and cool headed explanations are always welcome As soon as I saw Susan I felt better. She lay there with her beautiful golden red hair, serene as only Susan can be. I could tell she was excited and ,like me, a little scared. Tina had not yet arrived when being the nosy nurse that I am, I was drawn to the fetal monitor. Suddenly, the heart rate dropped and a nurse immediately appeared to turn Susan onto her side. The baby responded immediately and we were back on track. A few more dips got everyones attention, but over all things were going smoothly. I had been delighted to see the daughter of one of my former colleagues on duty and I knew that both Susan and my granddaughter were in good hands. Tina arrived and I knew that I was in good hands. You cant be around Tina and not be calm. It is simply a physical impossibility. Sometime as the clock approached eleven a beautiful, perfect angel came into this world. I watched my son stride into the nursery wearing a paper spacesuit and holding a tiny bundle of pink flesh with a head full of dark hair. As he held her to the glass I saw that she was Chris and Lincoln made over. She opened her huge dark newborn eyes and for a millisecond I could swear our eyes locked. As my husband says,imagination is a wonderful thing. In this instance, Ill choose imagination. A daughter in my family is no small thing. Until my own birth, the last female child to be born had come to my great grandmother in the 1800s and been taken away during an outbreak of Diphtheria at the age of six. Her name was Lela and I have a picture of her wearing a white dress with thick braids falling about her shoulders. She had been a beautiful child and it saddens me to know that this tiny portrait could not have been taken long before she fell ill. My grandfather, who had adored his younger sister had been thrilled when I turned out to be a girl, even if my mother had just as soon have avoided the competition I apparently brought along with me. This child in my sons arms would be loved unconditionally from the beginning. I watched as she was weighed in at 4 pounds and 17 ounces, as she was measured at 18 inches, as her footprints were inked and pressed against white paper, as she received her fist bath and had her hair combed. I watched my son as he leaned over the side of the warmer and carried on an animated conversation with his new daughter. It was evident that he was deeply in love with this tiny creature born on this rainy night on her due date during the time of the Blue Corn Moon on the cusp of Autumn, that time when Summer begins to relinquish its hold on the earth and meld into the golden time of harvest. I stood at the end of my driveway Tuesday night and watched as a huge orange ball appeared over the horizon. The last of the so called super moons of the year. Astronomers tell us this phenomenon makes the moon appear 30% larger to us stargazers here on earth. I have always believed in the moons influence on human behavior. Anything powerful enough to move the ocean tides around tends to get my attention. Ask any nurse and he or she will confirm that full moons make for busy nights and unusual behavior. Ask an OB nurse and they will tell you just how busy that department can be when the moon is full. The moon was not officially full last night, but had the sky been clear it would have appeared so and its golden light would have peeked into a window and found this newly born miracle and the man in the moon whom weve all grown up hearing about could not have resisted winking. I finally fell asleep sometime around three this morning having been to excited to allow myself to relax any earlier. I had already asked Tina to clear my schedule for today and to be in the office to field questions, send me messages, and in general hold down the fort. Tina excels at fort holding and that is a very good thing because, the one thing I cannot and will not do is miss this first day of my new grand daughters life. Something tells me you understand! Peace.KB
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 14:32:39 +0000
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