...for she who is mighty
has done great things for me.
the pregnant mom about whom i'd worried - couldn't tell her dates because she started prenatal care at 7 months - first baby - thus apparently 1 week overdue today, couldn't get her on the phone for a week, finally came in today and showed a flat strip on the fetal heart monitor, but then was 4 cm dilated when i checked her, sent her to l & d and, yes, started some "pit..."
and saw 1,000 feverish, crying, and mentally ill people in clinic all afternoon, until i could scramble over to the hospital, where she was breathing over the contractions like the yogini she is, despite her stern mother (this would be her sixth grandchild) barking out, "breathe! i said breathe!" over and over again, patting her leg hard enough to shake the bed, but dang me, if she didn't feel like pushing all of a sudden, and i just had time to pop on some gloves, and right out slips the little baby, holding her cheek in her hand as she comes, like a little jack benny.
nuchal hand.
the baby was yowling and kicking and squirming about in my lap, but mom didn't want to hold her "until she's cleaned up," and the nurses just stared at me when i said, "want to take the baby?" so i just hugged her and wiped off her face and had granny cut the cord and then carried her over to get "cleaned up." glad i was wearing sleeveless today. i didn't have time to put on scrubs OR a gown OR my glasses, just a pair of gloves, and wearing my regular clothes, the slippery-naked little girl was baptized with a bit of cat hair.
mom tore a little, and i blame the nurse who exhorted her to pull her thighs apart farther and farther and farther, and push harder and harder and harder, during the 6-minute 2nd stage. i didn't even have time to ask her to pipe down. but with the nuchal arm, i guess it could have happened that way anyway.
the stitching took 3 times longer than the birth. then when i gave mom the "cleaned up," wrapped up little baby, who was loudly sucking on her own hand and glaring all around the room, the girl took her in her arms and just let loose with the waterworks, her whole face awash with tears as she laughed out loud in astonishment. it took 3 kleenexes to wipe her up til she could see again, and then she laughed again and cried some more.
jeepers! for once, a slick-n-easy birth, no fighting with the doctors and nurses, no epidural immobilization, just yoga breathing and coming on like gangbusters. right off, mom and baby started nursing "like they've been doing it for months already," as the nurse remarked.
baby's name is a pretty arabic word meaning "rightfully guided." appropriate choice to make, i think, for a fifteen-year-old first mom.
thank goodness!
