Final Week Adventures

Crazy to think I am actually leaving. Tomorrow afternoon I will be driving from here to San Pedro and staying overnight in a hotel there. Then, early Thursday morning I'm flying out and making a couple of connection flights, killing time during layovers, and THEN landing in Redmond, OR to be greeted by my familia after 10 weeks of being away from them!!! :) The longest I've ever been away from them, let alone in a different country and away from everyone else I know as well. But a well spent 10 weeks they were. And tomorrow or Thursday I'll write a more sappy, reflective last post about my trip as I'm on my way home and thinking about everything. But this post is a re-cap of this past week and random stuff that I want to share/write down so I don't forget! :)

Another baby.
          Last Thursday night I was creeping on facebook as I was waiting for my pictures to load with our reallly slow internet connection, and Dr. John rolls up on his motobike and hollers up the the second story where I was relaxing in a hammock and says "Mariiaa!!!!! I'm about to go catch a baby, you ready?" So, as comfortable and tired as I was--I got up, and asked John "How far along is she?" not wanting to quite get out of the hammock yet. And the classic Juan response "You know Maria, people who bet on babies lose money..." Classic. No matter how many times I've asked him for a rough estimate to know if I should run or walk to the hospital, I always get the same response, and yet I still ask him the question-knowing I won't actually get an answer. So, I get up, throw on my scrubs, put my flip flops back on (Yes, I know it seems disgusting...but we wear sandals in the delivery room. Yep. It's just out of habit here for the doctor's and volunteers. Most of the staff nurses wear tennies. You learn quickly to wash and soak your flip flops when you go back home though before wearing them again...deliveries tend to get kinda messy. But it's just easier than tennis shoes.) So. Then I'm in the delivery room and I realize who it is! She is a lady whom I've helped for the duration of my time here with her prenatal visits and checkups and just the day before (on Weds) afternoon I said "I'm surprised you haven't had your baby yet, what do you think--any day now?" And she said "Yep, any day now!" And then I told her I hope I'm here for the delivery and that her baby hopefully knows when I'm leaving for the States and will plan his/her departure accordingly. :) So there she is. The next day, in the delivery room! It was so great to talk with her and her husband only just a day later and be there for the parto. And amazingly enough, her husband was great! Culturally, the men usually either aren't in the labor room at all or are standing in the corner being totally useless and probably twiddling his thumbs or playing on his phone just waiting for it to be over. And just to paint a better picture for you, the moms are in extreme pain. No epidural. No medicine what so ever. Occasionally some Oxytocin to help with contractions, but as you know that doesn't ease the pain at all, it just helps with the delivery. So the woman is screaming, clenching on to the bed railing or my hand/arm, etc and he just sits there completely unfazed by it all.
Well, that is your normal scene. This man is a Honduran husband I will never forget. He stood right next to her, held her hand, and even admitted to when he felt a little nauseous and asked for something to help him feel better so he didn't have to leave the room and leave her side. As she sat on the edge of the bed, trying to breathe evenly, he rubbed her back gently to calm her. Kissed her on the forehead and attempted to put her hair back in the clip she had styled it with before coming. (Later, I had to re-situate the hair clip because it was quite the epic fail on his part...but it's the thought that counts, right? haha) She was only 2 centimeters dilated. WHAT. All this drama and pain she's going through and she's only got 2 cm's so far? C'man!! Ahem. But, then instead of getting discouraged, (as if I had any control over her only being at 2 cm's at this point..? haha) it gave me and her husband a chance to get creative in how to keep her comfortable but moving along with the labor as to not plateau at only a few centimeters. So, easy stuff first. Let's walk around. So we walked around with her saline drip around the hallways and stopped whenever she had a strong contraction. Then I provided her with as much water as she wanted. Which was a lot. Which led to her needing to use the toilet. Then, although this is common in the States it is a completely foreign concept to the people here, we used a yoga ball to sit on and find a comfortable position and rock back and forth on. Then she was tired so I positioned her in bed and had her change positions frequently to keep the baby moving and making progress. Then, repeat. And repeat. And repeat again. After a few hours of this, (and John oh so casually mentioned that I should keep a close eye on how the contractions are changing because they've actually had 2 babies born in the hallway while the mom was walking around during contractions...) the baby was ready.
So I took her back to the bed and she pushed. Twice. She did two strong, determined pushes and then we had a beautiful, healthy baby girl in the room. Penny (John's wife, who is a labor and delivery nurse) said "Okay Marie, the baby's all yours--get to it!" So I held the screaming baby and cleaned her up under the warm light and prayed to Jesus, thanking Him for a healthy baby girl that started crying right away and had good color and had a perfect apgar score all around with out question. I did all the measurements; length and around the cabeza tambien, weight, temperature, respirations, etc. and after Penny gave her 2 shots I dressed her in an adorable pink outfit. This truly was the most sure and worry-free delivery I had been a part of while being here. Every other delivery I had to stimulate the baby for way too long of a time, so much that there was a lot of tension in the room and we had to choose our words carefully as to not scare the mother and keep her calm as she recovered as well. Double loops of the cord around the head, very pale color, blue complexion that didn't go away as quickly as we'd liked it to, and babies that didn't cry for multiple minutes at a time. And more things as well, but these are the scary moments that come to mind first. And this baby didn't have any of those problems. She actually wouldn't STOP crying for a long time, unlike the others that I had to keep stimulating in order for them to cry for the first crucial 20 minutes of their life in this world.
As I held the baby close to me, I couldn't help but sing quietly to her as I walked with her down the hallway to take her to be with her mother. And she looked up at me, and stopped crying. I always thought she was cute, but now I especially didn't want to let her go!! But, obviously I could only procrastinate so long and I walked down the remainder of the hallway and brought her to her smiling mother and father.
Two things.
First off, this was one of my favorite births to have been a part of. Not only did I have more responsibilities given to me and I was able to be more involved, but I was also able to spend more time with the family through the entire process because I got there so early on, before she was really dilated. I always liked the idea of working with babies, etc but after everything this summer I could definitely see myself working in labor and delivery! :)
And the husband with his wife. Watching him encourage and support her through the entire process with doctor visits up until their new baby was in their arms to finally hold. And the entire time I wasn't related or a family friend or anything to them--I was just a volunteer here for the summer, and although I really didn't even know them all that well, my heart filled with joy and I was so happy when I saw all three of them together for the first time. It's truly an amazing feeling, and to be a part of that process. And when I was walking with the brand new baby girl in my arms, of course the thought of how someday this will be me--getting to see my baby for the first time, hit home yet again.

And on a less sentimental and more funny clinical note...
Pediatrics.
I always thought I was good with kids. I am, really. I'm a nanny back in the States and I babysit all the time too. And I love working with kids! They're so creative and energetic and love to go on adventures. And even when they're cranky, it's okay because I know I was that way when I was little sometimes too. But on Monday there was this kid who was just willing to do what EVER it took to not have his temperature taken. Yes, under his arm. Not even in his mouth, or rectally, but was thrashing and hitting and kicking at both me and his mother because he didn't want the thermometer within 3 feet of him. This lasted for a good 5 minutes straight of me dodging his flailing limbs, being patient and trying to coax him to calm down and let him do it himself first if he wanted to, etc and STILL no success. For his safety and everyone around him, I decided that if the Ped's doctor really needed his temperature to determine the diagnosis, we could try a round #2 later when he calmed down. Luckily, I had the good fortune of not having to take his temperature again.
And then I got bit. Yes, about an hour later a screaming little girl bit me not once, but three times. Full on gnawing on my hand as I was, yet again, trying to take her temperature. What is it with me and bad luck with thermometers and children? So maybe pediatric nursing isn't for me..haha. Not really, but it did allow me to see the not so cute side of kids when they're sick and cranky.

If you only knew how long it took me to write all of this. Wow, do I get easily distracted. And then I start talking with friends as they walk by and then we get into a good conversation and I forget what I was even typing about. Anyways, gracias again for reading my rambling thoughts and I will post again tomorrow or Thursday!

Con Mucho Amor,
Maria