@LL wør†h i†..

Last night's nightshift began with being endorsed Genevieve Batoon, an inactive labor who'd been at the clinic since 5pm. She was sleeping at the time, and I decided to let her rest instead of checking vitals right away. Every hour, on the hour, from that point on I'd complete my checks...and kind of sit with her while contractions grew stronger. It was a routine of ours that she would go to the CR (bathroom) at every check, so that was fun because sometimes she'd go before I'd ask! Her sister was dead asleep on the bed in the adjacent cubicle.

At 1am I found her on her knees beside the bed her sister was in, her labor much more active. She had SROM at 1:35 am and at 2 I did an internal exam to check her dilation. With a little anterior lip (left on her cervix), we suggested she move into a "hands and knees" position! OH my, i've delivered babies with women lying on their side before, which is prETTy easy to figure out... But completely upside-down required my fULL attention! (especially because she was emptying her bowels at this time..). It was her fourth time giving birth and therefore the span of time from "head visible" to "head out, baby out" was all within one contraction! I eased the baby down, and unwrapped the cord that had strung up the baby by the heels (literally). The baby thEN went under and between Gen's legs as she flipped over onto her back to wait for the placenta.

The baby needed to be deep suctioned, and was having a hard time with the transition to extrauterine life. I ended up transporting her to the hospital soon afterwards, which is a post in itself beCAUSE I carry in this (somewhat fragile) newborn only to find premature twins beside us in the ICU (one of which was being placed into a shoe box because he hadn't been strong enough to make it). Oh man...it was nuts. They're heads were sO smALL.

I was able to reassure Gen, after seeinG the twins, that hER baby girl would be ABsolutely fine! Our patients stay at the clinic until stabilized before joining their newborn at the hospital. I made Gen some breakfast (special priviledges for pt's without their babiesss :P) and was just finishing up paper work and such when she asks me "what name you?" (the literal translation of her language to mine) And I answered "jenna" - we had gone through this when we met, but she was in labor at that point, soooo. After a bit of silence I asked "do you have a name for your daughter yet?" and, in a tiny sweet voice she replies "jenna." Oh my goodness. How fUN! Next I asked "how will you spell it?" and she goes "just like you". AWE! Anyways, it's cool because now Genevieve has a daughter named Jenna :D