Typically (if there is such a thing), I am able to spend time with each Mama in labor. To sit with her, support her, just be present. However, every once in a while, there will be a shift that is just soooo busy. In hindsight, I think that I get one of these about every three months....which is interesting because it seems as though the babies on these shifts also come in three's.
It had been a busy shift during the day. Nothing to do with labor....a beautiful 2 day postpartum visit, a visit to the hospital to sit with a family who had been transferred the day before. Multitudes of phone calls; a Mama with mastitis, a Mama who had fallen and hit her belly, a Mama at 34 weeks who thought her water might have broken, a Mama struggling with postpartum depression. When the sun set, I was already tired and then the labors started!
Jill came in first, with her husband and her grandmother, to have her first baby. After much work, they all welcomed a beautiful baby girl....who was so blessed to have her great-grandmother witness her entrance! Then, Mary came in, laboring with her third baby and surrounded by family members and her husband. The sex of the baby was a surprise. Their other two children are boys....when this sweet one was born, Daddy peeked under the blanket, gave a sly smile and announced "It's a Girl!" The hoopla that erupted in the room was contagious. At first I thought, well they are really excited about having a girl now...then it came out that this little one was the eighth grandchild and the first girl! That explained the level of the hoopla. Finally, Sue came in to work on the birth of her second child, she was with her husband. Not long after arriving, they welcomed thier chubby, yummy daughter to the world. Three births in three hours....there is that number three again!
