(Looking good for bed rest and rockin the circulation leg thingys - yes, the technical term.)During your stay on the high-risk maternity floor, you see a lot of nurses and doctors. For the most part, I really didn't mind getting interrupted every three hours to get an update on my progress or even care that they saw me without any make-up on or have consecutive bad hair days. (That's another blog post for another day!)
The thing that really bothered me was that they didn't sugar coat the news. And for me, I am a hearts and rainbows kinda of girl. Give me the sugar. I can imagine the bad stuff, but tell me the good stuff. Tell me the stuff that makes me think positive and believe that everything is going to be okay.
Nope, not here. And I understood why. Because they don't know. They don't know what you (or they) are in store for until your little bundle of joy is born, so they give you ALL the scenarios. And honestly, they are all pretty scary. Not fun for a person who is a visual learner and does not want to picture her baby with feeding or breathing tubes.
I think that was one of the most stressful times on bed rest. Hearing all the "what if's" or "this is a possibility."
The nurses even suggested getting a tour of the NICU so we would know what to expect when Carson was there. That was hard. Brent and I put on our brave faces that evening, but when we got back to the room, I was sad. There were at least 10 little babies all under 4 pounds. They were just so tiny. The nurses didn't tell us each of their conditions, but did say that for a baby to get out of the NICU, they must master three things:
1. Be able to breathe on their own.
1. Be able to breathe on their own.
2. Maintain their own body temperature.
3. Eat well.
So there were our goals for Carson once she was born.
And for me, my goal was to stay positive. I firmly believe if you think good thoughts, good things will happen. (Plus, a lot of praying done by me, family and friends.)
Do you know anyone that went thru a similar situation? Tell them to e-mail me at hull.jennifer@yahoo.com. Or what situation did you have that you heard all negative but tried to make it a positive?
In the world of CYA... imagine how much easier it might have been if they used an age old business technique called the sandwich. Positive... negative.... positive. You might have had to hear it all, but then you would have had some positive feedback to think about too.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right!!!! I didn't even think about that but that totally would have helped. It was just one scary info nugget after another, and I was like, "Is there anything good about this at all?" (And there is...)
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful post, Jennifer. I could write so many things here as a testament to your courage...
ReplyDeleteYou're an amazing person, Jennifer, and a really, really good Mom! XXOO (Patti)
This is an amazing post, Jennifer. I can only imagine how scared and worried you both were. That must have been a difficult time and it makes my heart ache for you. I'm so glad that Carson is so healthy. She's a beautiful baby! And just for the record, the last time I held her, my arms burned because she was so heavy! :)
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