Grand plans

~ Liz A
March 9, 2021 – Bunk room reno (revised 4/20/21)
March 8, 2021 – Labor & Delivery March 9, 2021 – Bunk room reno

March 8 was Melissa’s first clinical rotation in Labor & Delivery …

and she had not one but two patients that day … notching her first and second on the receiving end of a delivery, almost seventeen years to the day after her own first of three …

I was lucky enough to be present when Logan was born on March 10, 2004 … it was an experience beyond words to tell and I envy Meliss as her goal is to become a Labor & Delivery nurse. At least I’ll get to hear her stories for years to come.

Speaking of which, how many of you remember your L&D nurses? I’ll never forget mine, for sure.

On a more practical note, we redid the grandkids’ bunk room (which does double duty as my ironing nook) by putting in two twin bed frames and moving some of the wooden furniture around …

It’s now equally usable as a grown-up guest room for the After Times … hopefully sooner than later.

17 thoughts on “Grand plans”

  3. LA – she and you must be so proud – amazing to go back and achieve such an outcome. A life chapter full of hope and joy. B

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  4. My nurses were the absolute best. Seriously the best. Knowing when to be supportive and when to challenge me. For one of the boy’s births tho one nurse had a hair lip and the other was a hunch back. There was a slight dream like quality to the whole experience and at some point K was talking about one of the nurses and it seemed funny later that I asked, “was it the hair lip or the hunch back?” I am hoping I can be excused here for a lack of tact, having just weathered a sixteen hour labor without pain meds.

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    1. how we so wanted to labor drug-free … and needed great nurses to get us through

      the hospital where Meliss is doing her clinicals has an entire wing for mothers who wish to labor without interventions and monitors … how awesome is that?

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      1. That’s outstanding. One of the critical moments for me was when I begged for meds and the nurse just asked, “Really? After coming this far?” Like I said: knowing when to challenge and when to support. It’s a real gift. If your daughter’s anything like you, she’s got a real leg up in reading people.

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  6. So wonderful to see Melissa in her special calling because I do believe that those who become Nurses. have a special gift and I’ve always felt that nurses are the Angels among us: We have two in our family, my cousin and my sister in law.

    When I got ready to give birth, I had to be induced because I had toxemia and of course, no one knew that I was going to have twins…!…(our girls came a month early, one weighed 4 lbs and the other 3 lbs, 14 oz.) I remember the Dr. saying ” you have a strong little girl all of 4 lbs” and then his nurse saying, “Oh, Dr, we have another one!” At that point, I think I blacked out for a minute… So for 24 hrs, our girls were Erika and twin B…(later to be known as Shelley.) Our Nurses just loved them so and were so thrilled because twins had not been born for quite a long time in the little town that we lived in. (We have the most adorable photo of our girls being held by their dear wonderful nurses.) R says that he had gone to the office to see about making payment arrangements, we were both college students living on the GI Bill and my scholarships when he heard a joyful remark, “We’ve just had twins in the delivery room” and he said he had an overwhelming feeling that the twins they were referring to belonged to us…We had the best nurses and they came along with the Dr to tell R that he was the Father of a girl and then they all laughed and said, actually, “You are the Father of 2 little girls!”

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    1. I love this story … and that Erika went on to have twins herself …

      I quite agree that nurses are angels, tending to the most earthly needs

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  7. Congratulations and gratitude to Melissa, for doing such important work. I had homebirths, and the confidence that the midwives had in what they were doing, and in me, made all the difference in the hardest parts. (Although there was a moment when I thought, “I’m going to die doing this.” and then a few minutes later, “I hope it’s soon!”)

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