Reminisenct Wednesday

On my drive into work today, there was a commercial on about the nurses at a local hospital and how they do such good work. Hearing this commercial made me quite reminiscent of the day pooter was born and an experience I had with one incredible nurse. Pooter was unexpectedly born via C-section which was a surprise to both my husband and I so our 3 day hospital stay (or so we thought) turned into a 1 week hospital stay. This experience was something neither my husband nor I was prepared for. We were utterly exhausted from our lack of sleep and I was physically exhausted from having a c-section. To make matters worse, my husband was catching a cold this week, I was trying to breastfeed and even with the help of a lactation consultant I was frustrated. Looking back, this week was just nothing like we thought it would be. Round the clock nurses would come in and check both my vitals along with pooters and we were both recovering well but mommy was still exhausted.  

Like I mentioned, there were nurses popping in and out of our room every 3 – 5 hours checking on us even throughout the night to make sure we were both recovering as expected. One day I was just emotionally overwhelmed and didn’t know what to do. There was one nurse in particular by the name of Laura who honestly helped my husband and I both beyond belief. On that one day that I was just overwhelmed, I don’t know how she knew but Laura said “you’re going to be a great mom, don’t you worry.” She continued checking in on my throughout my stay even when she wasn’t on her shift. She gave my husband and I a few new parent pointers that I will share with you. To this day we still remember her advice.

1. Don’t let  the baby fall asleep with the bottle in their mouth
2. When the baby falls asleep in the car seat and you’ve reached your destination, let the baby sleep your destination can wait. (My husband and I have sat in the driveway many days while pooter is in the back sleeping. We take out the ipad and play scrabble – this is considered to be our NEW normalJ)
3. Have date nights, make sure you make yourselves a priority as a couple
4. Just remember “you won’t break them.” The first few days my husband held pooter in the hospital he would chant to himself like a crazy person – I won’t break you. I guess he and I were both scared Laura new she needed to calm us both.

These 4 pointers may not seem like much but Laura’s advice really saved us. She was gracious, reassuring, went above and beyond to make sure I knew I was doing a good job and would be okay. In that brief 1 week stay, I considered her a friend. I’ve reached out to Laura several times after we left the hospital to just let her know how much the 3 of us appreciated her help! I’m sure everyone has that 1 special person that made their delivery much smoother (not including our family of course) and Laura was it for me.

Here’s to all the Laura’s out there that make our deliveries smoother and reassure us new moms and dads.