The Author

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I am a high school English teacher, and mother of two charming little ones of my own. I teach in a high poverty urban charter school, while I live in a typical American suburb that has frequently been rated one of the safest cities in the country. It is a paradox I struggle with constantly, but it is my life.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Today's Adventure at Simi Hospital...

Of course the one day that I barely leave the house is the day I end up in a car accident. Joy....

I got rear ended. It wasn't that bad. He hit me really hard, but Vinny was fine (he barely seemed to notice... weird) and my car was fine. I braced myself pretty hard against the steering wheel to keep my belly from hitting it, but as a result my back immediately hurt pretty bad (and it is still really achy), but other than that, I was fine too (so to the people who ended up praying for me, thank you, really I am fine).

The thing is, it was pretty hard, and since my back was hurting pretty bad, and I am 7 months, I figured I better make sure the baby was okay and that I wasn't going into preterm labor or anything, so I decided to head to the hospital, Vinny in tow. (He was an angel, btw. I am so lucky to have such an amazing son).

The new wing of the Simi hospital is beautiful! Serisouly, what an improvement. What a huge difference between the room I delivered Vinny in and this room where I was while they checked out Tiana. She was fine. They had her on the monitors for about an hour, but I wasn't having any contractions or abdominal pain (just the back, but that was probably from bracing myself and will get better over time) and her heart beat was steady and she was a moving and a grooving, so they let me go home after about an hour. It was kind of funny because she was like kicking the monitors like crazy, and Marc hasn't really been lucky enough to see or feel her kick yet- she just will not seem to do it for him- but he could hear it on the monitor quite clearly. It was like she could sense the monitors because she practically kept hitting directly on the monitor,  so all of a sudden the sound of her heartbeat would be interrupted by a loud "boom" as she kicked it. Funny...

Anyhow, this was probably a somewhat good experience for Vinny anyway, especially because he didn't have to stay with me long, since grandma came to get him pretty quickly. He has had a lot of questions about the whole baby thing lately, and I have been very honest with him, as he has wanted very specific answers. I don't really believe in sheltering my child, so he can know what is really up. I mean, I am not exactly having a home birth that he'll assist in or anything, but if he wants to know, he can know. So... since he has been very worried about how she will get out of my belly and my answers were not exactly working for him, I showed him a delivery video online. It wasn't that graphic or close-up or anything, but the one thing he picked up on was that there was a lot of blood. He says, "Mommy, her bed is really messy!" (He couldn't see that the woman herself was messy, but noticed the bed). So then, when it fast forwarded and showed the mom a bit later breastfeeding and holding the baby, he says, "Did they give her a clean bed?" I explained that yes, she got a clean bed. He was very concerned with this aspect apparently, because later in the day he says, "When Tiana comes out, it is going to be very messy." I said that this was true and he asks, "Will it get all over me?"  I couldn't help but laugh and explain that he will not be there for the messy part. He can come see the baby once mommy has a clean bed.

Well, he somehow picked up on where we were today (I didn't explain- I didn't want to confuse him- but he heard me on the phone with my mom, so I guess he knew) and when we walked into labor and delivery, as we were standing at the counter he says, "Are they going to give you a clean bed mommy?"  I just laughed. He was excited when we walked in to the room and he said, "See, I told ya they would give you a clean bed!" He told the nurse "I am going to be a big brother" and she said, "Yes, but hopefully not today." He said, "No, not until after my birthday." He's a smart kid.... gosh I love my son.

1 comment:

  1. Im glad you're ok! And yes the new rooms over there are awesome! I had to go over there a bunch and deliver paperwork when I was working there (for 3 months :-) The people seemed to be pretty nice too.

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