The longer I'm here, the more I am coming to understand that talking helps with everyday life.
You don't have to talk about the bad things, but just talking to other people helps you feel normal. Like you aren't 4 hours away from home watching over your sick baby. Instead you are a normal mother, chatting over spaghetti and Texas Roadhouse rolls.
I'm usually not the kind to sit down with a stranger and start a conversation. But here lately, I've been making an effort to chat with people and ask about their children. I've met a lot of young mothers, not all have a terribly sick baby, but some have kids that are worse off then mine. Hearing about those kids makes me feel grateful that my baby, heart condition aside, is healthy and thriving. Other mothers aren't so young. I talked to a woman the other day who told me about her baby who was born about 3 months premature. She had to be in her 40s, so it was a high risk pregnancy to begin with. Her daughter is a little over two pounds, but is doing very well considering she was only about a pound when she was delivered. The mother went on to tell me that they were in such a hurry to get the baby out, they gave her a c-section with the incision going vertically! I thought doctors didn't do c-sections like that anymore, but I stand corrected. Seeing the teen moms are what break my heart. I talked to a young couple who just had their first child at 18 years old. It makes me tear up to think that they have to go through. What should be a very happy time spent with family instead they are spending it in a hospital. Waiting and worrying if their child is going to make it. They told me their daughter had to have heart surgery as well. She had her surgery right around the same day Peanut did, so we will all be here about the same amount of time.
A woman that works here told me stories of very young teen moms that have had to stay here. Some as young as 14. I can't imagine being pregnant at thirteen...thirteen years old. That blows my mind. I barely knew about the birds and the bees when I was thirteen. That is way too young in my book, and should be in anyones book! To one: be sexually active, and two: and to have a sick child; it breaks my heart.
I know I will meet more families the longer I am here. Some are only here for a couple days, some are here for up to three or four months. As I'm working on my second month here, I understand what it's like to settle into hospital life. It's like having a job you don't really like. You go to sleep physically and mentally exhausted and you wake up, disappointed, that it wasn't a dream. You drag yourself to "work", sit around for hours at a time, then go back "home" to start it all over again.
Those short moments when you are talking to other people, you forget for a moment why you are here. Those moments are what get me through the day.
Those moments help me feel sane.
You don't have to talk about the bad things, but just talking to other people helps you feel normal. Like you aren't 4 hours away from home watching over your sick baby. Instead you are a normal mother, chatting over spaghetti and Texas Roadhouse rolls.
I'm usually not the kind to sit down with a stranger and start a conversation. But here lately, I've been making an effort to chat with people and ask about their children. I've met a lot of young mothers, not all have a terribly sick baby, but some have kids that are worse off then mine. Hearing about those kids makes me feel grateful that my baby, heart condition aside, is healthy and thriving. Other mothers aren't so young. I talked to a woman the other day who told me about her baby who was born about 3 months premature. She had to be in her 40s, so it was a high risk pregnancy to begin with. Her daughter is a little over two pounds, but is doing very well considering she was only about a pound when she was delivered. The mother went on to tell me that they were in such a hurry to get the baby out, they gave her a c-section with the incision going vertically! I thought doctors didn't do c-sections like that anymore, but I stand corrected. Seeing the teen moms are what break my heart. I talked to a young couple who just had their first child at 18 years old. It makes me tear up to think that they have to go through. What should be a very happy time spent with family instead they are spending it in a hospital. Waiting and worrying if their child is going to make it. They told me their daughter had to have heart surgery as well. She had her surgery right around the same day Peanut did, so we will all be here about the same amount of time.
A woman that works here told me stories of very young teen moms that have had to stay here. Some as young as 14. I can't imagine being pregnant at thirteen...thirteen years old. That blows my mind. I barely knew about the birds and the bees when I was thirteen. That is way too young in my book, and should be in anyones book! To one: be sexually active, and two: and to have a sick child; it breaks my heart.
I know I will meet more families the longer I am here. Some are only here for a couple days, some are here for up to three or four months. As I'm working on my second month here, I understand what it's like to settle into hospital life. It's like having a job you don't really like. You go to sleep physically and mentally exhausted and you wake up, disappointed, that it wasn't a dream. You drag yourself to "work", sit around for hours at a time, then go back "home" to start it all over again.
Those short moments when you are talking to other people, you forget for a moment why you are here. Those moments are what get me through the day.
Those moments help me feel sane.
