"Precious"

Greetings! Today I caught a baby.

Yup....I'm now a midwife....kinda.

Maribel (also known as "Bel") came in at 10:55 pm on my night shift on Monday. The mother of three girls already, she knew this labor thing really well and began pushing to get the baby out around 4 am.

My supervisor, Jonna, and I had talked earlier in my shift about the possibility of handling one of the next couple of labors, but I was feeling rather shy....not at all confident and had just an overall sense of AAACCCKKK.

But I had asked God the night before to make it a quiet shift unless HE thought I was ready to handle.....well, we had 5 labors....three of which I did their immediate intake and then was passed to Maribel to be her midwife.

Maribel was so strong and REALLY quiet in her labor.....I imagine that three previous labors will do something to ya!? So she and her bana (hubby) labored together with me charting and checking her BP, temperature (she had a fever earlier), pulse, and fetal heart tones.....

Then around 4 am....she said, "Ma'am....utong!" That means, "Ma'am....gotta PUSH!". So I ran in there and my friend and senior midwife came in to assist....

Couple minutes later....GUSH....out came her bag of waters....slight meconium staining.....less than 10 minutes later and I was guiding her baby girl's head out with the instructions of my supervisor!

Then baby's head popped out blue and needing to be suctioned. Jonna prepared the suction machine and I caught the baby as all 8 lbs 12 oz. of her slid into my hands at 4:09 am, October 23, 2007.

She started to cry and Jonna suctioned.....I vigorously massaged her back to get her to turn pink and cry some more.....then we put the baby on Maribel's tummy to wait for the placenta.

Placenta came out at 4:13 and from then on....I did everything.....bathed the baby.....did all the postpartum checks, gave necessary injections.....until 8 am this morning when I was finally sent home. Whew. Long night.

The whole experience was a huge blessing.....my friend Serena charted the birth and did a great job....Heather was so helpful and gave me great advice, Jonna gave great direction....and Maribel was an incredible patient.....

But the part that blessed me the most was that this little girl laid nameless for 4 hours after birth! The parents, having three girls already, could not think of a name! After doing the baby check-up, I finally asked her one last time, "Have you found a name for your baby?" And she said...."You name her."........ME?..... ME? Whoa. That's heavy.

So I quickly prayed and I had been telling her mama earlier that this baby girl was very special to me because she was my first delivery....my first handle....that made her very precious.

So, I named her Precious Grace. And that she is. Even her mama and dad liked it! So I got to name the very first baby I ever delivered. That's pretty cool.

God is so good.
Maribel and Precious with her midwife.....me.

There's Precious long before she was named....she had just been weighed.....almost 9 pounds!
Serena and Heather....my dear fellow midwives who helped immensely!
Yes...lots of charting to do after birth!
Check out #4!
And there is Precious....all 51 centimeters and 8 pounds 12 ounces of her! God is so faithful! I am humbled.

Reminds me of Psalm 139....think I will read that again. Welcome to the world, Precious!
Be blessed.