So here’s my question.. am I the only one who, now that I’m at the end of the training, is just itching to get back to the creative stuff?
Secondary question.. what is it like seeing a baby born?
Wait, back up.. no kids here yet.. but.. well… I officially blogslacked last week. Didn’t do my weekly post for the first time in like months.
Unfortunately, I have been overwhelmed with my wacked life. Work, doing the score, starting 2 new movies.. and the big one.. my final semester in Nursing school.
For those who haven’t been paying attention, I will be a registered nurse in January, and this, the final semester is somehow more real and more intense now that I know the end is near. Like so many others, I have chosen a “safer” path, hoping one day to pursue the artistic dream, but inspired by the concept of home, wife, and family.
This semester, I will be doing my mother/baby rotation. I have already spent 2 days in a nursery, and will be helping deliver babies sometime next week.
So yeah.. any baby stories?
And how about those of us who have chosen the “safer path” – or have not.. any thoughts?
A bit vague…
It took me a while to get the gist of your post. It’s pretty tough classifying getting out into the world and getting a job as “the safer path”; it’s more financially rewarding, but I would say my job life has been as unstable as a tech worker over the last seven years as it would have been if I had been an actor living gig-to-gig.
As far as seeing babies born, here are my thoughts:
Unless it’s yours.
In which case, it’s the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen, and a treasure to value for the rest of your life.
Still, I agree with Jeff Foxworthy: watching a baby be born is an awful lot like watching a wet St. Bernard struggle to get in through the cat door. And I like my kids better the older they get 🙂
And my life has been crazy as well… working two jobs, and working on the soundtrack for Void War. But you know what? I’m saving towards retirement, enjoying what I do, and staying out of trouble while I have a lot of fun. I’m tired all the time, but if I wanted to be doing something else, wouldn’t I be out doing it rather than doing what I’m doing?
—
Matthew P. Barnson
Matt’s too tired to think straight.
I didn’t think your blog was vague at all. I understood right away. Matt has been rather busy these days. Between the two jobs and such, he’s an awesome dad and husband and spends as much time as he possibly can with us before he literally crashes each night.
As for baby stories, I have four I could tell, not that I’m going to bore you with the gory details, but maybe just one. The worst was the first. And let me just tell you guys, when you’re comparing scar stories, you’ve got nothing on those of us who have gone through childbirth.
Sara was my first child born back in ’95. I finally went into labor two days after my due date. I had contractions all day the day before but they were quite bearable. But at 3 am they woke me up. I could no longer sleep through them. So I showered, ate breakfast, packed my hospital bag and woke up Matt to do the same. We arrived at the hospital around 7 am and they admitted me awhile later.
First came the enema. I’d never had one of these before. The nurse tells me to count at least to 30 before I get off the bed to empty my intestines. I don’t think I got to 17. Enough said. But they typically don’t do this with child birth anymore. They just let you poop on the doctor!
Matt and I were young and niave. We brought a CD player and some card games. We were listening and playing when the doctor finally arrived. He kinda chuckled and commented that this was not a common sight to behold. Then he popped my water and the games ended immediately. A couple hours later I was miserable and asked the nurse if I could have an epidural. Her response was, “There’s only one anasthesiologist in this hospital and he’s in surgery with someone else right now. I’ll get you some demerol.”
Through my IV came the demerol. It was supposed to help me relax. It actually put me to sleep between contractions and spread my contractions farther apart. So I was more miserable because it made me tired and I couldn’t sleep and the contractions were harder. YUCK.
Eventually the doctor came back and told me it was time to push. But nothing happened. So then he had the nurses baring down on me. Nothing happened. Dr. tells me the baby is stuck between my pelvic bones and he pulls out the vacuum. Nothing happens. He couldn’t get the vacuum to attach to the baby because she was SOOO stuck. Three hours after we started pushing, Sara arrived. The cord was wrapped around her neck like three times. He was blue from lack of oxygen and needed help fast. I didn’t get to hold her for quite awhile.
As if all this wasn’t bad enough. The doctor tells me to keep pushing….to deliver the placenta, which was also apparently stuck. Then he apologizes and tells me the baby should have come C section and that I will never be able to deliver a baby bigger than Sara vaginally.
Then as the doctor is stitching me up, because of the episiodomy, he tells me he’s stitching his initials down there.
Then I couldn’t walk for two days and I felt absolutely stupid having to have help walk to the bathroom from a nurse that was my age. I’m sure I would have felt the same no matter who it was.
At that point I told Matt we may never have anymore kids if it’s always like that. —
Christy
Mother’s womb…
“This is not unlike escaping my mother’s womb. God, what a memory!”
upon crawling out of a tiny hole in the sewer system to escape a dungeon.
—
Matthew P. Barnson
KIDS
Let me be clear.. no kids coming any time very soon..
But I have now spent 2 days in the nursery and another in antepartum.. Labor and delivery comes next week.
Today I got to check out an episiotomy, and it looked painful. I have heard.. epidurals are nice things, have them ordered well ahead of time..
Finally, I’ve become a breastfeeding fanatic. I had no idea how unbelievably better it is not just for baby but for mom. It can actually stoop you from hemorraging!
Cool. Maybe I’ll expand on this topic.