Where Are Her Pain Meds?

My sister had her baby! My mom and I went to the hospital Saturday night since Ju was going to let us watch the baby's birth, but things went awry and well we didn't get to see it... Long story short, she did all her laboring in the little side room where doctor's determine whether or not they are going to send you home or give you a real room. I know people have had babies in parking lots, cars, jungles etc... before so complaining that it wasn't a comfortable place to have a baby may sound silly, but it wasn't a necessary uncomfortable place to have a baby. Does that make sense? Julie could have easily had a much nicer bed and medication to make her comfortable, but the nurse didn't believe she was in labor since she wasn't dilating, EVEN though her contractions were 1 minute apart!!! Ju asked for pain meds on more than one occasion too since she isn't one who likes to choose the painful route when given an option. Anyway, once her nurse realized she was truly in labor they finally moved her to a real room where it was quickly determined by a more competent nurse that her baby was breached. She was ready to push and didn't even have an IV in! It was a high stress situation to watch, I felt like I was seconds away from bursting into tears seeing how messed up the situation was. I also knew if I started crying that it wouldn't help Ju at all so I pulled myself together and rubber her legs while a nurse quickly put her IV in. My mom said a tearful, "Ooooh Julie..." I looked at mom and said, "Stop crying or get out!" Knowing that if I had had a weepy mom and sister in the operating room with the twins (high stress) it would have sent me into hysterics, definitely not the time or place to loose it! My mom was a trooper and closed those tears off like a champ! They took Julie back to the operating room, weren't able to get her an epidural and ended up just giving her a local anesthetic on her belly and put her under for her surgery. I asked the front desk if they had any news on mom or baby 2 times and finally we were told she was in her room. Mom and I went back to see Julie (her husband was with the baby in the NICU) and she was hugging the edge of her bed, speechless, uncomfortable, completely miserable and pathetic. She hurt really bad:o( I took her hand and rubbed it... I asked the nurse in a totally frustrated voice, "Where's her pain meds? She needs some pain medication! This is ridiculous... Get her some pain meds! Do you know she has another baby starting chemo tomorrow? This is ridiculous!" Now was the appropriate time for a mother's tears, I left to go see the baby and let my mom cry for her girl (now that the high stress of laboring was past). Anyway, it took a good 2 hours AFTER my sister had her c-section (with just that local anesthetic) to have any pain medication at all! I'm not one to complain to workers or management - I'll eat a cold burger or put up with the wrong order because I hate to complain, BUT I want that nurses name! She needs to be reported since all of this could have easily been prevented if she would have been more discernible and trusting that my sister of 4 other children probably knows what real labor is! Not to mention she was really rude to my poor sister:o( Well there's my rant:/ Protective little sister all angry...

Ju's baby is still in the NICU with underdeveloped lungs while he is just kind of trying to adjust to the "outside". He's adorable, not that I'm surprised at all:o) My sister and her hubby are still anxiously waiting for the day they get to hold him:o( Meanwhile, Tales (my niece who has cancer) started her chemo the day after her brother was born and is nearing (as I write this) her last round of chemo for the week. Step one of chemo complete! Exhausted and tired Tales, yes... that too is complete... Long road ahead for this sweet girl, hopefully these next 16 days will be a restful time for her to re-energize and recover some before the next round of chemo starts. 

This next story hardly belongs after what my sister and her family are going through right now so I will just say I am not proud of the complaining part that I'm going to share to get to the sweet end that left me smiling. So bear with me and my apologies as I understand things could be a lot worse than a cranky baby with a cold and fevers mixed with pregnancy and a lack of sleep. So, I got home and to bed about 5:00 a.m. the morning my sister had her baby, I woke up about 2 hours later to go to church, came home, took a 2 hour nap, went back to church, and slept that night. Then Judles who had been sick with fevers started to come down with a cold also. A baby trying to sleep through congestion and coughing is like a person trying to sleep in the bleachers at a race show, yeah, not happening! A sick and cranky baby on hip ALL day long for a couple of days, not sleeping (Judles or me), and working everything around my 30 week baby belly, blah... Not to mention my very sore body from cleaning that day and the discomfort of carrying crabby Judles everywhere I went. This all leads up to my emotional spurt that was about to take place... I took Smiles to the bathroom (the one I had just cleaned) and not to be to detailed but his stream was a little blocked off so he was spraying all over, like a plugged hose. Pee was everywhere! I'm like, "What in the world!!!" And yes, I didn't say that in a happy voice. Totally irritated I started cleaning that up and then it happened... Tears started to flow while I felt bad for myself and Smiles just watched in concern. Smile's sweet little voice piped up and he asked, "You okay mommy?" You okay?" He asked me over and over again while I said, "Yes I'm fine," smiling through my tears since he was so cute. Soooo concerned for mommy, probably feeling at fault too since he just went potty and mommy started freaking out:/ My hubby rubbed my back while I got myself together when Smiles pipes up again, "You did it! You did it Papa!" Meaning, "You made mommy feel better! Good job!" I just have to say... Smiles is such a sweet and sensitive boy:o) I never would have guessed him to turn out to be such a sweetheart last year at this time. I'm not claiming he's perfect since we all know nobody is, just sweet:o)

Oh my... this is hours after I wrote this post and I just realized it isn't Friday today AND Tales actually has one more infusion tomorrow. Man I can't keep track of the days! So tomorrow her week of chemo will be complete. I have been planning all week to sit with Ju for tomorrows chemo treatments too! I can be so forgetful sometimes!