Baby be mine

Being on night float has been an emotional roller-coaster. Maybe it's something about going to work when the sun is going down, and sleeping through the day, but it's been pretty crazy and twilight zone-like. Maybe it's been all the postpartum happy hormones, but I feel like I have a constant smile on my face. And, maybe it's because I've been around a lot more women, and the estrogen levels are getting to me, but I feel everything more intensely, if that makes any sense.

Yes, labor and delivery has been amazing.

I love being there and interacting with these soon-to-be parents.

It's nice being there for the patient when she's getting her epidural, especially since the anesthesiologist chases the husband out of the room to create a sterile environment. Which makes absolutely no sense to me - as long as I wear a hat and mask, I can be there so my patient can squeeze my hand as hard as she needs to, but the hand she truly wants to hold has to wait outside the door? It makes no sense, but I'm thankful for that time, because it allows me to bond with my patient.

It's fun cheerleading for my patient, telling her to push through the pain and go! go! go! And it's fun helping her breathe when the husband gets too excited and starts breathing too quickly for her to follow.

It's absolutely heart-warming to watch the parents see the baby for the very first time. It doesn't matter if the med student (me!) forgot to wipe the blood and poop off of the baby before handing the baby to the mom. It's crazy - that unconditional love. Seriously, have you seen a newborn baby? They're not cute. They have coneheads and they're pasty, and they look like little old men. Yet, something triggers that parental instinct and the parents inevitably start cooing and telling that baby just how much they love him. It's beautiful.

And I must admit that if the dad tears up, it's a surefire bet that I'll start welling up too.

Which is no good, because it fogs up my goggles and I have trouble seeing where the sutures are and what I'm supposed to be retracting and wiping. And then my attending laughs at me and tells a nurse to wipe away my tears for me. But it doesn't matter and I don't even get embarrassed, because I just helped bring a baby into the world! (Okay fine, I get a little embarrassed, but whatever.)

So with the 20 baby boys and 3 baby girls I delivered last week (seriously, what is up with that gender ratio?), I've come to realize that I love Labor and Delivery. Can I please do a residency in obstetrics, without the gynecology?