Monday, February 7, 2005

Baby Oh Baby

Oh, motherhood, what an experience.  There is no easy way to explain the feeling that overcomes you...that this little bit of humanity could completely captivate you entirely.

Back in those days..1965...a woman stayed for about seven days in the hospital after givng birth.  I can remember being put into a semi-private room, falling into a much needed sleep (after all those hours awake in labor, I kind of went comatose).  I awoke to find a nurse pushing a baby cart near to my bed...she reached in and brought out a blue swaddled baby and laid the baby at the foot of my bed.  The nurse handed me a baby bottle and without further ado she left! 

I pulled myself up a bit, I was still kind of out of it...I was trying to figure out how to get to the end of the bed...I knew I had to get there, I knew I had to pick the baby up somehow.  Looking back I have no idea why the nurse left the baby without checking that I was capable of handling a baby.  I finally edged myself slowly down to the end of the bed....remember I'm still hooked to an IV and I hurt like crazy.

I don't know if swaddling a baby is a nurse type of thing or is it universal?  I know it quiets them down, maybe because it restricts their movements and they feel safe like in a womb. Anyway, I finally reached little Kenji...managed to pick him up, he hungrily took the bottle and oh, my goodness...he drained the 3 ozs. in a short time.  I knew at that moment, I would love being a Mom.

Tom was walking about three feet above the ground...he was so happy.....as was Oka-san who had just become Oba-san!

Will write more tommorrow.....

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was thinking she put the baby at the foot of the crib to encourage you to move about. What'cha think? Why did Oka-san change to Oba-san, what does that mean?

Lahoma

Anonymous said...

Lovely entry!

Anonymous said...

Lahoma...Oka-san is the word for Mother and Oba-san is Grandmother...so with the delivery of the baby...I became Oka-san and my MIL became Oba-san....

Anonymous said...

What a handsome lil man he was!