Day of Hope #49

Friday January 13, 2017

Goal: See a baby being born

Quote: Children are the rainbow of life. Grandchildren are the pot of gold.

– Irish Blessing

This day was a monumental day of hope - detour. It was almost the day my granddaughter was born.  It started out as just a typical day of hope. I went for a nice walk on the greenbelt in the morning and then in the afternoon I had plans. I don’t remember what those plans were, as my beautiful daughter went into labor, and I was there for her. Happy 13th!!! Love Love Love the Friday 13's. I was hoping it would be the best 13th yet. We are hoping for a baby today. She is stubborn at the moment, but I could be a G-La-La soon.

My daughter started having contractions early around 3am on the thirteenth. They were sent home around 4am. It was frustrating for me, let alone for her to have to go back home and be in pain. When you are that close to giving birth, you just want it to be over but it’s just part of the process. They then came over to my house after a few hours. When the contractions started to get closer within 10-15minutes, and her water finally broke, we went to the hospital.

It was exciting. I thought for sure I was going to share my special day of hope with my precious little granddaughter. I felt very blessed that I was able to be in the room with them. In the room was my daughter’s best friend, the baby’s father, and me. The rooms were nice and private, and we were bracing for a baby.

I am going to go back in time for a moment and explain when I was in labor with my daughter. The hospital did not let anyone go into the room. You did not have a private room. You were in a room with two beds listening to another woman next to you scream in pain. Which, by the way, is terrifying when it’s your first baby. Then when it was delivery time, they wheeled me off to an operating room all by myself. In the operating room there was a mirror on the ceiling. So, not only did you have to be in pain and push something the size of a watermelon out the size of a pea, all alone, you also had to watch it all happen in a mirror. All of it, no sugar coating any of it. You saw everything. The father had to wait outside in the hall. Oh, how times have changed for the better.

My daughter delt with the typical labor pain and contractions. She walked around the room, sat on an exercise ball to do hip rotations while I put pressure on her lower back and massaging to elevate some of the pain, and then a bath in the tub to try to make her comfortable and get things moving.

 The father informs me, in the room, if he sees blood he will pass out. Oh my gosh, it’s a little late for that isn’t it. I think for a moment, then tell him to stay up by my daughter’s head and hold her hand and not look over the sheet. Just concentrate on the mother giving birth. He did an amazing job. I had her best friend oversee keeping the mother breathing, counting the breaths, and letting her know when to push and for how long. That was a big job, and she did great. My job was to talk to my daughter and keep her calm and let her know everything was going to be ok. I just kept saying, “You got this,” repeatedly.

To my surprise, that little baby girl waited until 12:05am on the 14th to be born. It turned out to be a blessing. She shares her birthday with her wonderful great-grandfather, who almost died a few months before she was born. They have a very special bond sharing a birthday. Everyone did really well, and the daddy actually did look over the sheet and got to see his little girl being born and did not pass out. Whew! What an amazing day of hope.

My lesson of hope: It’s tough to see your children in pain but I really feel that by taking my day of hope each month for the last several years, I was able to help her and stay calm. I was in a good place mentally and physically because I dedicated time each month for me. I believe it has made me a better mom and it will help me be a better La La (grandma).

Bonus Information

When I knew I was going to be a grandma, I did not care for how the name grandma sounded. I just felt I was too young. It did not roll off the tongue. So, after much thought I came up with a different name for my granddaughter to call me. I settled on G-La La and here is why. I have a dear friend Idgie, whom I have been close friends with for almost 10 years now. We lived in the same neighborhood for a while, and I would do lots of activities with her and her grandchildren. Her grandkids would ask me when I was with them what my name was, and I would tell them Kayla. They just couldn’t remember it. After several times of them asking me, I finally said K-La, like K, the letter K, and La, like sing a song, La La La, K-La. That worked great and they have called me K La La all these years.

I incorporated this into my name for my granddaughter to call me which is G-La La and it seemed like the perfect name instead of grandma. Well, the G did not stick with my granddaughter for some reason, but she calls me La La all the time and so do all her friends. I love it. It will be my name to her, for eternity.