Babies and such

January 11, 2011
I woke up with my back aching like it usually does after a long day of doing extractions. Lol. I couldn’t do it for a living, but for now dental is okay. There were two screaming children and a crying child. My worst nightmare when it comes to doing an extraction. I got a little bit of anesthesia into the two children before they starting screaming, but the poke of the needle was too much for them. I felt really bad. I tried to make it hurt as little as possible, but they were scared to start out with. Tomorrow, their parents are going to bring them back and hopefully I can try a different technique that might hurt less. Today, in total, there were 38 cleanings and 10 extractions. I couldn’t have done it today without Rebecca’s help with the cleanings. Everyone is starting to get tired, and by the end of the week we are all going to just crash! One of the little boys that I met yesterday came back today to give me a little flower and a small vile of perfume. A little bit later, he asked me to be his godmother. At first I didn’t understand the word for grandmother, and I told him so, and he went to get someone who would understand him. I felt so honored that he would ask, but it would be impossible since I live in the states and I kind of think that a godmother should have known you for a little longer than one day. I had a second little boy decide that I was going to be his godmother too. Hehe.

January 14, 2011
I cut my finger yesterday trying to open up a vile to prepare a shot for someone. It slashed right across the knuckle on my middle finger. Hanna had to do dental for me today. She was so awesome! I know she was really nervous, and I talked her through the morning extractions, but she had it down to a science for the afternoon! She did 13 or 14 patients, and on my longest day this week, I think I only did 15. Praise the Lord that she trained with us or there wouldn’t have been dental today!

January 21, 2011
I saw a baby being born this morning!! And I helped with the delivery! I have never even seen a birth on an educational video in science class! The mom and the dad came around 5:30am this morning. We were still sleeping, but they managed to wake us up with a “Doctora, doctora!” and a “oooo!” The mom had been having contractions all night, and when Cecilia had seen her yesterday she told her to come when she was having three contractions within ten minutes. We waited a total of about two hours for little Diamela to make her entrance into the world. The mother also has a five-year-old son, which made this her second child. The parents didn’t know the sex of the baby, but I guess the son told his mom yesterday that it was going to be a girl.  And it was. The first thing we did was to sit the mother in the birthing chair, and while Cecilia checked the cervix, Rachel and I started getting the Consultorio room ready for the birth and Rachel also attempted to get an IV started in between contractions. Rachel had a little bit of a hard time because the contractions were starting to come faster and harder. I boiled water, haha, just like you read about in the Little House on the Prairie type books. The mom was a very strong lady! It was and wasn’t what I expected to see at a birth. During the contractions she didn’t ever scream or cry out, but once, and it was more like a grunt. She was obviously in pain, but you wouldn’t ever know how much pain she was in. All of the things I observed, of course, are coming through the eyes of someone who has absolutely no idea what it is like to give birth. Since it was going to be another hour before the baby came we started getting ready for the day, brushing our teeth and stuff and I decided to eat a granola bar because I was starving and I remembered my dad saying that you should eat something before a surgery to help nausea, and I thought that would apply here. I definitely did not want to miss out on this! The contractions soon became one or two every minute and they were coming A LOT stronger than before. Pretty soon it was time for her to start pushing, and very soon after we saw a little tuft of hair. Within three pushes una mujercita, Diamela Lisbeth Falcón Barrera made her appearance in the world at 7:59am on January 21, 2011, weighing 3.800 kg, and 50 cm long. Quickly, we moved to making sure she was breathing, and I was responsible for using a bulb syringe to suck out all of the baby gunk out of her mouth and nose. It was a little nerve-wrecking because after the first try, she didn’t cry, so I suctioned stuff out of her throat a second and third time and she still wasn’t crying! She started to turn a little blue and finally after the fourth try she let out a small cry. That small cry quickly got stronger as we carried her over to the table to clean her off after cutting the umbilical cord. Rachel and I set to cleaning her up while Cecilia waited for the placenta. The baby gunk didn’t come off of Diamela very easily. We spent quite awhile cleaning her up and finally we were able to dress her and present her to mom and dad. It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen! I know it hurts a lot, but what a miracle and what an experience. God designed us in a truly marvelous way!