Crying. Babies do it for a variety of reasons, be they in need of food, nurturing, diaper changing, or something else. They do it a lot and they do it loudly. A group of babies can sometimes comfort each other or they can feed off each others’ tears. You’ll never guess what happened today.
It was my turn to spend the majority of the day at the hospital and I did just that. I showed up just after Layla finished eating and she was sitting alone at a small table on the floor playing with her cup. As soon as I entered, the room went silent. 7 pairs of tiny eyes were trained on me like snipers watching an inbound target. I knew some of the kids but, as usual, a few new ones were there and a few old ones left. You know we’ve been there too long when we’ve seen a full rotation of kids go through the room.
The silence didn’t last long as I chatted with Layla a bit before another kid chimed in. She was quite happy to continue talking to me even after I replied in English. I didn’t understand a word she said, but nodded and smiled at the pauses – that seemed to be enough to satisfy the kid.
Layla’s student nurse showed up at one point, not long after I arrived. She was eager to play again and Layla was less than eager to oblige. I felt a little bit bad for the poor student as I know she was trying her best to get Layla to play, but I’m happy to say she just wanted to be spend time with her old man. Of course the student’s immediate appraisal of the situation was that Layla must be tired. It’s actually a common conclusion that many nurses have made over the last two weeks – I think they must think Layla has narcolepsy or something.
Over the last two weeks, Layla has had several students poking and prodding her, checking her temperature and pulse several times a day. I don’t think a stethoscope is that hard to use, but the students practiced it so many times I’m beginning to think there’s something I’m missing. Today, when the student came to play with Layla she had just pooped. I tried to explain that she wanted her diaper changed, Layla tried to explain it, I got a diaper and wipers from the desk but the student ignored me and still wanted to play. Maybe she gets marks for effort or something. Well, as annoying as she was, I think she’ll be getting bonus points for today – after I laid Layla on the bed I tossed the diaper to the student and said “Good study lesson, eh?” and asked if she wanted to change the diaper. Layla cried in fear and the shock on the student’s masked face was priceless. She closed the curtain around the bed and asked me how to open the diaper. I helped, ripping the diaper and holding Layla while the student got her hands dirty cleaning up, using 10-12 wipers in the process. After we were done, she thanked me for giving her the opportunity… if I’d only known two weeks ago what I know now.
I got in trouble from one nurse today because I unplugged Layla’s battery-powered IV machine so she could play with one of the kids she’s grown attached to. I know I’m not a doctor or nurse, but I think it’s a healthy thing for the kids to interact and play with each other… instead, the nurse told them they can only talk from across the room, insisting I return Layla to her bed and re-plug in the machine. Even after I pointed out that there was an empty socket on the wall beside her friend’s bed, she refused. It might have been a language thing, I’m not sure. That’s the reason I’d have given if she saw me some time after she left when I re-unplugged Layla’s machine and let them play. =)
One of the recurring things I see every day in the hospital is kids crying for their moms to come and visit them. One of the (many) things that I disagree with is the nurses totally ignoring them, for tens of minutes. Today there was at least two kids crying in the room of seven at almost all times. Being the only parent there for the first couple hours, I did my best to calm them down but it was a losing battle. A couple nurses came in once or twice and calmed one or two of them down, but that was the exception and is far from the rule. I understand they have rounds to do, medicine to give, etc, but there are a lot of nurses there and I know the other rooms are virtually empty. You would think (hope) that since they banned most everyone from visiting that they’d at least put a little extra effort into taking care of the kids… at least, I would hope so.
Tamie showed up around 18:00 today, just after Layla started eating. As soon as Tamie got settled, I bolted. I wanted to give them the opportunity to spend some time together… and I wanted to get out of the insanity for a bit.
I got back about an hour later and there were a couple more parents there. One poor dad was holding his baby son, both sweating profusely. The kid wouldn’t stop crying no matter what the dad did. Been there, done that. Layla, ever the saint, wanted to go try to play with the crying kid so we all went over to see. Nothing we did seemed to help and the kid continued to bawl. It wasn’t until nearly the end that we found a toy that the kid liked, and he started playing and laughing. Finally, there was a peace in the room, as every kid had a parent, a toy, or both to keep them busy. Phew.
When the lights went out, I laid down on the bed with Layla. For whatever reason, she seems to get more energy nowadays at the end of the day than in the middle of it. I take it as a good sign that she’s got more energy. I tried to get her to sleep, and she tried hard. She squeezed her eyes shut, she tossed and turn trying to get comfortable, she squeezed her miffy hard, but alas… she kept finding something to laugh about. Just before 21:00, I traded spots with Tamie so she could lay with Layla for a while since it was obvious she wasn’t going to fall asleep. When the nurse came, Tamie got up and Layla popped up like a jack-in-the box. She hopped around on her bed, saying good night to us and reminding me not to forget my umbrella. As we left, she finally laid down, hopefully to sleep.
Layla is certainly much better than the last two weeks, wanting to play and run around. Unfortunately, the planned removal of the IV tomorrow has been postponed because the poor kid keeps coughing and the doctor is being extra cautious. Hopefully it doesn’t affect the planned Sunday release. I don’t know if I could stand another day in that place, even if Layla is adjusting.
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