Apples and Dopplers
by GrowingFlowers
The phone rang at 3:30 am. I had been lying awake wondering if my phone was even working as I was hoping and waiting for a phone call from a favorite client that needed to be in active labor soon! She was heading out-of-state to a doctor and a hospital that would do VBACs. (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean). We do VBACs at the Birth Center and at home, but this client had a risk factor that was out of our scope of practice.
She lives far out-of-town. Fall is arriving and the nights are getting cooler – crispier. My window was open and I could hear the coyotes. There were so many. They would yip alone and in groups. I was trying to fall asleep and to let be what would be. No more hoping and no more wishing. (And no more worrying.)
She wanted to let me know that labor hadn’t started and she was heading out-of-town.
“Would you mind listening to the baby before we go? We can stop by your house?”
So I got up, brushed my teeth and decided not to meet them in my jammies (my new pink and orange yoga pants that Treska had given me for my birthday) and got dressed. It was a sweet time in my house. Quiet, dim lights. Apples.
I waited. I filled in all of her information on our EHR (Electronic Health Records) and listened for the car. I watched for the car headlights coming down my long driveway. Our dogs barked and barked as they arrived, the girls awoke, yet stayed sleepily in their beds.
She sat on my red couch, her partner on the arm and we listened to the baby’s heart galloping along. I secretly wished labor would overcome her and she would begin pushing – here at my house, squatting on my shiny saltillo floor. Instead we said good-bye and they pulled out of my driveway for their long drive.
I went back to sleep.
Bench tops, cupboards and rooms without clutter makes it easier to be peaceful, mindful. Such a peaceful blog, I love your book list as well. Charamine, Melbourne Australia