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I swear this week has been nothing but craptastic! I don't know how much time I will have to write in the next week because my kids have all kind of doctors appointments, before school starts again. I am going crazy trying to get everything done. School starts in 25 days, my daughter has Kindergarten camp on the first, and then we have meet the teacher a week later. But next week we have Occupational Therapy, ENT, Opthamology, Psychology and Dental appointments. Also thrown in there will be dryer and HVAC repairs on Monday. And sometime in the next week, we have to buy and sell a car. I am completely mentally, emotionally and physically drained right now. This week has sucked so badly, and been incredibly stressful. I am so drained from the crap going on, that I dumped the entire problem on my husband to figure out how to fix it. I just can't handle anymore right now. In other news, does anyone know how to break a 5 year old tattle tale? Child is driving me up a freaking wall with the constant tatteling. She is doing it for attention, and we are desperate to break her of it.
Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this chapter. I had a lot of fun writing it. Be sure to read and review, because the more reviews I get, the faster I'll post the next chapter. Let me know what you like, don't like, anything that you would like to see, etc. I love reading all of your thoughts! :-)
Columbia Presbyterian Hospital
May 22, 2017
9:30pm
"Logan, what are you still doing here?" Paris asked she walked into the Labor and Delivery unit.
"I'm working here tonight. Apparently there is a nurse shortage everywhere tonight, and you only have 2 nurses."
"Wait, what?"
"I was told a lot of the staff is in Philadelphia for training."
"Are you serious?!"
"I take it you weren't told anything about it?"
"I know about the training, but they only left me with two nurses?"
"That's what I said. But don't worry, Veronica is on her way, and Bianca is coming in too. I've also got Doctor Greenlee heading in to assist in the ER, and he said he'll come help out up here too, if we need it."
"This is ridiculous!"
"I know."
"I usually have 8-12 nurses! What the hell were they thinking?!"
"I have no idea, but you've got me, Maddie and Caroline right now, and Veronica and Bianca should be here soon."
"I can't believe that they did this to me!"
"Hey, let's just look at it this way, it's a good thing that you trained me, right? That way you at least know that I'm competent enough to take care of your patients."
"Why are you trying to butter me up, Logan? I'm still irritated with you, you know?"
"Like that is anything new. I'm at your disposal tonight, as long as you don't expect me to go anywhere near my sister's legs."
"That's just gross!"
"There are 8 patients up here tonight. Doctor Jolley is here, and Maddie said that Doctor Malcom is on call."
"Ok, so what's going on with all the patients? Are they all waiting to deliver?"
"For the most part. Honor is dilated to a 4. One of the others is an 8, so she'll be delivering first. The others are lower priority. They canceled the one induction that was scheduled due to the nurse shortage."
"Thank God! That would be completely irresponsible to add an induction on a night where we are short staffed. How is Honor doing? Is she alright?"
"Yeah, she's hanging out, watching tv. Josh just got here. The woman in room 6 needs her dilation checked again. Do you want to do that?"
"You don't know how?"
"No, I know how, but it's almost pointless for me to be doing that, because I need a female in the room with me. I can do everything else, but for anything involving dilation, I need to grab a nurse for comfort and legal reasons, so it's just easier if you do it."
"Who is her doctor?"
"McGregor."
"And where the hell is he?!"
"Vacation."
"Bastard! I'll head in there. What else needs to be done around here?"
"Maddie, Caroline and I have everything else under control. I'm going to head back to my sister as soon as I finish putting all my notes into the computer. Room 7 just got another bag of fluids, and I made sure Anesthesiology is on call and ready when we need them."
"Does Honor have an IV line in?"
"She does, ,and I have her hooked up to the monitors. Her contractions are still 8-10 minutes apart, and not too bad yet."
"Sounds like it could be a long night."
"Probably. But hopefully by morning, we'll have more nurses."
"Alright, I'm heading to 6. Tell Honor that I'll be in when I'm done."
"Will do. Yell if you need me." Logan told her, as he went back to typing on the computer at the nurses station when he heard a buzz at the door. "Can I help you?"
"It's Richard Gilmore. I'm here for Doctor Huntzberger."
"I'll be right there." Logan said as he quickly finished what he was doing, and headed for the large doors at the front of the unit.
"Logan! I didn't expect to see you. I was just going to drop your things off, then head out."
"Thanks Richard. I really appreciate it. Do you want to come say hi to Honor while you're here?"
"Only if you think that would be alright with her." Richard answered as he handed Logan his things.
"I'm sure that Honor would love to see you. Follow me." Logan said, holding the door for Richard to step through, and leading him through the unit to visit Honor. "Hey Honor, I brought you a visitor." Logan said as he walked through Honor's door a minute later.
"Hey Richard! Thank you so much for stopping by!" Honor smiled as she looked toward the door to see who her brother was bringing in.
"Honor, how are you doing, Dear?"
"I'm alright at the moment. The contractions aren't too bad yet. We're just hanging out, waiting on our little guy to make his grand entrance."
"Is there anything that the two of you need?"
"Not that I can think of. Josh, can you think of anything?" Honor asked.
"Not unless you want to stop by Mitchum and Shira's tomorrow morning, and see if Blake needs any help. They know that I had to leave to come to the hospital, so they will probably be bugging the crap out of Blake, trying to get him to bring them to visit. I already told them that they aren't allowed here under any circumstances, but you know Mitchum and Shira." Josh spoke up.
"I will go over there first thing in the morning. Text Blake and have him call me if he needs anything. I am more than happy to be your reinforcement."
"Thank you, Richard." Honor told him.
"I need to get back home to Emily, Rory and the baby, but you guys call me if there is anything that comes up that you need for me to do, alright?"
"I will. Thank you, Richard." Josh told him.
"Guys, I'm going to walk Richard out, I'll be right back." Logan said as he set his things down on the foot of Honor's bed.
"Thank you for coming by, Richard. If you want to go over to my house, there is some fresh bread and cookies on the kitchen counter that you guys can have."
"Thank you, Honor. That is very sweet of you. I'll go over there in the morning. You guys have a great night, and give that baby a kiss for Grandpa Richard when he is born."
"We definitely will. You be safe going home."
"You know I will be. Get some rest." Richard told them, then followed Logan out of the room.
"How are Rory and Ayribella doing?" Logan asked as the two men headed down the hall.
"They are doing great. Emily is at the house with them. Rory said that you guys had tacos for dinner on the way home from the office?"
"We did, but she will probably be hungry again before she goes to bed. I usually make her a sandwich. I am trying to keep her from eating too much junk food while she's breastfeeding."
"I will make sure that she gets a sandwich then."
"Please call me if there is anything that she needs. Rory always takes her medication at night. Some nights she gets stressed out and worries if Ayribella is sleeping too soundly."
"Emily and I will stay with her. I'll turn the baby monitor on in your bedroom, so I hear her if she wakes up, or gets upset."
"Thank you, Richard. I really appreciate all of the help you guys give us. Will you have Rory call me before she goes to bed?"
"Of course. And you call me if there is anything that you guys need, alright?"
"I will. Thanks for coming by."
"No problem. I'll see you tomorrow." Richard said as Logan hit the button for the large wooden automatic doors to the labor and delivery unit to open.
"See you tomorrow." Logan agreed.
"Hey Logan, want to help deliver a baby?" Paris asked as Logan headed back down the hall.
"Sure. Can you give me two minutes? Richard just dropped off my things, and I left them in Honor's room."
"Meet me in room 6."
"I will be right there."
4 Hours Later
"Hi, I'm Doctor Huntzberger, what's going on?" Logan asked as the large door to the Labor and Delivery unit opened and a woman was wheeled in.
"My wife is in labor, and she's in a lot of pain."
"Alright, let's get her to a room." Logan said as he beckoned the man to follow him "How far along is she?"
"She is 38 weeks."
"Has her water broken?"
"It broke about an hour ago. It took us a while to get here, there was a lot of traffic."
"I'm guessing that all this pain she is in is from contractions. How far apart are they?"
"About two minutes."
"Ok. Veronica, I need you! Bianca, find Doctor Gellar and bring her to room ten." Logan yelled down the hall."
"Doctor Gellar is doing a delivery." Bianca called back.
"Alright, then it's you and me Veronica, because Doctor Jolley is doing a delivery as well." Logan said as they walked into a room, and Logan and Veronica both helped the woman out of the wheelchair, and onto the bed.
"Have you ever delivered a baby?" Veronica whispered after both her and Logan stepped away from the woman and headed toward the sink to wash their hands and grab some gloves."
"Nope. I've only assisted once other than with my own baby."
"Oh boy! Well, it looks like you are about to learn! You are lucky that I've done this a few times."
"OOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" the woman screamed from the bed behind them.
"We don't have any time, I'm guessing this baby is coming out in the next few minutes. When she pushes, and the baby slides out, you grab it, hand the baby to me, and I'll do the rest. As long as the baby is head down, we should be just fine. The head with come out, and you gently grab on and you may have to help negotiate the shoulders out. After the shoulders are out, the rest is cake. You just hand me the baby, then make sure that the placenta is delivered, and check to see if the patient has torn at all."
"How do I know if she tore?"
"You will be able to tell because it won't look like a normal vagina. If she did tear, you will need to stitch her up. Just stitch from one end of the tear and make sure that the skin meets evenly at the end, so it's not sloppy. It could just be a tiny tear, or it could be skin and muscle. Whatever it is, I've seen you stitch people up before, and I am confident that you can do this. There should be a tray of supplies in the closet by the warmer. I will get those, you go check dilation, but I'm guessing by the screaming that she's there. We don't even have time to get her up on the monitors. We are going to have to just wing it."
"Alright. Let's do this." Logan agreed
"Sir, we need to remove your wife's pants, would you mind giving me a hand?" Veronica asked as she opened the closet to find the supplies she needed, setting them on a rolling table, which she pushed toward the bed, and tossed a medical smock to Logan. Logan followed behind her, grabbing a stool from the corner and moving it next to where Veronica left the table.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The woman screamed as her husband helped Veronica remove her pants.
"Ok, this baby is on its way out. The head is already crowning." Logan told them as Veronica propped the woman's leg up in one of the stirrups at the end of the bed, then moved to the other one.
"What is your wife's name?" Veronica asked.
"Mary Sue."
"Alright, and who is her doctor?"
"Doctor Meadows over at Philadelphia General. We just didn't have time to get there. We were visiting friends in the city, and this was the closest hospital."
"That's not a problem, you are in great hands here at Columbia. Alright, so this is what is going to happen. Your baby is already crowning, and these contractions are back to back. So Mary Sue, when the next contraction hits, I want you to push as hard as you can, and let's get this baby out. Doctor Huntzberger, are you ready?"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Mary Sue screamed again.
"I'm ready. Let's do this."
"Alright Mary Sue, let's push and hold. Ready? Push! 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Good, great job, let's do it again. We need to get right back to it. Ready? Push! 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Great, let's do it again. You are almost there. Let's push as hard as you can, alright? Let's get this baby out, and all the pain will be over. You are doing great. Now give me a really big push. Ready? Push! 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. Perfect, that was so good! We've got your baby's head out. Let's do it one more time. Really big push! Ready? Push! 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15."
Mary Sue pushed again, screaming out in pain.
"That was perfect, we've got your baby. Congratulations, you've got a little boy." Logan told them.
"Sir, would you like to cut the cord?" Veronica asked as Logan passed the baby to her, then went to work to finish up the delivery.
"Hey, what's going on?" Paris asked, walking in the door a couple minutes later.
"We just delivered a baby. We've got a 8 pound, 12 ounce little boy." Veronica told her as she cleaned the baby off while he laid on his mother's chest.
"Hi, I'm Doctor Gellar." Paris said, holding her hand out toward the husband.
"Hi, I'm Gordon, this is my wife, Mary Sue."
"It's nice to meet you both. Congratulations on your new little one. How is everything going in here? Doctor Huntzberger, you look like you could use a hand." Paris said as she quickly moved to the sink, washed her hands, and pulled on a pair of gloves.
"You have perfect timing." Logan told her as he stood up, and traded her places, before moving to the sink himself, shedding the medical smock and gloves, before washing his hands, and pulling on a new set of gloves.
"Doctor Huntzberger, why don't you get our patient pulled up in the computer." Paris suggested.
"Gordon, I am going to need to get some information from you." Logan told him, as he moved toward the computer, and got himself logged in.
3:30am
Columbia Presbyterian Hospital
Logan walked into his sister's hospital room, with a large cup of coffee in his hand, to see her sitting in bed, with her phone, while Josh slept on the couch under the window.
"What are you doing awake?" Logan asked. "You should be resting before the big event.
"The contractions are getting stronger. They woke me up. I'm going to be needing those drugs that we talked about."
"How bad are they on a scale of 1-10?"
"About a 7."
"I'll go let Paris know. Do you want to hear something crazy before I go?"
"What's that?" Honor asked, finally looking up from her phone.
"I just delivered my first baby with only Veronica with me."
"Oh holy crap!"
"I know! I've only ever assisted with one delivery other than my own daughter. I learned how to do it in medical school, in case of an emergency, but I've never actually done it, on my own."
"There's nothing quite like trial by fire, right?"
"I'm dying to tell Rory, but I don't dare call her at 3:30 in the morning."
"Why don't you try texting her, to see if she's up with your daughter. She could be up nursing."
"That's true. Ayribella usually wakes up to eat around 4." Logan said as he set his coffee down on the table next to Honor, and pulled his phone out of his pocket.
"You realize that if you leave that coffee in front of me for much longer, I'm going to drink it all, right?"
"Go ahead, I'll go get another one. You might as well enjoy it before your drugs get here. I'll be back in a few minutes." Logan told her as he turned and headed for the door while typing out a message on his phone.
"Hey Logan?" Honor spoke up, watching as Logan stopped moving, turning back to look at her.
"Yeah?"
"Congratulations. I am really proud of you."
"Thanks Honor." Logan smiled, then turned back toward the door and headed out of the room.
"Logan!" Paris' voice boomed as he closed the door to Honor's room.
"Go ahead Paris, how badly did I screw up?" Logan asked with a sigh as he sent the text message through to his wife, then dropped his phone back into his pocket.
"Good job in there. For your very first delivery, you did excellent work."
"Oh really?!"
"Really. I am almost impressed."
"Thank you, that means a lot coming from you, Paris."
"If you ever decided to leave your clinic, I might be willing to let you join my team."
"Thanks, but no thank you. I am very happy, right where I am." Logan chuckled.
"Have you told your wife yet?"
"I just texted her to see if she's awake. I don't want to wake her, if both her and Ayribella are asleep. Honor is awake though. Contractions woke her up. She said the pain is at a 7 and she's asking for drugs."
"Go ahead and page Anesthesiology. Would you like to try your hand at delivering another baby tonight?"
"Only if I have to, and as long as it's not my sister."
"We'll see what the rest of this shift brings. We've got about another 4 hours before the next shift comes in, and we've got 9 patients and 4 babies delivered. That leaves 5 more babies that are coming."
"Any idea how the c-section Doctor Jolley was doing, went?"
"I haven't heard anything, but she should be back in room 2 if you want to go check on her. Have you ever assisted with a c-section?"
"Nope!"
"Would you like to?"
"Sure, why not."
"I'll find you if we end up with another one while you're here. How long have you been awake now?"
"About 20 hours. You?"
"21. I'm going to get coffee. Would you like one?"
"Yes, please. My sister just stole mine."
"That's what you get for taking it in her room." Paris chuckled as she beckoned Logan to follow her down the hall.