Today, I’m participating in Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop, and I chose this prompt.
1.) A quote from someone that has stuck with you.
It was June, 1980. My son, Marshall, had been born five weeks prematurely, and in less than twelve hours had been transported by a neo-natal ambulance to the nearest children’s hospital.
He was having some breathing issues, and the doctors feared that, because he was a preemie, his lungs hadn’t had time to develop. But a birth weight of 6 pounds, 1 ounce at birth, and high Apgar scores were reasons to be optimistic about his overall health.
Since Marshall was born by Caesarean, I wasn’t able to accompany him to the children’s hospital. Soon after he arrived and was examined, the doctor called to tell me that his lungs (thankfully) were fully developed, but he had been born with double pneumonia. This was a much better scenario, because they could treat it with an antibiotic, and it wouldn’t require such a long hospital stay.
Even after hearing this good news, it was still difficult being in the hospital those five days- on the maternity floor – and having a roommate whose healthy baby was being brought to her on a regular basis.
One day, my ob-gyn came in my room while making his rounds, and found me crying. Being the compassionate doctor that he was, he sat at the foot of my bed and asked what was wrong. When I replied that I was worried about my baby, he said that he’d heard that he was doing well. Then he said this: “But you worried about him before he was born, and you’ll worry about him until the day you die”.
My doctor was, at the time, dad to two little boys, so he knew all about this parenting club, of which I was a brand new member.
To the sorrow of his many patients, my doctor retired a couple of years ago. But during one of my office visits a few years ago, I mentioned what he’d said that day, and that I’d always remembered it.
We agreed that, although the role of a parent changes through the years, worrying about your baby is a given…..no matter his age.
~These Days Of Mine~
these days of mine 