Saturday, December 15, 2012

Stretched

I'm the girl that likes to go to bed early. Who never pulls an all nighter to finish assignments, because I just can't stay awake. I like my sleep. I need to sleep. Yet, here I am training to be a midwife. 

The one thing I was worried about when I decided to be a midwife was the crazy hours you have to work. Babies come on their own terms, at their own time and lets face it, that timing isn't normally 9-5. 

Can I do this I wondered. 

It was a hard at first. Took a while to learn how to wake up and function in an instant. I made blunders, I did (and still do) silly things. Yet I learned, I did it and I do it. 

It is hard to stretch. Hard to mold and change. Hard to do the difficult things. But it is possible to do what seems to be impossible. 



Last night again I was reminded of this. 

I was up first to catch and had the boyfriend (cell phone). The first night my name came to the top of the rotation I had a runny nose and needed to sleep. Please God, I prayed, don't let a labor come in tonight. God answered my prayer and I slept soundly through the night without the boyfriend making a peep. 

The next night I was tried but not feeling so bad, yet I prayed again asking God to wait until morning. God did not answer my prayer, deciding instead that I needed a little stretching.

Having just drifted off into dream land, a text came in. I go from asleep to awake in an instant. A first time mom is in labor and after texting back and forth it is decided she should come. 

I dress in my scrubs and go get the birth room ready. When the girl arrives at 11pm and she is obviously in discomfort. Contractions are strong and after doing her ie I predict she will go fast. I was wrong. 

She does an amazing job, but like I said before babies don't come on anyones terms. The clock ticks, I encourage, her mother rubs her back and she grows tried. Finally at about 5:30am she starts feeling like pushing. 

It is hard to understand. Some babies slid into this world so easily and beautifully, while others do not. This little one, was one of the hard ones. Her mom worked so hard, but it took a long time and finally at just after 7am and a lot of silent prayer a beautiful baby girl entered the world. 

I love seeing the joy on a new mothers face. No matter how hard she worked and how difficult the birth was, it is amazing to see that joy and humbling to hear her thank you for helping. 

So I relish the stretching. I love that God uses me in my weakness. That He teaches me that I really can do all things through Him. That He further molds me in my tiredness, when I want to (and sometimes am) grumpy and have to work to be kind. In the moments when my eyes are so wanting to close and I have to push that extra bit to finish my task. The humbleness I learn, from reaching the end of me and having to except or ask for help. 

Yes, this stretching is good. 

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