Babies babies everywhere

I took a brief vacation from blogging over the holidays, but I'm back and ready to share with you what is happening in 2010!

As I mentioned in my previous entry, the hospital was closed for almost a two week period just prior to Christmas.  This was due to a conflict with one of the local tribes.  Thankfully that has all been resolved and we re-opened for business on Christmas Eve.  It took a few days for word to spread, but we have definitely made up for the time off in the first weeks of this new year!  Last week every ward was full to overflowing.

I am currently the D-ward doc.  "D" is now the designated letter for maternity ward.  It has been quite a busy week... we have babies babies everywhere!  Almost every bed was filled with a laboring or new mama.  The nursery is quite full with the little ones, mostly premature and low birth weight babies that need extra special care.  I think we had four sets of twins at one point.  Thankfully they are all doing well and growing slowly but surely.  

We have celebrated two "2000 Gram Parties" in recent days.  Mandela had her baby early December.  She had a placenta previa and began bleeding, so she had an emergency c-section at about 7 months of pregnancy.  Baby of Mandela was only 1600 grams when she was first born, and was the first to reach the 2000 gram milestone in 2010.  Despite her now good growth, she is having difficulty learning to breast feed and will need to stay at the hospital until she is able to feed on her own.  

Our second party of the year was held today in honor of Rose and her two babies.  The twins had a rough start but are now growing like two little weeds!

I so enjoy my days on D-ward, for the most part anyways :).  I especially love taking care of the mamas and their little babies in the nursery.  They often stay for several weeks or even months while waiting for the babies to grow big enough to go home.  What a privilege it is to look out for these precious ones!