Friday Hospital Stay Part 2- reader discretion still advised

        I arrived on what had to be this hospitals busiest baby birthing night. Every labor and delivery room was full so I was wheeled to the back of a small overflow area that was divided by curtains into 4 spaces.  Mine was the smallest space of the other three, but thankfully I had a window!  My cousin and her fiancé, live in Augusta, and they were there waiting on me when I arrived.  I was away from home, but at least I was greeted by a smiling familiar face!  They brought me cookies and a super soft blanket, both would come in very handy.

In my bed, my toes were touching the privacy curtain!
You can see into the next room. Very small space!

        Once I had been checked out by the nurses, one of the doctor's came in to try and place a non stress test monitor on each of the babies, it proved to be an impossible task. The doctor grew so irritated with herself for not being able to make it work, especially after the nurse warned her that it would be too difficult for more than two babies.  Frustrated the Doc asked for the portable ultra sound machine, and was able to check on the babies that way.  By the time all was said and done, it was close to 11pm.  I received a dose of Magnesium to stop the remaining contractions and also it helps the babies neurologically.  Thankfully I did not have many of the terrible symptoms that can come along with magnesium, my only issue was my face felt like it was on fire.  I tried to calm myself and relax...and then the snapping started!  The lady next to me was laboring and every time she had a contraction she would yell her native tongue and then snap her fingers.  I understand grunting, wailing, hard breathing...but snapping?  I just don't see how that is a relief, I'm not passing judgment, I'm just surprised that snapping can be used as a coping mechanism.  The other lady that was in the overflow room had been in a car wreck and starting having contractions, so she had to be monitored for 4 hours. She had no bizarre antics, but she was in the space right beside the bathroom and didn't have her curtain pulled all the way around, so every time I went to the bathroom, I had to turn to the side and enter that way so I didn't see anything that I didn't need to be seeing!
         Trying to go to sleep next to a woman laboring just was not happening!  Plus all the lights were on!  My space had it's over head lights off, but every other space was well lit, and the privacy curtains are see through, big holed mesh for the top two feet.  Not only that, remember the labor and delivery bed I described?  That is what I was lying on, hard, flat, narrow and short "bed."   I couldn't roll onto my left side(typically my most comfortable sleep position) because I had had the steroid shot in that side earlier that day.  When I would roll to my right I couldn't help but be distracted by snappy snaperson on the other side.  I am not a shy person and don't embarrass easily; however, I was extremely uncomfortable with the thought that I was going to hear another woman give birth with nothing but a thin curtain for her privacy.  I then took the super soft blanket my cousin had brought me, folded it, and wrapped it from ear to ear, leaving a flap to hang over my eyes.  Although it did help muffle the noise, I still could not settle down enough to fall asleep.  Finally, around 2:45 am "Mrs. Snappers" was taken to a labor and delivery room. I slowly started drifting until the cleaning crew came in to clean her, now vacant, space.  The smell of hospital grade disinfectant burning my nose hairs, made it hard to sleep.  Moments after the cleaning crew left, the car wreck woman was cleared to go home.  I thought now that I was the only one in the room, the lights would be turned off and I could finally fall asleep, just as that thought finished forming in my head, another laboring woman came in!
         Although she didn't snap when contracting, she and her 4 other family members walked around the entire overflow space, moving curtains, making themselves comfortable.  She then proceeded to go to the bathroom without closing the door, and because she was laboring, she had diarrhea! Not only that, but she felt it necessary to talk with her family as she was blowing it up in the bathroom, grunts and all!  I threw my hands over my ears and prayed that I would not have to pee until a nurse could come in!! I was in shock at how the night was going and started to get emotional, I feared I would lose it!  Thankfully(or so I thought at the moment) the nurse and doctor came in.  The doctor checked my contraction monitor and wanted to do a manual cervix check.  I had no bed pan to lift my  hips up, and she was determined to get this check done quickly (again, they were swamped with women having babies, she kept getting paged).  She told me to ball up my fists and put them under my hips, which is hard to do seeing as how I felt like a turned over turtle and I had my IV in the bend of my left wrist.  I did my best, but it was not good enough, she fought...and I mean fought, to reach my cervix.  I cried out in pain and couldn't breathe.  She continued to force her way to my cervix, I tried so very hard to sit there and take it, but I ended up begging her to stop, I was in so much pain.  She said hang in there for just a minute and praise God, she reached it and was finished.  I was so lightheaded after, my hearing was muted and I just laid there crying, trying to calm myself and take deep breaths.  Would this night ever be over?  The silver lining of my exam and recovery after wards, occupied my mind from my "roommate."  However, now I had to pee!!!  I was helped to the bathroom only to see splattered blood on the floor and diarrhea on the toilet! I spun around, looked at my nurse and asked if someone could clean this or if there was another bathroom I could use.  I was not trying to be insensitive, when a woman is in labor, stuff happens, nasty bodily stuff!  But that is why women have their own labor and delivery rooms! sharing a space during this time, is just not sanitary!  At 5:48am a room finally opened up that she was able to go to.  I slept for 38 minutes and then my new roommate arrived...and she would end up taking the cake...