A Visit To The Hospital

Thankfully, none of us is sick or wounded. We decided to take a spontaneous visit to the university hospital where Liam was born almost 6 years ago. We thought it would be fun for him to see. I knew they didn't let kids into the maternity ward, but thought we could try at least. I had a good feeling that we'd somehow get in.

The receptionist just looked at us after we told her what we wanted to do and indeed confirmed that children weren't allowed up there. Well, she then phoned up to Dr. Hugo Sabatino's office (he's an obstetrician originally from Uruguay, who is over the squatting delivery program that we did - alternative style deliveries and humanization of births) to see if we could see him anyway. I couldn't believe he was actually there. He told her to send us ALL up!

We went with the kids up to his office. He received us so graciously and said we could all go into the surgical unit where the squatting chair is to see it. It took the nurses a while to let us in as one of them thought he wanted her to set-up the whole squatting chair. She wasn't happy about that. When she learned she had misunderstood she apologized profusely about the way she acted. We were just blown-away that we could all go in there.

We had to wear scrubs and this is where Liam had his meltdown. Whenever he has to wear a costume or anything out of the ordinary, he thinks everyone is laughing at him. Dr. Hugo graciously said he didn't have to wear them, but after that, Liam was already in bad form. It was so embarrassing given that Dr. Hugo, an important and widely respected, yet humble, medical doctor who was giving us his time so generously to give us that opportunity to see where Liam was born, and our son who had been the star of the show that day (well, I would say his mother really was given all I went through!) was behaving so badly.

After Isabella saw that Liam didn't want to be a part of it all, she decided she wouldn't either. Dr. Hugo was so nice about the kids and just kept smiling at them admirably. He kept telling us what a beautiful family we had, etc. Edil and I took a photo with Dr. Hugo by the squatting chair. The man even moved furniture around so we could get a good angle!

After that, we went to see the room where I stayed with Liam. He had us ALL enter there to see the newborn babies and new mothers. The moms were all very simple kind of women from humble backgrounds. They smiled when I told them that I had been in that room when Liam was born. I was so distracted the whole time though with worrying about Liam's behavior.

We walked out with Dr. Hugo and he was still so very nice and seemed so grateful that we had stopped-by. I think since it's his program, he is very happy that we valued it enough to come back to visit. He even wants me to write about my experience so he can publish it to advertise so more people will choose to do the program. He gave me his e-mail. Edil and I came back a bit deflated wondering how to deal with Liam when this happens. It seems whenever we make a big deal about something, he has these meltdowns.