Rubber gloves required...or not!

Yesterday I was privileged enough to visit a young friend and her newborn son. I didn't have to be invited twice! I love babies! I was extremely eager to take the trip to Bolingbrook to see the brand new Adventist Hospital, the new mom and her brand spanking new, not even 24 hr. old, baby son. I couldn't get there fast enough. Even his precious name, Lucas Sean, was cute as a button and was a healthy boy, weighing in at a healthy nine pounds, I could almost smell him. There is something about the smell of a newborn. I can almost feel my own babies in my arms, if I try really hard. Mothers never forget those things! Even though it has been a very, very long time; I do remember those tiny blankets of joy weighing 5# 13 oz. and 6# 12oz. That was the memory that brought me eagerly up to Bolingbrook yesterday.

I suddenly remember how careful I had to be 36 yrs ago when I had to leave my daughter in the hospital for a few extra days. Every time I went back to the hospital to feed her, I had to scrub and put on a gown over my street clothes. They were very restrictive with visitors; but moms and dads could come to visit their child if they wore the proper attire. Gloves were a must, along with the gowns. Baby had to wear hospital issued sleepwear. It was a one piece drawstring bottom nightgown with hand coverings. Even the blankets were hospital issued. Blue for boys and pink for little girls; that is how it was back in the day. One more thing, the babies were swaddled. When the nurse brought your baby to you, you might be able to see its little face and that's about all. How many mothers when the nurse left would remove layer after layer to count fingers and toes? Yep, all there and accounted for.

So, noting that things are really restrictive now; I was worried that since I wasn't even a blood relative, things may be even tighter when it came to seeing Lucas. Maybe we wouldn't even be able to visit. I certainly didn't want to get my hopes up that I would be able to hold a child that wasn't even 1 day old. I imagined that even if that was a possibility, we would have to scrub up, take off this, put on that, jump through hoops and pay dearly to even get near the child. After all, the mailman wears rubber gloves to deliver junk mail and my grandson has to pass three check points daily to go to high school.

So, park the car. No handicapped spaces available. Seems like that's happening more and more these days. As the baby-boomers get older; we may have parking lots that have a few designated spots for people who are NOT disabled. Anyway, in we go and guess what? Other then obtaining a "Visitor's Pass" which we were told to put somewhere within view we were simply directed to the 4th floor. Up we go, through the swinging doors and into my friends private room. She and her new son sat there watching television as if we were visiting her home. No special garb, no washing, no sterile gloves; none of these were needed. The only monitoring device was a little tag on the little baby boy's foot. It looked like something that you would see on an expensive piece of clothing in a department store. "You can't shoplift a baby", Jerry stated. I was flabbergasted. "Wait a minute! The postman handles our junk mail with rubber gloves, but we don't need to follow any precautions to handle a newborn. Don't you find that absurd?"