My little munchkin

On July 3, 1997, I received a call very early in the morning from my 25-year-old daughter telling me she was in labor with her first child and would I please come to the hospital. She had gone into labor over six weeks early and was VERY scared.

I remembered that she was to deliver at another hospital across town, but, because she was delivering so early her obstetrician insisted she go to Yale-New Haven Hospital - STAT. I remember my husband and I pacing outside her room while she went to delivery. She looked so scared and my husband and I were in tears. Yes, we were her parents, but yet there was NOTHING we could do but wait. As a parent, that isn’t the easiest thing to do!

It seemed like forever, but finally we were told she had a little girl, Julia Paige Marquis. We were ecstatic, our first granddaughter was born and our daughter was OK. BUT—there are always “buts”—Julia was rushed to Newborn Special Care and put on a ventilator, as her lungs were underdeveloped. I remember visiting over the next 30 days, watching her breathe with the assistance of equipment, hoping and praying that all would be OK, after all, Julia was MY granddaughter not just anybody! I remember the doctors and nurses here at YNHH tending to her day and night, and I remember my daughter looking so happy yet so sad and so scared as we all were. I remember getting daily reports on her O₂ SATs. I remember Julia’s homecoming and my getting to hold her for the very first time. She was so small and so very fragile! I remember babysitting her and checking on her every five minutes to make certain she was still breathing.

That seems so very long ago, almost four years to the day to be exact. Just this past Sunday, my blond-haired, blue-eyed Julia ran up to me and said, “Grandma, can you buy me an Etch-A-Sketch for my birthday. I used to have one when I was a little girl, but I wrote all over it.” You know, the very next day, Grandma drove all over town to find that darn Etch-A-Sketch. There’s not a thing Grandma wouldn’t do for her “Little Munchkin” as I affectionately refer to her. Thank you Yale-New Haven Hospital and Newborn Special Care for taking such good care of my “Little Munchkin.” My life is all the more precious for her.

Shirley Pinette
Diagnostic Imaging