Re: Funny/happy NICU moments needed
The other night, I had 3 kids: 1 rooming-in with Mom, getting ready to go home 2 days later; 1 feeder-grower in a crib, parents didn't speak English; the last a 36 week twin with hyperbili and apnea issues. It really shouldn't have been a difficult assignment. My baymate had similar babies, 1 rooming in, and 2 fairly easy kids, only they both had IV's. I spent forever early in the shift trying to communicate with the non-English speaking parents who had many questions about their baby, then both of my baymate's IV's went out at the same time, so we spent a good couple of hours working on these kids, trying to get IV's in them. Things finally calmed down and I went to lunch. When I came back from lunch, the charge nurse told me I was getting a 34-wkr. I expected this to happen within the hour, so instead of weighing, drawing lab, and feeding the baby that was due to eat then, I just fed him, figuring I could do the rest with the next feeding, after the admission was over. Of course the admission didn't come for another 2 hours, and when it did, turned into a 2-hour long admission. The baby was relatively stable - came up in room air, but throughout the course of our hour or more of attempts to draw blood cultures, start an IV, etc, he started grunting, retracting, and desatting, and earned himself a cannula (continued to do so after we left him alone). During the admission, the baby I hadn't weighed or drawn lab on was due to eat again, and this being the last round of the night, I needed to do all that "extra" stuff with this feeding). I found another nurse to do all that, and then the next kid was due to eat. And during this time, the mom of my rooming-in baby called and wanted me to bring him back inside then to weigh him and do his lab. My baymate somehow managed to do both of those kids before I even realized it, and I was still working on the 34 weeker. My charge nurse was nowhere to be found (but thank goodness for the transport nurse who brought the baby up, she stayed and helped). Eventually I got everything done, went to check on lab results for one of my kids. The results weren't even pending on the computer, some 2 hours later. Lab denied ever receiving the specimen. Well, eventually, it turned out that lab had THROWN AWAY the specimen (second time they've done that to one of our babies in a week). Anyway, it was a hectic night where I barely managed to get everything done, despite having the help of 3 nurses. The next night though, I got to finish up discharge teaching on parents who couldn't be happier to take their kid home and listened intently to everything I said and thanked me profusely for everything I had taught them over my 3 nights that week (we spent a lot of time working on breastfeeding techniques)...I took the time to give a baby a nice long tub bath, which she thoroughly enjoyed, before pulling out her NG tube not once, not twice, but 3 TIMES! (but she was cute, so I forgave her...eventually)...and gave the new admission from the previous night a bath, and got him a matching knitted blanket and hat from our volunteers and had him snuggled up looking very cute when Mom came and saw him.
I guess the hectic nights are evened out by the nights where I have time to do a few little extra things!
I just saw how long this is...congratulations to anyone who made it all the way through!!
Totally agree dbscandy! the NICU is where the real men find themselves and are found! 
Re: Funny/happy NICU moments needed
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