Difficulty trying to transfer

The reason is probably because you only have 4 months nursing experience. While some large NICUs hire new grads, they have an established training and preceptorship program lasting 10-12 weeks before you are on your own. Smaller NICUs have a short orientation, so the expectation is that you have a good base knowledge before starting in the NICU and at the 4 month mark, you don't have the experience that they are looking for.

You may or may not get the position you want, but where's the harm in applying? If you don't apply it's certain that you won't ever get it. Good luck!

I'm worried I'll never get the experience on my floor. We are part of the hospital (in a separate building), but we don't even have a proper crash cart. Just an AED and an ambu-bag. Our patients are medically cleared - and if they aren't, we don't take them.

You're not really a new grad, so you're not eligible for new grad programs. And you don't really have enough experience to be useful, either. The "transfer after 90 days" policy may (officially or unofficially) not apply to new grads. The unit that hires them needs to train them, and after four months they're not really skilled or experienced enough to have contributed anything to that unit in return for the training. Wait a year, become competent where you are and then try again.

I'm often (every other Wednesday) the only nurse on my unit, with two techs and up to 16 kids. I don't even have a charge nurse those nights. It makes me nervous to stay here a year. Beyond that, my husband and I are planning to move halfway across the country (to Washington) in two years, and I really want some solid experience so that I can get a good job, since the Washington nursing job market is so hard to get into.

Have you considered a transfer to something else, like med-surg? I get that NICU and Peds are your main interests, but they are also specialties and often don't take new nurses unless there's a special residency or something. NICU is especially technically demanding, and is unlikely to hire someone whose only real experience is with people who are already medically cleared. Unless it's a children's hospital, there are probably not many peds patients, and, thus, not many nurses needed. Peds nurses get down staffed a lot because sometimes you might only have a couple of patients in your census.

Since you are planning to leave fairly soon anyway, why not pursue a job that will get you the clinical skills you'll need to be considered for a specialty job in the future? I mean, if you're going to be using the next year or two as a stepping stone to the Washington job market, it makes sense to get a job that will hone your clinical skills.