Funny/happy NICU moments needed

Published

:scrying: After a wonderful 6 months maternity leave home with my girls, I'm headed back to the NICU and I need some encouragement. Help me remember WHY I love my job despite the horrendous hours.

OH, and my fridge died so 3/4 of my frozen milk supply was thawed:( and therefore ruined.

Need funny NICU moments to cheer me up! Thanks!

Specializes in Junior Year of BSN.

Good luck, you'll do great.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in NICU.

Having all three of your ad lib on demand babies wake up and start screaming at once... and to have help from every single nurse in your room (and a few from the room next door) offering to help, feed, fetch things, etc. Seeing such great teamwork and willingness to work together ALWAYS makes me smile and realize how lucky I am.

Seeing the first micropreemie you'd ever taken care of get ready to FINALLY go home with mom and dad a (relatively) big and fairly healthy baby. That just happened today, and it was a great feeling.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in NICU, CVICU.

I love the little ones that don't simply squirm out of the most comfortable nest you've made, but also managed to leave their diaper behind and when you look into the isolette there's a little bum pointing straight up.

Another of my favorites is taking a picture of something that a little one has done when the parents aren't around and then being able to give the picture to mom/dad the next day and laughing about it all over again with the parents.

Good luck on your day back!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in NICU, Infection Control.

We used to have a tradition of doing a creche "tableaux" on Christmas Eve (night shift). Much effort went into this--selecting who would play whom, making costumes out of available materials, finding a few minutes to set up, photo, and return everything. Of course, one of teh babies would be selected for the main character.

One year, one of the nurses planned a very elaborate event: a whole story w/different scenes, including an innkeeper. There are usually 3 docs on, so they are always the Kings and spend a lot of time on their crown. RTs are often shepherds--lots of cotton balls. The scale (w/a sheet) is the manger. And, of course, Mary and Joseph.

This particular year, Jesus had been chosen, but we had a Spanish speaking couple that were not able to spend a lot of time w/their girl, and the baby did not have the world's greatest prognosis. Since Mom and Dad were still there quite late, Jesus was changed to be their daughter. Mom and Dad (the only parents EVER to see the event) were asked to stay. Even tho they didn't speak English, they enjoyed every minute! Took lots of pictures, laughed @ the appropriated times (usually when the "director" made changes!) Thankfully, all the other kids and the del room behaved themselves.

It was just one of the cutest things I've ever seen! And not something you'd EVER think of doing on an adult unit.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in NICU.

Had a little 2 pounder squirm and squiggle her left leg up and out the top of her diaper, with diaper tabs still attached. Her right leg was still in the proper place. AND SHE DIDN'T MAKE A MESS. Don't ask me how.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in NICU, PICU, MNICU.

I love reading all these stories!!! I miss NICU SO much!!!!

I love going to reunions and seeing babies who had fought for life 2-3 years ago revisit us as happy healthy toddlers. It doesn't happen all the time of course, but some of the kids we thought would have poor prognoses sometimes really surprise us!

People who come back a long time after their child was discharged and remember us, and thank us.

Heck, just getting a thank you. Sometimes we have parents make presents or bring in sweets. That's nice, but all I really want is a thank you :)

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in midwifery, NICU.
Your post brings me back to the time I spent in Edinburgh with the community midwives there (I've since dragged my husband there because I loved it so much)

We have a nurse in our unit from Glasgow who always charts in the comment section "Out for a wee cuddle" I love it!

2curlygirls :yelclap: send cuddles to you and your friend the nurse from "Glesga"(I'm from falkirk so would say it this way!!)( GO YURSEL THE FALKIRK WHEEL!!!!, how proud am I?? look it up on t'internet, amazing thing!) please send her all my best!!:kiss arlene

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in NICU.

Ah yes... squirting poop... I once had a little boy who somehow managed to squirt through the porthole at the end of the isolette - right onto the other nurse in the room who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time! The look on her face was priceless! It's even funnier when the parents are here to see the "explosive poop" in action! They're never sure whether to be concerned - or laugh!

It also never ceases to amaze me when a kid will be perfect all night, no desats or anything. And then during report in the morning/evening - they're desating the entire time. It's as if they know when we're talking about them or something!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I am only a pre-nursing student/NICU/PICU nurse wannabe, but you guys are making me laugh and cry with these posts and the vivid memories they invoke of my daughter's stay in the NICU. My daughter has Down syndrome and is a Houdini by nature, so she had several bouts of "eye-PAP" and a few "ear-PAP's" too. We were forever searching for the sock that helped keep her pulse-ox attached to her toe. ;) The best memory, however, was when one of her nurses put her in actual clothing for the first time. I was 50 miles away from her during part of the week, so my SIL was there every day. That one morning, my SIL called me, absolutely elated, nearly screaming that they had her in a white dress with pink flowers, and she looked like she was ready to go to church! The nurses also took pictures of her and placed them in an album so I could see what she looked like that day, a 3.5-pounder, completely engulfed by her preemie-sized outfit. (Today that dress sits framed in my SIL's home--good memories from not-so-good times, if that makes any sense...)

Anyway, you NICU nurses are AWESOME--don't ever forget that--we parents are eternally grateful for the care you've given our precious babies :icon_hug:

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I was peeking into an isolette to check on one of my babies only to find him with both hands wrapped around his NG tube pulling on it with all his might.

AHA! Caught ya you litte bugger!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I helped out in the regular nursery (when Peds is slow) which is connected to the NICU. A 4 year old was not allowed in the NICU to see his baby brother, so he was waiting outside with his grandfather. He was interested in everything that was going on, so I explained what the different wires did and that he was being fed by the tube in his hand, etc. He loved it and so did grandpa. I don't think anyone had bothered to try to explain anything to him. It was so cool :)

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Renal; NICU.

We had a very laid-back RT once who was NEVER in a hurry and hardly got ruffled in ANY emergency.

Well, one of my co-workers had a baby on the scale and when she raised his butt to slip under the diaper, the kid shot poop about 6 ft, straight down this guy's leg.

He stood there for a few seconds, said, "Awww, s**t"!! and s-l-o-w-l-y walked out of the room, holding his pant leg. To this day, I just cackle whenever I think of this.

After 19.5 years, I still love my babies, having never had any of my own. But I am so grateful that I get to go home at the end of the 12 hours! (maybe that's why I didn't have kids, just cats!)

But the best moments for me are the dads when they see the baby and touch them for the first time. They are so frightened by this tiny human; so overwhelmed by the magnitude of pain & illness, their loss of control, their new responsibility. Big, strong men who find an uncharacteristic tenderness in themselves and can cry at the drop of a hat.

Yes indeed, to me, these are the real men.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion