Funny/happy NICU moments needed

Specialties NICU

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 NICU, Infection Control.

I once had a Dad who had been a pro football player. I put his ~ 2# baby in his arms, and w/in 5 minutes, he told me, "I can't believe I'm saying this, but my arms are tired!!" We both laughed, I put the baby back and told him he'd be more relaxed next time.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Maternity & Well Baby Nursery.

Your stories have been such an inspiration and funny as all get out too!

2curlygirls, did you have a good day? :balloons:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in midwifery, NICU.
:

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.

:yelclap: Totally agree dbscandy! the NICU is where the real men find themselves and are found! :pumpiron:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in NICU.

I have been reading these posts here and there, have even added my own a few times. Last night I had one of those "charge nights from hell". Too many babies, not enough nurses, not enough space, not enough equipment... Not to mention the 3 admits I got that night. Now every one on the unit is extremely helpful - we're all great about helping each other out when things get crazy. To make a very long story short - I got a call from the DR at about 6 in the morning about a mom who was on a "few" meds, and that they wanted us down there for the delivery. At this point I had already gotten 2 babies that night, one of which was a 24weeker who ended up on doPa and the HFOV within hours of being born. Anyway, the docs and I go down there for this code and we are then shown the complete list of meds that the mom was on - turns out mom was on just about every psych med in the book. Upon hearing this, I was in the process of calling up to my unit for reinforcements (that way I wouldn't need them...) when the baby comes out - totally limp/blue/not breathing. I had one of the OB nurses call up for help, as the docs and I were busy intubating, doing compressions, giving epi... We got the baby stablized and brought to the unit just before shift change at 7. (The baby is doing much better tonight by the way)

Anyway... after my night last night, I decided to read through all these posts again, and have found myself laughing outloud so hard that my rommates have had to ask me twice if I was ok! I love that we have so many of these moments to share. Keep them coming!

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

I'm very glad it helped! I love to read this thread, too!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in NICU.

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!!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in NICU.

Wow, my thread got stickied. I don't know what to say, sniff sniff.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in NICU.
Wow, my thread got stickied. I don't know what to say, sniff sniff.

Awesome! I thought it should be stickied too and made a suggestion, but was told we already had a thread like it. I like this thread though :)

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in IV Therapy, newborn, MotherBaby.

Mom's face when she kangaroos for the first time and baby finds "the milk supply".

Dad's face when kangaroo-ing, and baby thinks he/she found "the milk supply"!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Renal; NICU.

I remembered a happy moment to share yesterday when this little cutie was extubated and we were able to catch a picture before the CPAP was placed. This is always such a good moment for parents who may have never seen their baby's full face.

We always try to take a pic whenever we re-intubate or extubate to CPAP, especially when the parents are not there.

Some sweet soul donated two digital cameras/printers for which we are so grateful (and happy).

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Two Nites ago my coworker's 26 weeker pushed on her snuggley boundries and slid to the top of her warmer bed leaving her ETT behind. The unit was hectic and we were short staffed.Of course alarms went off and we dashed to her bedside. When we looked at her she was as blue as could be, but she was looking around and kicking up at the plastic but refusing to take a breath even when stimulated. We gave her PPV with bag and mask and she fought us sqeeking in between breaths. She got reintubated quickly and we had to wrap her hands up because she kept trying to pull the ETT out again. We were all laughing at how strong this 900 Gm premie was because it took four RNs to restrain her and place back on the vent and wrapped her up in her snuggley again. Her little tantrum kept us charged up to finish the night in a better mood. PremieOne

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in NICU.

Ah yes... gotta love when a 800g baby gets their hands wrapped so tightly around their ETT that their knuckles are turning white! It will also never cease to amaze me when I find one that one of my babies turned their heads a complete 180 degrees the other way - with the ETT still taped down on the bed on the other side... and they're still connected/intubated! No matter how well we tape down the equipment and confine these little guys, they still find ways to get around it all! I must say however, the angel frames we have been using the last few years have been a huge help with this problem, it's harder for the babies to turn their heads as much.

Speaking of ET tubes not being where they're supposed to be anymore... we once had this rather incompetant RT on our unit (don't even get me started on that situation... she was finally fired...) but anyway... I had this baby who extubated herself right at the end of the shift for me. We finally get her reintubated, and the RT is busy securing the tape/tube to her face while I'm busy starting to give report to the next nurse. The RT tells me that's she's all done, and she starts walking away from the bed. The next thing I know, everything's alarming all at once. I look in the bed at the baby, and the entire tube, tape, clamp, and all is hanging there. The RT had forgotten to take the backing off of the sticky part of the tegaderm... yeah...

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment