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.

"...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."

Don't you wonder sometimes just how many arms and legs they have?? "Are you a baby or an octapus? Chill, for heaven's sake!"

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Specializes in NICU.
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.

What are angel frames? Sounds like a good idea...

My coworker and I once came back from break to find her little patient, a 500-gram 24 weeker, SIDEWAYS on the bed. He rotated 45 degrees so that he was parallel to the oscillator tubing, feet pressed up against the side of the isolette, sound asleep. ETT tube still taped securely, chest was wiggling away! No alarms went off since he was still ventilated, and his Giraffe had a cover on it so no one knew!

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Specializes in midwifery, NICU.
A! 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.

Sweeper,forgive my dumbness, but what are angel frames? VV interested, do you have any links to where we can find them? OMG, sometimes I wish I was american, you have all the fabby stuff!!

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Specializes in Level III NICU.
A! 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.

Sweeper,forgive my dumbness, but what are angel frames? VV interested, do you have any links to where we can find them? OMG, sometimes I wish I was american, you have all the fabby stuff!!

We use angel frames too, and I've been trying to find a picture online so I can post it for you all. Basically it's a plastic frames that fits over the top of an isolette mattress and has slots that hold vent tubing. It has a screw that you can loosen and tighten to adjust which way you want to put the vent tubing. They're wonderful, they help keep the vent tubing from pulling on the ETT, and look a whole lot nicer than tape all over the bed!

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Specializes in NICU.

We use angel frames too, and I've been trying to find a picture online so I can post it for you all. Basically it's a plastic frames that fits over the top of an isolette mattress and has slots that hold vent tubing. It has a screw that you can loosen and tighten to adjust which way you want to put the vent tubing. They're wonderful, they help keep the vent tubing from pulling on the ETT, and look a whole lot nicer than tape all over the bed!

We use something similar that we just call a "wheel" because it's round and also has a screw that you can tighten in whatever position you want. It has a flat bottom that we slip under the mattress or bedscale. There are different sized grooves all around the wheel and you can wedge your vent tubing into it.

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Specializes in NICU-Level III.
I love "Eye-PAP". Oh and the poop squirts. Nothing like finding and scrubbing the poop out of isolette after a blow out!

FINDING it?! How about catching it in your hand or on your arm in the middle of a diaper change! I try to be really careful by putting a clean diaper under the dirty diaper and pulling out the dirty one after wiping, but that doesn't always work!

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Specializes in ER, PED'S, NICU, CLINICAL M., ONCO..

Yep! I do the same, sometimes using a plastic bag, instead of a cleaned diaper.

I have many happy moments that keep me up after all.

“Eye contact” is one of the most. Sometimes “skin contact”, while embracing a baby on my chest holding her/his head against my neck, making him calm down.

But “eye contact” being closer than twenty centimeters for few sec’s, is a silent, magical, meaningful moment.

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Specializes in NICU.

I've been taking care of a 700 grammer for 3 months now. She weighs 2.5 kg. now. We are working on her PO feeds, which she is having trouble with. (We have to thicken all feeds to honey consistency due to severe reflux.) Last Satruday after her bath, she was all wrapped up in her blankets and wide awake. I called her name and she looked straight at me and actually focused on my face for the first time. and tracked me with her eyes. It made my day. Her Mom has also said to me several times that she wishes I could be there every day to care for her baby.

I also had a primary patient who is now 6 years old. She was a 24 weeker, 650 grams, with Gr. III bleeds, who required serial taps for hydrocephalus. It resolved before discharge. Her parents bring her to see me every year at Christmas. Last year, she sang a nursery rhyme for me, and when her Mom asked her what she'd learned in Bible class, she started to quote phrases that she haad memorized over the weeks. Wow! She also takes gymnastics to help with her balance. Things like this just make my day.

I love babies who will kick her way out of their SnuggleUp and try to crawl out of the bed. Feisty little things! I had one, thankfully not intubated, whom I saw upside down in his Isolette, sound asleep. I think he was remembering where he'd just come from. And how laying upside down was perfectly natural to him.

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Specializes in NICU.

We had a cute 8 1/2 lb term baby who came to us with a hgh bili (ABO incompatibility) at less than 24 hrs of age. He was under multiple bili lights, with an IV for several days. He was out from under the lights one night for a feeding, and started to smile at the nurse who had just fed him. I took a great photo of him, and it was a real smile, not just gas!

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Specializes in Neonatal ICU.

We had a set of 28 week twin boys, and we put them together in a servocrib once they we well enough and one of them always had his had on his brother, just making sure he was still there. And the one being touched all time time was very irritable, he just wanted to be left alone... sibling rivalry so young!!

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Specializes in NICU/PP/Nursery.

We have a 30 weeker and last night her father got to hold her for the first time. As this huge man held this tiny baby girl, tears just rolled down his face. All of us had to hold back the tears at this beautiful moment.

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Specializes in NICU.

The "look" on a babies face when they breastfeed successfully for the first time and seem to really "get it" makes me smile. As does his or her mother's expression of joy when it happens.

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