Take the time

I guess the "nursing tales" part of this blog is kind of defunct as I rarely post anything about work on here. But I promise, as soon as the wedding is over, I will.

I get to do some very happy things in my line of work. We currently have 1 baby from a set of twins with us (the sister is at home). Mom comes in late at night because they only have one car and dad works nights, so she takes him to work and then comes to visit around 1 am.

11:00 pm til about 1:30 am is NUTS in the NICU because there's report being given, labs drawn, and just about every single baby has care due around then. I happened to have a few extra minutes after doing care on both my babies and was talking to the sweet Twin's Mom.

In 8 weeks, she'd only ever held her daughter ONE TIME. I was floored. I had that baby out of the Giraffe OmniBed® and in her mother's arms in less than 5 minutes.

This is NOT ok. At all! Bad form on all my fellow nurses who have allowed this to happen. Yes, we get busy. Yes, our other baby is trying to see "the light." Yes, we have to pee. I hear you, I do. But please take 5 minutes. Even if the child is fragile, show the parents how to contain him in the isolette. Help the Mom do Kangaroo Care.
Picture from March of Dimes

This is really important to me. As a NICU Auntie and a NICU Nurse, I know how important bonding is, and my vow from here on out is that every baby I care for who is medically stable and has parents who show up, will get held. It's beneficial to the babies and their parents.

I am grateful that I got to give the gift of bonding to a mother last night. It's part of the joy that I find in my job. Yes, there's sadness. But I get the privalege to witness miracles every single day.