Babies everywhere

I was assigned to the NICU Wednesday. It was pretty boring because for the most part you just let the kids sleep so they can rest and grow. We do assessments every two hours, alternating doing a hands-on assessment and just taking vitals off the monitors. You want to disturb them as little as possible because it’s stressful. We had a little girl born at 27 weeks (her mother was getting sick fast with high blood pressures) who was on her second day in the NICU. She was under 1 pound. She looked more like a fetus than a baby since she hasn’t put any fat on. Just a large head and skeletal body with frail muscles you can see under her skin. She was getting her nutrition through a central line in her umbilical vein and was breathing on a ventilator. We had to suction her trachea a few times for fluid build-up. She was also hooked up to an ECG, had a pulse oximeter on her foot (that you have to switch feet each day because the little light can burn their thin skin), and a temperature probe stuck to her belly. It must be frightening for parents to see their kid like this. She was on a bed under a radiant warmer and pumped in moist air to keep her from drying out. They use saran wrap over the bed to keep the air in. I guess the fancy “giraffe isolette” was being used by another preemie who was not so badly off but was born first. I loved taking care of the little girl. She was so completely helpless. When she cried it was soundless because of the intubator. Kind of surreal.

Thursday I was assigned to Labor and Delivery. First I did a transition for a newborn c-section just before I started my shift. I gave the baby its first bath and took vitals every 15 minutes. I also gave it the vitamin K shot and put in the eye ointment – those little guys can screw their eyes shut really tight! I saw a beautifully easy birth at 10 am. It was the second in the family. The mom had an epidural and just breathed out her boy in less than 5 minutes once she started pushing. The umbilical cord was crazy long. The midwife was so impressed that she had someone get a tape measure. 44 inches! They’re usually 14-18 inches. I helped a spanish-speaking only (SSO) patient who was having a natural birth. Nooooo thank you. Compared to that gorgeous epidural earlier it was clear which way I should have my first. I really have no motivation to try natural. I hoped to stay through her birth but it was taking much longer than planned (she was already fully dilated) and I wanted to see the c-section at noon. I heard it took another hour and a half after I left before the birth. The c-section was great. I love watching surgery. When they take the uterus out to sew it up I thought it looked just like a roast chicken with its neck sewn full of stuffing, with drumsticks/fallopian tubes on either side. Like I said before, I spoke with the first assistant RN who assisted with the surgery. She told me all about the surgery, the tools, the healing, and her education to get to that role. I tooled around after lunch following a nurse on an antepartum patient. I dropped in for another vaginal delivery, seeing just the end of it up to stitching up the mom. I have to admit by that point I was getting kind of bored with deliveries. I feel the same about c-sections. It was a cool experience, but you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all.

One week to go and I’m done with OB.