One of my very best friends is a pediatric nurse. Until very recently, I didn’t really know what that meant. I mean, I knew that it meant she was a nurse who took care of kids, but I didn’t REALLY get it until our babies were born. I have a new appreciation for nurses across the board, but especially for nurses who care for the tiny little people we bring into this world. Since it’s National Nurses Day (is that the correct title?!) I thought I’d weigh in…
When our babies were born, they spent 78 days in the NICU (in case you missed the birth story post). The nurses in that unit literally kept our babies alive and there is no real way to thank them. I’ve toyed with the idea of baking something (of course, with 5 month old twins at home now, I haven’t really had much time for baking), and we gave a few of them gift certificates, but there really is no way to properly say thank you to these people who give so much.
The nurses in the NICU get the best of the best and the worst of the worst. These amazing individuals spend 4 days a week helping babies stay alive. They show up to work every day or night with a smile on their faces and keep meticulous track of what is going on with their two or three patients. Every three hours they check diapers, feed, turn, snuggle, fix, poke, and prod at these little fragile beings, just to make sure everything is on track. They spend the moments in between watching the monitors all day long and adjusting oxygen, heat, and positions. They get to know our little ones better than we do sometimes, they learn to recognize the little cues that a baby is uncomfortable or happy. They know all the tricks to help a baby breathe better, pass gas, or poop. They can navigate the spiderwebs of wires and lines coming off of a baby with their eyes closed. And those are the good days.
Then there are the bad days. The days when they see a little blood in the stool or notice a high blood pressure, reflux, or something else that’s not quite right. And they’re the ones who let the doctors know, they’re the ones to start to fix anything that seems wrong. They often have to break any bad news to the parents too.
The other thing that makes these nurses so incredible is that they not only have to handle their patients, but they have to deal with their patient’s parents. In some cases, the parents are just as sick as the babies, or are on drugs or alcohol. These nurses don’t pass judgement, don’t care any less for the kid of drug addict, and are just as kind to the drug addicted parents as they are to the people who’ve landed in the NICU by some fluke of nature. They work tirelessly to make sure that the parents are comfortable and well informed. They teach parents how to change diapers, feed, and bathe their babies. They crack a joke every once in a while or wear funny socks on holidays just to keep the mood light. They don’t care how many times a day you call to find out about your little ones, or what time of day or night it is, they’ll happily answer all your questions and never, never make you feel guilty about not being at your baby’s bedside every waking moment. They give the best hugs after a bit of bad news and are quick to supply a sobbing mother with a box of tissue. They coach moms through breastfeeding for the first time, and make sure dad knows how to give a bottle. They suggest kangaroo care and never make parents feel like it’s to much of a pain to move their little bundle of joy and wires out of the isolette. They know how important it is for their tiny patients to feel love.
NICU nurses are a group of amazingly unselfish people who give so much love to their patients and their patient’s families. They handle birth, death, and everything in between with such incredible grace and composure. They are the reason we have our babies home today and that they are thriving. It is awesome to think that our babies lives absolutely depended on our NICU nurses…clearly, the gravity of our situation has weighed heavily on me. I wish there was a way I could properly thank the people who changed my life forever.
As a grandma who was there as often as I could be, I’ll amen what Alden is saying. The nurses (docs, techs, housekeeping, everyone) were amazing. They loved the little ones, said how cute they were, remarked to each other about a funny expression and on and on. I’m glad I wasn’t there the day the twins went home because I would have made an absolute fool of myself crying and laughing and thanking all at once. One of my favorite encounters was with Jessica whose mission seemed to be trying to make the environment around the isolette homey with little handmade posters announcing the baby’s name, birth weight, etc. She used their little foot prints (and I do mean little) as part of the poster. I asked her for ones that I could send to our Peace Corps son in Africa, the babies’ uncle, and she quickly asked, “Would you like me to make a little card for each baby for you to send to him?” So precious.
I am a NICU nurse, from my perspective, you just properly thanked them! That was beautifully written!
Thank you, and thank you for what you do!