Nash's Story - Part 4 NICU and Nurses

After my 11 hour labor and 1 hour and 18 minutes of pushing, Nash had finally arrived. He was whisked away to the NICU and Chris went with him. I stayed back so that the doc could fix me

up and my pain meds (which were pushed in me just as Nash was being pushed out) wore off. My Dad and my little sisters were able to see Nash in the hallway as Chris and the nurses pushed him to the NICU.

Once I was all cleaned up, Family and friends stopped by the delivery room to visit with me. Not that I was truly there. My mind was running a million miles a second. I wanted to know how my Baby was doing, if Chris was OK being there with him, what the doctors were saying. Chris said when they arrived at the NICU the doctors warned him that his lungs might not be working or he might have some heart problems but to be warned that he could be in the NICU for a week to three weeks.

All the tests were run and Nash had nothing major wrong. He was a healthy little boy that was ready to see the world. Nash was not put on oxygen nor did he need a feeding tube. He was put on heart monitors and blood pressure monitors and two other ones but I am not sure what they monitoring.

About an hour later, a nurse wheeled me into the NICU so that I could hold baby Nash. Our NICU nurse was so nice and and as a bonus she was a lactation specialist also. So the first thing she had me do was feed Nash. She had no problem reaching in and pushing my boob around and showing me how to feed my baby. Honestly, I am very grateful for her because if she did not do that for me I might have never gotten the hang of breast feeding and would have given up. After I had fed Nash, Chris also had to give Nash formula to make sure he was getting enough to eat. This was also a blessing since Chris and I decided we were going to try to breast feed and bottle feed Nash.

Once Nash was finished eating, Chris and I just looked at each other. Was this real? Did this just happen? Are we really sitting in the NICU? As we looked around, there were so many tiny babies that were just holding on to life. How could our little guy be categorized with these tiny babies?

The nurse came and talked with us. She said that Nash was being called the big boy of the unit and they had been telling all the other babies to take example from him (how cute are these nurses). Let me give you the run down of the NICU:

• To enter into the NICU you have to ring a bell outside the door. A nurse answers and asks who you are and who you are there to see. Once they confirm, that you are allowed in they will buzz you in.
• Only parents and grandparents are allowed in the NICU (and siblings of the child for a short amount of time)
• Once you are in, you have to scrub your arms from finger tips to elbows for three minutes. They have a clock to watch and make sure you do three minutes.
• Only two people are allowed in at a time
• Soft voices
• There are windows to the outside, but no direct sunlight is allowed in the room
• The room is freezing and filled with sounds from all the machines that the babies are on
• There is a little old woman who sits in the NICU and crochets hats and blankets for every baby
• Next to the plastic cribs (which I would really call baskets) there are rocking chairs for the mothers to sit on
• No cameras allowed (we snuck ours in at the 2 am feeding but made sure not to use a flash)

During Nash's stay in the NICU, we had two sets of Nurses. Day shift nurses and Night shift nurses. They switch off everyday at 7am and 7pm. The NICU closes everyday from 6:30 - 8 am and pm and then 9:30 - 10:30 am. We loved the daytime nurses at the NICU and were not fond of the night time nurses.

Our one horror story we have from the nighttime nurses is when we came in for the 5 am feeding one morning, I could hear Nash screaming as we walked through the door. The stupid scrubbing seemed like it took forever. When the three minutes were up, I quickly dried up and walked swiftly to Nash. He was laying there in his own spit up and the nurse just looked at me and said "Oh I was just going to call you." I stood there looking at her and wondering why she was not cleaning up my baby. That was the first time I realized that I had control of what

happened to my baby in the NICU. When we came back after the nurses switched at 8 am, Chris and I went into the NICU and explained to the daytime nurses what had happened. Our daytime nurse made a sign at that moment that stated "If I start to fuss or cry for any reason, please call my Mommy and Daddy Love Nash" and she taped it to his crib. It made me feel much better.

The second day Nash was in the NICU the nurses and Nash's pediatrician and my OB all said that Nash should get out of the NICU because he had passed all his tests. But we needed to wait until the doctor did his round at 9. So Chris and I went back to the room and waited for the news. One of the NICU nurses came into our room around 9:30 and said that the NICU doctor wanted to keep him for one more night to watch him sleep and make sure he did not have sleep apnea. My OB and Nash's pediatrician were in the room at the time and went crazy. It was so funny. They started this campaign to Free Nash and the nurses joined. The support that we had was amazing.

Needless to say, Nash was freed on Friday morning when I was released. We were able to go home as a family.

So what did Chris and I do while Nash was in the NICU. We had our own little room, with two beds each with its own TV. Chris and I felt like we were on some odd vacation, being waited on hand and foot. My recovery nurses were amazing and explained everything that my body was going through and kept us up to date with what was going on with Nash in the NICU.