Day 1: NICU

Today I arrived at the NICU around 3:55pm, I signed in, rode the elevator to the third floor, washed my hands and forearms and scrubed into the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for the next 4 hours. As I expected, the nurses werent that welcoming and kind of left me on my own to look around and ask questions to different nurses that were caring for the babies. All of the babies in the NICU were in a plastic covering with multiple tubes and IVs in them. They had blankets over their plastic "egg" they were in to make it dark as if they were still in the mothers womb. The first baby I saw was the smallest in the entire unit. He weighed less than 1 pound. I was in shock and couldnt take my eyes off the baby. The nurse in charge of the baby said this baby was born at 20 weeks and has to stay in the NICU until it gets to at least 5 pounds. A NICU heart doctor came over and did an ultra sound on this baby's heart. I got to see all of the different aspects of the heart even though it was so small. Because the baby was so premature the baby's heart beat shook the whole baby. Next I followed a nurse to her baby's station. This baby had a swollen stomach and it was hard for it to get a lot of oxygen. The nurse took the baby's temperature under in its armpit, gave it medicine, changed its diaper, switched it to its stomach so that its head could continue to grow properly. She also put different barriers around the baby so it can build muscle by pushing against those cushioned barriers as if it was pushing against the mothers uterus wall. Next I followed a nurse that was taking care of a baby thats mother was on drugs while she was pregnant. This baby cried so much and the mother didnt show up for the baby's visting time which made me sad. Next a nurse was taking care of a baby that had ripped out its feeding tube and made a mess in its bed area so she let me hold the baby and calm it down while she changed the bedding. That was my highlight of the entire day because the nurse was so nice and helpful and offered to take my picture.It was breath taking to hold a baby that small. After this I watched multiple parents come in to visit their baby and also some got to take their baby home for the first time which was a very sweet thing to witness. All of the nurses acted like they were family and laughed around and joked with each other. At 7pm a new set of nurses came in to take the old nurses spots. These nurses would now stay from 7pm to 7am watching over the babies. Overall it was a slower department than I thought but I really enjoyed it.