- Pregnancy
- Baby & Toddler
- Parents
- Getting Pregnant
- Baby Names
- Product Reviews
-
Registry
- Community
-
More
Want a personalized experience?
Download the free app
Multiples
Babies are here and a minor rant about one NICU nurse (long)
Isaac and Nicholas were born last night at 35 weeks and 3 days. I was induced following an unfavorable Doppler during a BPP for Isaac, who we'd been tracking for IUGR. Turns out the IUGR was WAY worse than we thought, he's a peanut only 3lb 11oz, but he's also a little rockstar. He hasn't needed anything yet! So, for him NICU has been a piece of cake, just some high calorie feedings in addition to trying to breastfeed. Nicholas, weighing in a full 2 lbs heavier than his brother (that's right, 5lb 12oz) aspirated some fluid during delivery so he needed some help breathing and they gave him antibiotics to just in case there was an infection brewing: he's off the cpap now and has perked up significantly.
Now for the rant. I didn't get to hold the boys following delivery. I went to NICU after my two hours of recovery and got to touch them in their isolettes, which was fine. When I went to NICU this morning and talked to Isaac's nurse she thought it was best to pump first (because it had been nearly twelve hours since delivery and the pump hadn't showed up in my room, so I hadn't pumped to tried to nurse yet). So I pumped, then I had to go relieve my husband on toddler duty and give him a chance to see the boys. We finally got to hold them a bit later. I held one, my husband held the other. I wanted to hold both. Isaac's nurse had no problem with it, Nicholas's nurse told me that it wasn't doing them any good to switch and I wasn't even doing kangaroo care this way, blah blah blah. Both boys got held a good hour and a half at this point. They were content, their stats were stable. We asked for help putting them back. Nicholas's nurse berated us for not holding them long enough and said we wouldn't be able to hold them again today, because it wasn't good for them to be taken in and out. Meanwhile, I went back into Isaac's room to ask his nurse a question; she said see you at 3 (his next feeding) and I said, "oh I can try to nurse again?" She said of course, why wouldn't you. I told her what the other nurse said. She went out and said these boys can come out more than once a day, they're 35 weeks. Nicholas's nurse just said oh, I guess you're right.
Fast forward to this evening. We went back. Each held the boys for about 45 minutes then wanted to switch. Nicholas's nurse must be working a 12 hour shift, because she was still there. She was snarky with my sister-in-law who went to tell her that we wanted to make the switch, and she said we were doing more harm than good with two short holds rather than one long hold. Then I was talking to Isaac's nurse about nursing him tonight and what time I should come back--she said 8. When I asked Nicholas's nurse if that would work for him to nurse then too, she said "oh no, he's not coming out again today." I said we'd already discussed this earlier. She looked at me like I was insane and said he's too little, picks up his chart to tell me all about why he's too little and then goes, "oh, wait, they're 35 weeks."
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Babies are here and a minor rant about one NICU nurse (long)
Congrats on your boys!
I'm sorry you're having such a frustrating experience with one of the nurses
.
Congratulations on your babies!
I'm sorry you had a bad experience with a nurse. That happened to me while I was recovering from my c-section and I talked with the head nurse. She was very understanding and guaranteed that I wouldn't see that particular nurse again. Also, not sure how your NICU works, but my babies always had the same nurse at the same time. Might make for less confusion.
I'm so happy your boys are here!
I also sympathize with you about NICU nurses - I had one that literally made me cry. I wasn't allowed to touch, talk or go near the babies unless she gave me permission and she was snarky and rude to me without ever explaining why the rules existed. I was planning to ask for a new nurse, but then we were transferred. In hindsight, I wish I would have spoke up immediately.
Ditto PPs. Discuss this with the charge nurse and tell her to take nurse Ratchet off your rotation. When it's little things that irk someone about their nurse I usually try to err on the side of personality differences. But in this situation I would tell her that Nurses behavior is unacceptable and you need her to not be assigned to your boys for the duration.
Congrats!
I agree with others and would ask to have her not assigned to your babies anymore. Mine were born at 36 weeks and while they were in the isolettes (only a couple of days) we were told that we couldn't take them out whenever we wanted, but they could come out for each feeding and we could hand them off without asking. I tried to nurse each one and then we would bottle feed so we had to switch off babies, and it sounds like you're trying to nurse too so it should be the same scenario. What do you do with baby #1 when you need to switch to try to nurse baby #2? And in what world is it not good for the babies to get some time with both parents? It's not like you were holding one for 30 seconds and switching off - 45 minutes for each parent sounds perfect! Don't feel uncomfortable asking questions or pushing on things that you don't feel is right. We have to trust the NICU doctors and nurses to do what's best for our babies, but we also have to trust our instincts and know when to push back.
Peanut Butter and Jelly!
<a href="http://s568.photobucket.com/albums/ss122/AliceNP/?action=view
This! Congrats and I'm glad to hear they are doing well!