Birthday Nurse

We've had 5 IUFD's ( Intra -Uterine Fetal Demise) in the last week. 21 wks , 33 wks , 32 wks , 35 wks and 36 wks . Come on! That is WAY, WAY, WAY too many. I haven't taken care of a demise in a long time, since that one last Christmas that hit me so hard. I feel like I've helped with almost every one, but last night was the first one that I've actually taken care of since last December. I hate them so much. All these babies who never have a chance, most of the time we never even know what happens. Mine last night was a rare case, he had a chromosome anomaly that the parent's had known about for most of the pregnancy. They were prepared, then were expecting something like this, and they knew exactly what they wanted. That makes it so much easier on us nurses, and in some ways, I think it makes it easier (at the time) for the parents. They had all their family there, they had all the little outfits for him there, they had their cameras, they had a name, they had...

So it's technically Sunday morning...and this blog is technically about Thursday night. I've been too busy enjoying my whole TWO NIGHTS off (last) week that it hasn't gotten written 'till now...and the Internet connection has been kinda shaky . Anyway, the craziness continues at work...it was jus a SMALL cluster on Thursday night, ok , so it was kinda a crummy night all the way around. Walked in and the assignment didn't look too bad other than the fact that there were no empty rooms, not enough nurses...and it stayed that way all night. The atmosphere was kinda set by the fact that they had just found out that afternoon that one of our extended-stay twin mom's had lost one of her babies. She'd been admitted for several weeks and they kept talking about sending her home but just hadn't ever done it. They'd been doing NST's every 8 hours and after a great NST Wednesday night...the NST on Thursday morning had only one heartbeat. It was really,...

So today starts my month-long house/dog sitting assignment for a couple from our church. Flying to Hawaii for a month to see their daughter...must be rough :) So I get to watch their very lovable/excitable doggy for a month. I'm most excited at the moment to realize that I can get wireless Internet from a sharing neighbor! Hooray! Last night at work was pretty good, I got the ante assignment which was OK, I haven't done ante's in a while and they were all well behaved tonight, I didn't break any of them. Sent one home by 2000, made friends with the high- maintenance gal who is "growing babies" until she's 32 wks with her twins. She's been there a few weeks and has a few left, so she's settling into a routine. Another gal came in post MVA , wks with a positive KlehourBetke (I know that's not spelled right...), so she got to spend the night and was getting a sono today sometime. Another gal who has been working on N/V/D/temp didn't have ...

I really never thought I would never complain about an ante assignment...but tonight I didn't mind! I had 3 patients all night, but they all slept and I didn't break any of them, so that was ok by me. It made the night go a little slow, but after we had a 38week unknown IUFD walk in and deliver in 30 minutes it was a good thing there was a nurse to help take care of paperwork, etc. So I did a big part of my 2 nd DIU in a short period of time. I hate those! This one was really sad, she had been to the office early in the week, had good heart tones and then tonight there just weren't any. When the baby came out it was pretty obvious that he had been dead for several days just from how he looked. I really wonder if it's sunk in yet. Mom and Dad were making phone calls and seemed so unaffected by it. I don't think I saw either of them cry. I would have lost control. I worry about them when they get home. I know some people just don't show grief, or don't sho...

I've been thinking a lot about our fetal demise yesterday. This wasn't my first demise that I've helped with, but it's the first one that has been anywhere near term, and the first one that was actually considered alive at delivery and then died later. I guess the technical term is "expired" but that to me sounds like a gallon of milk being past it's expiration date. This is a baby, not a gallon of milk. When Mom and FOB walked in yesterday it just hits you "THIS ISN'T FAIR!" Mom was only 21, and her first baby and she looked so young and innocent, and yet so grown up and calm and collected. I know when she walked in she was still denying that her baby wasn't going to make it and she had this secret hope inside that everything was going to be ok . When we asked her the typical "why are you have a primary c/s" question, she didn't say it was because the baby was breech, or that the baby was going to die. She said "becaus...

I am way glad that I don't have to work tomorrow. After today, my head is spinning and I need some time to sit and think though everything that I learned and absorbed and experienced today. I told J today that I don't need anything else on orientation , because in the last 2 days, we have done everything. We did ante's and a vag delivery/recovery yesterday, we did a scheduled section today, and then we did a non-scheduled section for a fetal demise that totally just finished off my day today. I should have known that today was gonna be crazy. I thought J and I had gotten everything lined up to do ante's for a while so that was totally what I was expecting when I walked in, but no, we were scheduled for the 0900 c/s. That's cool too, I really don't HATE doing much of anything around there, I need practice at it all. So we got our little primip ready and as we're getting ready to walk back, the doc calls us from the main OR and says that his 0730 case got b...