Birthday Nurse

First of 3, after 1 off...gotta love the extra on the paycheck, right? When I showed up for work, I had 2 recoveries...and then I hear the wonderful news that the new plan to cover all the short staffing is...to float more labor nurses to postpartum!!! Now isn't that just a way to solve all our problems? So all us new nurses get to be the first ones "cross-trained" to mom/baby. I will do it, because I have to, but let me just say this: #1 I became a LABOR nurse #2 The biggest downfall of a delivery is the 2hr recovery period #3 Since I do those 2hr recoveries...isn't that postpartum? #4 Why is it L&D's job to cover the short staffing of Mom/Baby? Ok , I'm done complaining :) So, as I'm walking over to PP after moving my recoveries I'm hard-core praying for a triage. And one shows up! :) ROL who was scheduled for an AM induction, her cervix didn't change in an hr and a half, but then she had 2 nice little variables so I tucked her in for the n...

Ah, my last set of 3 nights before my 8 day stretch off! Hooray ! People think I'm crazy for doing 3 in a row, and I do too a lot of times, but I enjoy my 8 days off, and at least I get in a rhythm for those 3 days on! Anyway... Last night was actually really, really, really good. I had a very fun couple who were totally into having a baby. Her water had broken yesterday afternoon and she was...0.5cm dialated . Not a good place to start when the first thing she had written down was a birth plan with NATURAL all over it. So she'd walked, then we did the tub, then she walked some more, then she was almost 2 after 6 hours, then we started a little pit of pitocin and then she was still only about 2-3. I felt so bad for her. She was trying so hard, her husband was so supportive, she wanted to go natural for all the right reasons and I wanted her to do it so bad. She finally begged for the epidural, rested and was 5cm in an hour, then complete an hour after that. That's what an...

Thank you for all the feedback on the natural labor posts. As a new nurse, these are the things that I'm still trying to learn, so all the feedback, ideas, thoughts are great and very, very informative. So my next question is: What are the things that help the most if you're trying to go natural, or even if you have pain meds ? What are the things that you as a laboring mom want to hear, what can I as a nurse tell you that is going to make this process what you want it to be? What things can I do to let you know that you're supported? I know labor is different for everyone, but as a general rule, what works? I told a couple of the nurses the other day when I had someone "unblocked" I feel so dumb standing by her bed saying "in through your nose, out through your mouth" "keep breathing" "good job" "you're doing great" I would think that would get old after about the 2 nd contraction, and if that's all my nurse kept t...

Today was a day from I'm not sure where...really, I'm not sure where it came from. When I first looked at the board today J and I were next to a primip who was 9/100/0 and a patient of the same doctor that I had my little "learning experience" with last week. Hmmm ...but I figured it would be a fast delivery and then who knew what we'd get the rest of the day. I got report from the night nurse and was getting ready to walk into the room when there was a little discussion about assignments and J and I ended up taking one of the 2 0700 inductions for the day that another nurse had just taken back into the room. So we did a little switch, I gave my report and card to another nurse and grabbed the induction chart and walked into her room. The couple was great, this makes 2 days in a row with totally normal, fun, interactive couples! I'm on a roll :) Baby came out great, she was adorable, big brother loved her, she was a bottle baby, it was a great morning. We eve...