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...

Ok , 6 days a week at the hospital is a lot. I just got home from another 5+ hrs extra this week. It's been insane! I think they had 13 babies on dayshift today, then another 5 after 7. When I left we had the board cleaned up nicely, one ante and one patient who was deciding what she was going to do. I did a delivery about 2100, moved her over and was out of there. Ah...I told them "no" for the next few nights. I just can't make myself go back for 7 in a row. I think things will calm down over the weekend, at least I sure hope so! So the last couple days there has been a 19wk PROM staying on our unit. Her history is complicated, and it's made me do a lot of thinking. She came in ruptured, and they did some antibiotics, etc, and after thinking about it and considering her history, she decided that really at 19 wks , she didn't want to sit in the hospital for the next 5 or 6 weeks waiting until viable age, and so wanted to go ahead and induce delivery which wou...

I've never had a "call date" (being on-call for at least 6hrs on a night your scheduled to work...) and trust me, tonight was the perfect night for it. I kept thinking in my head on the way home from work this morning how I would 100% take the call option if they called and gave it to me tonight! After last night, I needed some time to think and just take some deep breaths. I really didn't think that the whole shift last night effected me that much until I was writing about it this morning and bawling my eyes out...and then when I woke up from my nap this afternoon crying again after dreaming about it. I was feeling so guilty because I didn't shed a tear last night when everyone around me had lost it. I was really wondering why it wasn't getting to me when I knew it was a horrible situation and now I haven't been able to stop myself from tearing up every time I think about it since. So after I decided in my head that I would take call tonight I got to thi...

So I was on call tonight just long enough for me to change out of scrubs and head to a Christmas concert with my parents...then got called and told there had been a scheduling mis -hap and if I could please come to work. Ok , no big deal, that means time and a half for the first 6 hours. I figured (that's the last time I "figure" anything about this job!) that they would want me out of there ASAP since I was a call-back and making extra money. So...what do I walk into? J met me in the lounge as I was putting my stuff under the counter and going to change and said "girl, get ready to cry your eyes out. You're walking into a sad situation." Great...what happened now. So over the next 2 hours as I piece the story together...G1 came in for a cervidil the night before, good pregnancy, no real problems, labored all day on Pit, good strip, got to complete, pushed and wouldn't descend, went to the back for a C/S...baby came out dead. Parents declined an autop...