A Day in the NICU

It's been a while since I have blogged so I thought I would give a little update on my current life for this month. I have been in the NICU for almost 3 weeks now and I have to say that it is one of the most amazing and scariest places in the hospital (make that the world). I have worked harder the last few weeks that I have ever worked before, but it has been really rewarding and I have learned so much.
My day usually starts at 5:15 when my alarm goes off. I get to the hospital around 6:30 and start seeing my babies--I have 7-10 that I am responsible for taking care of each day. After I check on all of my babies, I meet with the rest of my team and we talk about all of our little patients for most of the morning. The rest of the day is spent taking care of any new problems that arise and any new patients that are born that day. One of the most fun things that I get to do is go to deliveries. We go to all C-sections at the hospital and any regular delivery with complications. As soon as the cord is cut, my job is to take the baby from the OB and make sure that it is breathing and transitioning well. Then, I swaddle the baby up and get to show it to the parents for the first time. That has to be the most fun part of the job and I have to admit that I usually tear up a little each time. The hardest part of the job is taking care of really premature and really sick babies that you know could die any day. UAB has a really big NICU ( we had 114 babies my first week) so there is always one or a few that are very very sick and the potential for a lot more. It's amazing to see how much we can do for these tiny babies and to look around and know that if they were born in another part of the world, they would most likely be unable to survive. Even though I am exhausted when I get home from work, especially after a 30 hour call shift with no sleep, I love my job.
(I will try to post something a little more interesting soon with some photos!)