Baby Bath

One of the things that I like to do is the newborn bath. I'm not able to do it often because frequently I have another patient (or two or three), but it's something that I enjoy. I'm not talking about bathing the baby in the warmer with a basin and wash rags while it cries. I like to actually put the baby in a bath, or give a Leboyer bath. The nursery nurses about have a fit, thinking that it's "gross" to put the infant in a baby bathtub, and they worry about the cord. The kid came out of a fluid environment and it won't hurt the cord one bit by being in the water. After the bath, we apply triple dye to dry it up and keep it clean, so no harm done. And the babies love it. They aren't cold and I like to think that they feel a bit better by being back in water for awhile, kind of a way to ease into the world. I usually get the dads involved. I show them that all they need to do is support their child's head so it's above water and they will just float and kick around. Moms seem to enjoy resting a bit and watching their partner ever so gently give the baby it's first bath. Afterwards, the baby is still warm from the bath, and can be placed under the warmer for a bit while I give the baby meds (vit K, triple dye, ilotycin) and get mom to the bathroom and cleaned up herself. By the time mom is ready, the baby is nice and warm and can go with them to post-partum, bypassing time in the nursery completely. No separation from the parents for the bath, no screaming chilled baby, and the dad can take an active role in caring for the baby.

Random tidbits

I signed up for a gym membership in January and I'm pleased to say that I'm actually going! It's way to cold for my taste to go outside and run. That's the main reason I signed up, for the treadmills. Thankfully, it hasn't taken me long to get back up to my 5K pace I ran last June. I know once I get back outside, that pace will be slower just because it's easier to run on a treadmill, but I'm pleased. I think lifting weights has helped to. I haven't seen any change in my weight, but I'm getting more tone to my arms and legs.

We FINALLY replaced our plumbing. Since we bought this house, we've been battling plumbing issues and had several plumbers out to give us estimates on how much it would cost to replace it. We live in an old house - built 1800's old. The plumbing is the old cast iron tile under the house and throughout most of the house, there is some PVC. One of the pipes was corroded and about to burst, and it drained my kitchen sink, washer and dishwasher. The tile under the house that the pipe drained into was cracked and had roots. So to replace this would have cost thousands of dollars, if we tore up the foundation, which we really didn't want to do for many reasons. So we've been saving, putting it off until we realized we couldn't wait anymore. I was sitting at the computer, waiting on laundry when I heard water hitting the basement floor. (Not a finished basement) I go down the stairs, knowing it wouldn't be good. The washer was draining and water was shooting out small holes in the corroded cast iron pipe. I was less than thrilled. So we start looking to see if there was anything we could do until we got a plumber out there. After looking, we realized we did not have to tear into the foundation at all, and that we could probably do it ourselves. We ran new PVC up under the subfloor in the basement and tied it into some existing PVC and completely bypassed the bad tile. Not sure why the plumbers didn't see that option, but oh well. We did it ourselves and we now have brand new plumbing for less than $100, no foundation ripping, and we know can do some plumbing. I'm very happy.

A coworker and I are hoping to be able to go to a conference in New Orleans to see Michelle Murray speak on fetal monitoring and ways to optimize labor and birth. I've never seen her before, but my coworker has seen her several times and said she is wonderful. A bonus is getting to go to New Orleans. I've never really traveled, never been on a plane and never seen the ocean. So this will be awesome for me. I will probably need a sedative to get on the plane, but we'll cross that bridge when it comes. Hopefully Hospital will pay for the conference. We'll have to pay for airfare and the hotel, but it won't be too bad if we book a flight early.

Ah, we are in the midst of the wonderful 2's. There are times I wonder why I even bother. Why do I put food in front of him at lunch, because he never eats it, just throws it on the floor? I wonder why I bother with the gates to keep him out of the kitchen and from going upstairs, because he will scale those suckers with no problems at all. He doesn't like to sleep all night, is up at least 2 times after we put him to bed. He doesn't say too much, although it is getting better, but he sure can say "No, Mommy!" clear as a bell. I'm not a pusher of the potty training, because I feel that when kids are ready, they'll potty train and not before. But Isaiah will say "peepee" and I try to sit him on the toilet, only to realize he just wants to throw toilet paper between his legs or he wants to stand and pee. There are tantrums, tackles, milk spitting and swinging at me when I tell him to stop putting cat food in their water dish. It's probably that selective memory God gave mothers, but I don't think The older two were this difficult, and they were both in this lovely stage together. Yes, he has been more challenging since conception (first bout of morning sickness, preterm labor, being unable to walk more than 2 steps without my uterus contracting, mastitis, etc). But he is one cute little guy and can be awfully sweet when he thinks no one is looking. He gives kisses, likes to play "My Mommy" where he clings to my leg as Daddy or his sibs say "my mommy". I know this stage will pass and before I know it, he'll be off to school, will continue to argue with me, but won't want to get up and will eat me out of house and home!

You know its going to be a great day when...

...you open your clothes dryer to find that a rogue orange crayon made it's way in with your clothes. That's the kind of day I'm having. I guess the 'fun' started last night. Isaiah decided a week or two ago that he wouldn't sleep in his crib, so we set up his big boy bed. But not only did he decide he didn't like the crib, but that he wanted to get up and mess around. So we've been laying with him until he falls asleep. Last night, I laid down with him, and of course fell asleep in a very awkward position. When I woke up at about 11pm, my left arm was numb and there was a serious crick in my neck. No big deal. All hope of a restful night was gone when Isaiah woke up fussing at 1:30, 3:00, and 5:15, but of course when it was time to get up to take Jacob to school, he was sound asleep and quite ticked at Mommy for disturbing his slumber. A quick trip to the bathroom, I notice that the toilet paper is out, after it was too late, and that the package is out of reach. I usually check before sitting, but in my partially awake state, I didn't. Love it. After coming downstairs for breakfast, I step in a pile of fresh cat puke, strategically left on the part of the rug so that it blends in. Nothing will wake you up faster than feeling warm puke squishing between your toes. Before I could stop myself, I uttered some profanity, and quickly noticed Jacob and Clara standing right behind me. That will be a great new vocabulary word Jacob is sure to tell his teacher about. I get the kids their cereal, and being the entrepreneur that he is, Isaiah smashes the cereal with his spoon and dumps it on the floor. Thankfully he doesn't like milk in his cereal, so it's easy to clean up. After a fight to get out the door, the 5 minute drive to school was accompanied by 5 minutes of Isaiah screaming, and Jacob and Clara fighting over who gets to sit where in the van. Both booster seats are exactly the same, so I'm not quite sure why there is an argument. I guess they don't need a reason. When we get back home, Clara and Isaiah start playing quietly and I see that there is hope at a decent morning after all. I start tackling my bottomless laundry basket and I'm getting things done, in between trying to keep Isaiah from climbing the gates to go upstairs. He escaped once, and I found him by the toilet with the brand new roll of toilet paper unrolled and on the floor. Nice. Then the buzzer sounded that my load was dry so I go down into the basement, open the dryer door and what do I see? A melted orange crayon. Not only has it melted on top of the lint trap, but my dryer is covered in orange dots, as well as on my large load of Clara's clothes. I started laughing. If I hadn't, I would have cried, but the mornings events got to me and I realized that had I been on camera, it would have been some great comedy. I'm not sure if the clothes can be saved or not. Some weren't so bad. Some of the clothes were inside out, so it won't be noticeable. I'll deal with them later. But, I am going to have to go scrape out all the orange crayon of the walls of the dryer. That will be a fun time. And all this fun has happened by 10:30 a.m. Only God knows what else is in store for me today:)

Back to busy

We are finally starting to get busy again after such a long spell of not as many births. Last night was one of those hopping nights where you don't have time to do much but run room to room, but not so horrible you couldn't provide good care. We started the night with just two moms in labor, but by the end of the night we were full and had had 4 deliveries. And get this: they were all vaginal! Yeah! First delivery happened right after we came on shift. I wasn't the labor nurse, but I did "baby care". A first time mom who was induced fro pre-eclampsia, a true medical induction. She had an epidural, and had no problems delivering while on pitocin and Mag sulfate to control her risk of seizure. She will be on Mag for 12-24 hours post-partum, just to make sure she is covered when there is still a high risk of her BP spiking. But she was doing well. Second delivery was a quick one. Grand multip, never had an epidural, had thought she would get one with her first delivery, but she was one of those women who just went too fast - even with her first. She didn't look to be uncomfortable as she rolled by with her 2 teenage daughters following behind her, but she knew it was time. She gets changed, and sure enough, she's 9cm. Midwife is called and makes it there in record time. If this mama's water had broken, there would have been no way her midwife could have made it. Her daughters were there for the birth, and at first, I didn't think they really wanted to be there and they looked scared to death. That is until the baby started to crown and these to girls watched with mouths agape, mesmerized by the birth. You could see the awe in their eyes after they watched their mother deliver their new baby sister. The third delivery was about midway through the shift and it was a couple whose second child died of a fatal metabolic disorder after 29 days in the NICU. It was a genetic problem and because their first child was just fine, they never thought to have anything checked. This time, they had CVS to see if this baby would have the same problem - and he was fine. They said they felt some relief to know that - that is until at about 20 weeks, the baby developed heart block and fetal bradycardia, which resolved on its own by 30 weeks. Last night, she came in with contractions, and was only 1 cm. But in 2 hours time, her water had broken and she delivered. Doc was called when she was 7-8 cm dilated, but there just was no stopping her labor. She delivered 5 minutes after her doc was called. Beautiful, healthy little boy. Both mom and dad cried, thankful their new son was healthy and relieved that the stressful, anxiety-filled pregnancy had a great outcome. The last delivery of the shift was at shift change. Mom had been laboring for a very long time. She had a PROM. She was only 1cm dilated and wasn't contracting, but was 39+ weeks. After about 8 hours, she started contracting on her own. She started making slow, very slow progress, but baby remained happy and she didn't have any signs of infections. At about 2200, she stalled at 8cm. And stayed at 8cm until 0200. Doc order pitocin to try to help things along, she had opted for an epidural earlier at about 5-6 cm, and finally at 0200 she was 9. She was complete by 0330 and started pushing after 'laboring down' for about an hour. At about 0615, I was able to call her doc in and she delivered a beautiful baby - 30 long hours after her water broke. Some of the docs wouldn't have been quite so patient. They would have started pit right away when she wasn't contracting, and would have done a c/s after 2 hours of no change at 8cm. Just goes to show that with a little patience and trust, the body will usually do it in it's own time. It was just kind of a fun night. The 3 of us nurses working labor last night work well together and can function pretty independently. Most times, we call a nurse from the nursery or the charge nurse to do "baby care". But the 3 of us will do baby care for each others deliveries if we are in a position to do so. We work like a well-oiled machine, so even when it's busy, we have a lot of fun.

Worth It

About a week or so ago, Isaiah decided that he was done sleeping in his crib and that he should crawl out and roam the house. We went from no problems with him getting out of his crib one night, to the next night getting up every 2 hours to put him back in bed. We finally decided to set up his bed. We need to take the crib down because he hasn't been in it since, but I know as soon as we take it apart, he will have a fit and not sleep in his big bed. We hated to do it, but we put one of those doorknob child safety things on the inside of his room so he can't open the door. The bedrooms are upstairs and I didn't want to wake up to him tumbling down the stairs, so it's for his safety. It's starting to get better, but our bedtime routine now consists of one of us lying with him in his bed until he falls asleep. Otherwise, he is up messing in his room and fussing. Last night, I was laying with him and he curled up next to me as close as he could get. He has always like to play with hair. He used to twirl his fingers in my hair while he nursed and he twirls a spot on his head as he falls asleep. So I wasn't surprised when he started playing with some of my hair. Then he grabbed my neck and pulled me close to him so that we were cheek to cheek. He fell asleep shortly after that. I stayed there with him a little longer than I had initially planned, just soaking up the moment.

Another Weekend

Last weekend was a typical weekend these days. I was charge nurse Saturday night and labor was quiet, there weren't too many mom/babies on post-partum and no sick babies. Pretty quiet, but a long night. Sunday night, we come in to a full board, with one c/s getting ready to go back to OR, and my patient was scheduled to follow. She was a multip who had delivered vaginally before, but this baby was breech. I'm getting report when the on-call doc called and asked that we just verify by sono that the baby was really breech and call him back. He would then call her doc and we would proceed. I grabbed the sono and found that the baby was vertex! Yeah!!!! There was a doc on the floor so I asked her if she would mind double checking before I called. Yep, vertex. Mom was happy to not have a c/s but disappointed because she thought she was going to be having her baby in the next couple hours. The on-call doc wanted to keep her until morning since she was contracting (but not changing her cervix, so not in labor). At 11pm, the evening nurse was heading home, so I took over her vag recovery and moved her to post-partum. Then we had a few people come in, we'd treat their complaint, and send them home. False labor, UTI, the usual. One patient was a nursing tech in ER that had miscarried a week ago and came up because the normal pads she had been using weren't big enough for her flow, so she wanted our bigger pads. Too much flow for being a week out. We told her to call her doc and let him know how much and how long she had been bleeding like that. Like we figured, she ended up admitted, and she had a very low H&H. By this time, it's 5:00am., and I get the 7:15 c/s mom admitted and prepped. Mom, her mom and grandmother were all nurses at Hospital, so it was fun to hear about what is going on in the hospital on other units. Her grandmother had been a labor nurse at one point in her career and she had some great stories. She said that with one of her children, she had a placenta previa and went into labor. They had set up the OR for her, since her placenta was over her cervix, but she said she felt a lot of pressure. She grabbed her nurse and said, "You might want to take a look, the baby is coming". And sure enough. On the OR table, she delivered her baby right before she was delivered by c/s. Now she said the placenta came before the baby, and it seems like maybe she had some details confused because the placenta delivering before the baby would be a very bad thing, but nonetheless, it was interesting listening to her stories. Monday night I was put on-call. I had looked and knew it was my turn, I had just hoped that it would pick up enough I wouldn't be flexed. I keep hoping that we'll get busier again, but this time of year is usually slower than the rest of the year. I'm sure when it does pick up again and we're crazy busy, that I'll be wondering why I wished for more patients.

Things Kids Say

We were sitting down at the table last night eating dinner. Clara looks at us and says "If we had one more baby, we'd have all the chairs full. There would be 4 kids and 2 grown-ups". The kids say stuff along these lines on a fairly regular basis, so we didn't think too much about it. Then her and Jacob start saying "We should have another baby", "Can we have another baby?", "I want a girl baby", "I want a brother, but a sister would be okay". Not surprising, Clara wants a sister and Jacob wants a brother. Husband and I looked at each other. Husband says "So you guys think Mommy should have another baby?" Both of them said an enthusiastic "Yes". Then that's all they could talk about. They wanted to know how soon, placed their orders for gender, etc. If only they knew and if only it were that easy. As I am heading toward the 5th period since the m/c, part of me wonders why I'm not pregnant again. It happened so easy in the past, 2 pregnancies were surprises, one of which happened while I was taking bcp, and the two we planned, happened the very next month I stopped bcp. The rational side of me understands it takes awhile for the body to get back to normal. I know that. But the irrational side of me wonders why I'm not pregnant. Several people I work with told me "I was pregnant within 3 months". The rational side of me knows it would be just fine if it was a few months down the road, as I have races I want to run this summer, and if I were to get pregnant now, I wouldn't be able to do that. But there's no reasoning with the irrational side, and hearing the kids say they want another baby (even though I don't think they really know what they are asking for) makes the irrational me want it more right now. Patience never has been a strong suit of mine. At least we know that when it does happen, Jacob and Clara will be happy.