I would like to take a moment and THANK the KAISER WALNUT CREEK NICU / ICN NURSES TEAM!! You have all been nothing short of outstanding!! As a mother, it’s hard to trust your newborn baby – but I’m just so thankful that you all have touched our family. I know we say it time and time again – but we really are grateful to have you bless Luke with your OCD powers

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Being a ‘NICU veteran’ these past 11 weeks – I’m starting to greet everyone by name. Everyone knows Luke – and they know us. It feels like we’re family now Aside from the several dozen nurses that have spent shifts with Luke, I’d like to give a big huge THANK YOU to his primaries!

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I was trying to look for the article that Celeste gave me the first few weeks that made me giggle about how OCD nurses are – but I thought I’d give a go at describing what I’ve observed these past few months.

YOU KNOW YOU’RE A NICU NURSE IF . . .

• You measure age – not in years, but days, weeks and gestational age
• You spend 10 minutes scrubbing your hands like a surgeon
• You plan your day around when your baby needs to eat
• The “Q” word is a bad word
• You secretly are cheerful to find a poopie diaper
• Speaking of poop – you can describe poop in a dozen different ways
• Feeding tubes = time savers
• Taping breathing tubes to the isolette is an ART FORM
• Putting on your patient’s diaper is origami.
• You’re a master of starting IVs
• You know that ‘Kangarooing’ has absolutely nothing to do with Kangaroos
• You know that a ‘Feeder-Grower’ isn’t a lawn care product
• You take time and have lots of pride in your baby’s well made bed – with bunnies facing the ‘right’ way
• You can change your baby’s bed with one hand, holding him in the other
• You don’t answer to call lights. Instead – an orchestra of 2 or more different bells catches your attention
• You want to call for lifting help once your baby reaches 5000 grams.
• You take pride in round heads
• One look at your baby’s face . . . you already have an initial diagnosis
• You know how to use a sleeve of a newborn shirt as a cool restraint system
• You prepare bath water in a dixie cup
• When getting blood (or anything else) on your freshly made bed stresses you out more than when it gets on you

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Happy nurses

The talks about extubation has been going around the past few weeks. On Friday, the doctors finally gave us an extubation date of Sunday May 06, or if he extubates himself – whichever comes first. That didn’t happen today – he had a few brady’s yesterday, so they pushed it tomorrow.

It’s been a nice weekend. All his primaries are on their days off – but it’s good to chit chat with other nurses we see everyday. I hear they’re back tomorrow.

I’m hoping all the stars are aligned and the super moon would maximize all the prayers sent his way when he extubates tomorrow.  Thank you all for your continued prayers! We’re crossing our fingers and toes that we’ll be able to premanently say ‘Bye Bye ET tube!’