Having four premature babies in the NICU is a difficult journey no matter how prepared you are ahead of time. However, there are some very special nurses who made our NICU time much better. They did everything from teach us how to feed our babies to letting me cry on their shoulders.   Some nurses became “Medela Wranglers” when I had to share with a miserly mother. When we couldn’t be at the NICU, they advocated for our babies and snuggled them like we would. They dressed our babies in their best clothes with coordinated linens and sweetly spoke to them.  They never treated our babies as just another patient and instead treated them like little people.  I have no doubt they are called to do this work.  It is not easy, but they do it with such love.

During our stay we had many nurses and care partners who helped care for our babies, but we were fortunate enough to have several “primary” nurses. Primary nurses sign up to care for particular babies each time they come to work. This helps with continuity of care and bonding. It proved very important to have the same nurse from day to day when Sydney was getting sick because her nurse, Liz, was able to compare her health from one day to the next. This ultimately helped change Sydney’s care plan so she could get better.

While we are soooo happy to leave the NICU, these special people will never be forgotten as they were the first to care for our babies. When I left Cook for the last time, I was overjoyed but felt a little sad to leave these wonderful people behind.  I’ll admit I shed a few tears on the way out.  Thank you, Cook Children’s NICU nurses and care partners!  We will see you at the reunion!

hugs!

Amber

A special team of nurses transported our babies from the labor/ delivery hospital to the children’s hospital.

This was the team who admitted our four.

Jennifer was our night primary who made sure our girls had the cutest linens in the unit. Dani helped take care of Sydney when she was so sick.

Lisa showed us how to bottle feed the babies side laying and how to pace them.

Denny always treated the girls like “little ladies” as he called them.  He was really special and took the germs for the babies when I had the stomach bug.  Thanks to him the room was fully sanitized and no baby got sick.

Katy taught me how to give the babies their first bath.

Peppa was the “baby whisperer” who could get all of the babies to burp when no one else could. She became an honorary “primary care partner” because we got her to spend so much time with us.

Mindy was the babies’ first nurse alongside Tyra.

Lisa always loved on the babies as if they were her own. She made sure they were always dressed their best, got lots of attention, and helped stage many a picture. I really loved it when Lisa and Rylin greeted me OUTSIDE the room with this ladybug outfit.  That really made my day.