Babies

When I was a new nurse, even before that, when I was a nursing assistant, I worked in the intensive care nursery.  I absolutely adored it!  When I was an NA, I got to feed and bathe the babies.  I'm talking 3-5 lb rug rats!  I gavage fed the really little ones that couldn't suck yet.  I was extremely proud of the fact that, even tho I was not licensed, the nurses trusted me enuf to teach me how to stick a tube down a baby's throat and feed them.  If they can't suck, they also have no gag reflex, so it was easy.  Some I bottle fed.  I changed their tiny little diapers.  Weighed them, and even gave their meds.  Well, they were mostly vitamins, but technically I couldn't administer medications.  But the way they got them was in their feeding.  Soooooooo.....  The reason I am blogging about this is because I have tentatively decided to go back!  Nah, not as a nurse, but as a volunteer.  I haven't done anything but think about it yet, but I would luv to spend a couple hours a week holding, feeding and hugging babies.  There is nothing like it in the world.  I am not afraid of the ventilators, altho I doubt they let volunteers hold those babies.  The NICU is a horrible place, actually.  Lights are on day and night, so the kids never have any "time out" when it is quiet and dark.  They are being poked, prodded and other nasty things, and then dumped back in their isolette by themselves.  Parents are there as much as they can be, but, it is never enuf.  And some aren't.  Those babies need me to hold them and luv them, dontcha think?  First of the week, I think I will investigate this further.  Let ya know how it goes...