WOW!!!! What an exciting last few days. The girls are doing well, just working on temperature, feeding and breathing. Avery is weighing in at a whopping 4 lbs 13 oz and Emily at 3 lbs 10 oz. They change every single day, it's wild. Considering they should still be in utero, it's pretty cool that we get to actually see their rapid growth. More pictures are to come, I promise, we are getting them on soon.....we are at the NICU pretty much all the time now.
In the last post we were getting bent out of shape b/c the NICU nurses were getting really lax. Well, yesterday we decided to go up in the morning instead of afternoon into the night. We had a sneaking suspicion we needed to keep them on their toes and BOY WERE WE RIGHT!!!!!! When we walked in there were two nurses (Rosanne and Jen) on the "feeders and growers" side for 10 babies. Ok, they got a lot of admissions so it was a little crowded, no big deal. Jen had the girls and all was fine.
Roseanne on the other hand, clearly did not want to be there. I have never heard senseless chit chat in a work environment. She completely ignored the monitors dinging meaning babies were having trouble breathing and might need stimulation. She never once introduced herself or checked on our side of the room. She sat in a huge recliner facing the wall and fed one baby with her back to all of the other 9 babies when Jen went to lunch. It was worse than any babysitting job could be. Still, she didn't have our girls so we were ok with Jen so we went to the cafeteria. Just as were were about to leave Bob thought maybe we should go back up there at 3:00pm when there is a shift change to meet the nurse coming on (Ellie) that we didn't know.
First of all, it took Ellie 45 minutes to recognize that we were in the room. Normally within our first steps into the NICU whoever has our kids greets us and gives us an update immediately. Then we converse with them throughout our time there. So, here we are taking care of Avery and Emily ourselves while waiting for our nurse to come over to us. Sometimes they are busy with other babies so we are patient, but they at least make eye contact with us. It turns out that it was our nurse (Ellie) who was sitting with Roseanne chit chatting about nonsense in the corner. Mind you, these are women in their 40's-50's not teenagers. We heard about everything from their kids to grandkids to text messaging, their cars, relationships with husbands, etc. etc. etc. Finally Ellie comes over and introduces herself.
Very long story short....we arrived at 11:30am and did not leave until 11:00pm. We were so uncomfortable with how Ellie and Rosanne were managing the babies that we felt we couldn't leave our babies and all the others unattended. Let's put it this way, there were three times where there was NO NURSE on that side of the NICU for over 5 minutes. One time there was NO NURSE for over 15 minutes. How is that acceptable????? Do you know any daycare, church nursery or babysitter that would leave 10 sick babies under 5 pounds alone for 15 minutes?
After 6 hours of frustration and biting our tongues over the terrible care the babies were receiving (we will spare the details)......we lost it. Bob had to physically walk out of the NICU as not to explode and I was still pretty calm. But, here's the straw that broke the camel's back......I asked Ellie for a pacifier for Emily 4 times b/c she was still upset, rooting, sucking air and raising her heart rate after she ate (which we had to catch and handle). She brought me one that was WAY too big for Emily's little mouth. I let her know that she had never had one this big and asked for the smaller one instead. She said it would be good for her to have the bigger one. Well, every other nurse to this point thinks she needs the smaller one. Emily gagged over and over with the big one. I finally asked another nurse that we know from the other side of the NICU to help me. Emily loved the smaller pacifier and went to sleep immediately.
Keep in mind, the whole time Rosanne and Ellie are again talking about nonsense not even thinking about the babies. Then Avery's alarm goes off and they didn't even look up!!! Finally, I lost it. Bob walked in just in time to see the fireworks...he said I was firm but not over the top. There were other parents in there and everything, but I didn't care, they need to be warned also. They actually thanked me later for enlightening them as they had just arrived the day before. It's simple.....keep your mouth shut and watch the babies. I would not have paid these ladies one dollar to watch our kids, much less the thousands that it costs per baby every day in there. We are very displeased with St. Luke's NICU.
So, we get a phone call this morning that our girls will be transferred to another NICU by ambulance today. We knew they were terribly overcrowded, but if the nurses would get off their butts and actually do their job maybe they could handle it. I am sure the timing is coincidence, as Avery and Emily are the healthiest on that side, but one has to wonder!!! We are off for another full day at the hospital to monitor the transfer. Sorry for the rant, but people don't need to assume these sick babies are in good hands. Luckily there are only two babies and two nurses at the other hospital, so maybe, just maybe they will be watched. Wish us luck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Heather
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