Baby Nursing

Being an adult nurse is something that has had to be quite a fluid concept for me whilst I have worked here! We are all asked to state what we are comfortable with when we first arrive and our patients are assigned accordingly. I however, have loved looking after kids (you may have noticed...) and I made it known to my supervisors when allocation became difficult. So last week when they threw me in at the deep end with a 4 and an 8 month old baby as part of my all under 10 patient allocation, I shouldn't have been surprised. dragging my baseline observations, and drug calculations from my dusty brain, small small freaked out is probably where I was at really! One of my babies (called Caroline - 4 months old) was born without a rectum, and had had surgery at a local hospital to create a colostomy (an opening from the skin to the bowel). She had come to us to have her rectum formed and at some point the colostomy reversed. She was a precious baby and her mum, also called Caroline was clearly absolutely adoring of her child. I had such a beautiful day with her and the other baby Moses (8 months having a hernia repair). The mums got on so well and we laughed most of the day, they loved that I spent time playing peek-a-boo with their babies. After their surgery they were absolute angels. They took their meds like champs. I had to give baby Caroline an injection and she merely let out a little whimper then continued to smile. I had the biggest smile on my face all shift, I was so exhilarated.
Baby Caroline unfortunately couldn't have the surgery complete as planned. Her tiny little body hadn't devloped enough for them to use the colon to form the rectum. She will have to have another surgery to complete the process, but in the mean time Mum wil have to care for her with a catheter and a small drain where her back passage would be. When I changed Carolines nappy, it was quite a complex process with all the tubes she had. Her mum was quite distressed about how her baby looked. I spent some time trying to explain what everything was doing, but she was so sad it had not worked as planned just yet. Moses mum tried to encourage her as well and between us we cheered her up. Carolines mum dotes on her daughter with such love and adoration, I do hope and pray that we can successfuly complete her surgery.
The shift continued to be very busy, but the babies and their mums reminded me of how fragile these little lives that we come into contact with are. I can't believe I actually get to be part of all of this. Huge big thanks needs to be said to my wonderful Paeds nurse friend Ali who is always on hand for advice and support...