Small miracles...big machines

List of things to do: orient at a new agency, watch moms before, during and after birth, take care of newborns, wipe the smile off your face. Maternity rotation started last week. Love this part of nursing school...play with babies, coach their moms, teach stuff.

So stinkin' cute I can hardly stand it. My first rotation was in the newborn nursery and I had a boarder baby. A boarder hangs out in the nursery when mom is not on post partum. My little male was the 2nd heavyweight champion of the nursery for the day weighing in at a hefty 4200+ grams. Since he arrived by c-section, his head was perfectly round, his cheeks perfectly plump and his thighs in the sumo wrestler genre. Heel sticks, supplemental feedings and assessments kept the day busy. Was able to learn about hearing tests and how they are done. Listened to the peds interns give their group report and bought a really cool adaptor for my stethescope from one of the docs who had an extra one. My little guy had a murmur best heard on his left sternal border, which is exactly where you can here mine from time to time. Hopefully his will go away as he settles into life. I did my initial assessment of him when he was 8 hours old and he was pink everywhere (even his hands and feet.)

Basically, babies love to be locked in and loaded up. My buddy was perfectly content as long as he was swaddled in tight and loaded up with food. Later that afternoon, while showing Dad all the neat things he had to look forward to, like diaper changing, holding and feeding, I took Baby D's rectal temp and he passed the last of his meconium, giving his Dad a big smile. Small miracle yes...but also a major machine!