NICU Reunion Party 2008

Today we had our annual NICU reunion and it was sooooo much fun. There were a ton of families there and it was so good to see all the kids. It makes what I do all worth it in the end. To see the babies again gives me such an amazing, humbling, wonderful feeling! Yea, some of them are not exactly what most call perfect, but to their loving, amazing parents and us they are the most perfect things in the whole wide world. These parents have continued to do we we did for the babies back when they were with us everyday and they have done such great jobs. I got to see some of my favorite babies like RJ, he was born extremely early and was a mess. I remember he was the first baby I took care of all by myself when I got off orientation and when I came in and got report the night nurse flipped the light on and I about had a heart attack and thought to myself, "no way, I'm freakin outa here!!!". He had 4 chest tubes, was continually seizing from all the blood leaking in his brain, was on an oscillating ventilator which made his whole body "wigle" or "vibrate" and he had a tube coming from his broken off trachea that if even moved the tiniest of a milimeter would be death from the surgeons who put it there and on top of all of this the chaplin and mother were there reading his last rights and baptizing him because he wasn't going to last much longer. Not to mention that when the mother was admitted for preterm labor her mother flew in and when she got to the hospital had a heart attack and died!!! Oh my gosh it was crazy and I honestly thought that there was no way I could do this job and was already thinking about not coming back and switching to Peds or going back to school to be a teacher (this seriosuly crossed my mind)!!!!! But, I took the deepest breath I have ever taken in my life and I just had to jump in and go. Well, 6 months later RJ made it home safe and sound with his amazing mother and father and he now frequently comes back to see us and show off all that he can do. He is the most rambunctious 5 year old you will ever meet. Yesterday if he didn't even know it he thought the party was ALL for him. He is so cute and such an amazing little guy. He was running around EVERYWHERE, talking your ear off, giving everyone kisses, gave me a "red" kiss because the clown just kissed him and he had red lips!!!! He spends his days running around, keepin his mother on her toes at all times and loves playing with and helping to take care of his baby sister. He is sooo cute and such a testamnet to what we do, or more importanly what his mother did. She never gave up on him and was there EVERY single day making sure we were doing everything possible that we could do and that was his saving grace, the unfailing devotion of his mother! We love her (she is the president of our family advisory committee that help out new mothers of NICU babies) and him and always love to see them both!!!!Anyways, enough ranting, I love my job and this is why!!!!! There are more pictures from the party in our photo gallery or you can just click here to see more!!!!!