Today is nurse appreciation day. I figured this would be a great time to talk a little bit about everything that has gone on with Isabel because we have gotten to know so many nurses over the last few months.
Isabel was born on December 27th at Gunnison Valley Hospital. We got to the hospital around 2:30 pm and she was born at 7:21 pm. She weighed 8 lbs 1 oz, was 19 3/4s inches long and had almost a full head of blond hair. She had some fluid in her lungs that was suctioned out but the nurses said that was normal and was no reason to be alarmed.
Isabel was acting just like any other day old baby. Early in the morning we were able to give Isabel her first bath and our nurse mentioned that she was very red and made a note to check her color before the end of the shift later that morning. When she came back she noticed that her lips and hands were looking blue and she had the local pediatrician look at her. His suggestion was to put her on a small amount of oxygen to see if that would help. Then slowly ween her off once her stats (pulse rate, oxygen levels, ect…) were back to normal. He mentioned that sometimes when there is fluid in the lungs at birth they need a little bit of help to regulate their oxygen level.
The next day we spent time cuddling and getting to know Isabel. She met her big sister and MaMaw. Her color was getting better but she didn’t seem to like being weened off the oxygen. The nurse that found the issue came back for the night shift and was worried that we were still unable to get her off the oxygen. By midnight the second night we were having to give Isabel more oxygen then they started with that morning in order to keep her stats up. At that point the Doctor said that they were not equipped to test for other issues that might be going on and we would need to be transferred to either Grand Junction or The Children’s Hospital in Denver in order to make sure that we have the best care possible. The Children’s Hospital could get to Gunnison the fastest and was the one the doctor told us he would send his kids to in this situation.
I am going to stop the story there for this post and pick it back up tomorrow. The main thing I wanted to share with this was that we had multiple nurses look at Isabel when she was born and even had a few tell us we should be heading home that second day. There was one nurse that walked back in for her shift on the second night and immediately started getting the doctors involved. If it wasn’t for the level of knowledge and care of the nurses Isabel might have been overlooked and we could have been sent home. We were later told that there was no telling what might have happened if we would have been sent home but it wouldn’t have been good.
My family and I will forever be thankful for all the nurses we have gotten to know over the last few months. They have been some of the most amazing people I have ever met.
