Night Nurse

After I got shingles Rich and I opened up the night nurse conversation again. I’ve been very stubborn and have not wanted anybody to take care of Eva but me. I finally agreed to give it a shot with the condition that if I decided I didn’t LOVE it we wouldn’t do it. The nursing director came to my house to get us all set up and papers signed and brought along the nurse that would be taking care of Eva that night. I liked her ok but didn’t feel any real connection with her. I was fine with giving her a shot. She came over Monday night at 11pm and stayed until 7am. That night I didn’t get much sleep because I felt like I needed to watch Eva on the baby monitor all night.

The nurse was supposed to come back the next night but we got a call that she had the flu! Honestly, I was relieved because I wasn’t really feeling her anyways. The nurse that  was offered to us as a replacement was described to me as “one that has mixed reviews”. Mixed reviews???? Uhhhh…no thanks! Only 5 star nurses for my baby, thank you very much! I told them that we would just like to take the week off.

We immediately looked into another nursing company called Ivy Lane. After speaking with them on the phone we thought we would give them a shot and see if they had any better options for nurses. The director came over on the following Monday and brought along the nurse that would be watching Eva that night. Her name is Chee and I immediately loved her! She reminded me of my close friend from my mission, Kulia. This was the feeling that I wanted to have when it came to the person that was going to be watching my baby while I was sleeping. Chee asked me tons of questions about Eva and specific details about how I like her to be cared for. After they left I was so excited for her to come back that night. She did come back and did a great job taking care of Eva (I watched her on the monitor). It was awesome knowing that I was going to be able to rest well in the future.

Chee took care of Eva on Monday and Tuesday night and then they sent me a “very experienced” nurse named Jami. She got here a little after 11pm and when she walked in she expected to go straight back to Eva’s room. I had never met her and she had never met Eva so this really shocked me! She had read Eva’s file but her file just gives medical facts, it doesn’t say anything about her personal preferences like what helps her fall back to sleep if she wakes up in the middle of the night or how I like to handle her when she is about to throw up. I asked her if she wouldn’t mind sitting with me in the living room so I could give her a little run down on Eva and she looked at me like, seriously??? We did sit down together and the whole time I was talking to her she was looking at me like she was so bored. I was really annoyed. I wanted to give her a chance since she came very highly recommended.

Jami went to the room with Eva and I went to bed…to stare at the monitor all night. At around 2am Eva needed to be suctioned and I watched as she put the catheter down her trach 3 times in a row, gagging her each time. She was going too far! I immediately jumped out of bed and went into Eva’s room. I said to her, “Are you just suctioning to the 8?” to which she responded, “Uh huh!” I said, “Ok, I just wanted to make sure because on the monitor it looked like you were going down too far.” I could tell by the look on her face that she had forgotten that I had a video monitor on. I went back to bed and watched as she suctioned to the 8 the rest of the night…JERK!

In the morning I went in and she was all chatty. I was super annoyed with her and unimpressed. Nurses like her are the very reason I was so reluctant to trust my baby with anybody. I was very short with her and as she left she said, “See you next week!” I responded, “Ok!” As soon as the office opened I called the nurse scheduler and had her remove Jami from our schedule and told her why.

The next night Chee came with a new nurse named Erika. I got the same feeling with Erika as I did with Chee, an instant connection. Chee spent the whole night teaching Erika all about Eva so that if I liked her she could come back and watch her the next night. Of course, I loved her so she came back last night and did a great job. I’m so grateful that Rich convinced me to give this whole nursing thing a shot because now that we’ve found 2 great nurses I feel completely comfortable letting them watch her while I sleep. I’m grateful for good people who really care about how they treat others and have such a gentle and good spirit about them. We are so blessed to have these wonderful women in our home and as a part of Eva’s life.