Let's be honest, no one is ever thrilled to have their little baby in the NICU. When I found out my newborn needed a higher level of care and was escorted to the NICU at 15 hours old, I had an odd sense of relief that surpassed the anxiety of a new mother, knowing that she would get the care and attention that she was needing. Little did I know that we would be blessed with Angela as her nurse for multiple days during her NICU stay- to say she got the care and attention she needed is an understatement. 

Despite the need to be in the NICU, my baby, my husband, and I had the wonderful opportunity to be under Angela's care and guidance. As a fellow MHTW employee, it can be heartbreaking to see your new love requiring the medical attention and equipment that you are used to seeing on the adults you treat. Angela consistently helped to relieve this heartbreak and I immediately felt at ease knowing that my whole new little family would all be in excellent care whenever I walked into the NICU and saw her caring for our baby. I am confident when I say that our NICU experience, memories of our baby's birth and extended stay, and overall L&D experience at MHTW are all better off for her being a part of it and in large part thanks to her. 
Angela was kind, encouraging, skilled, supportive, attentive, and patient. She was there right when we needed her, both figuratively but also literally when my daughter stopped breathing temporarily while in the NICU. She somehow demonstrated respect towards us as parents (I clearly remember her words exactly, "hey Mom, let me get in there and take over real quick"), providing immediate, skilled, imperative timely medical care/attention our baby needed; and then took the time to support us, build our confidence, and educate us following the episode. 

She cared compassionately, educated thoroughly throughout our stay, laughed with us, and wisely shared her experiences. She was efficient in her care (despite multiple babies and families needing her attention) and it was remarkable to watch how seemingly well she juggled the needs of all those around her. She was patient with us as we juggled the needs of our baby in the NICU and our schedule being discharged and needs from the L&D unit. She helped to ensure that baby was supplemented with the colostrum I was able to harvest prenatally and wait for us to be able to provide her freshly pumped colostrum because she knew it was important to us. 

She never blinked an eye to help me be skin-to-skin with our newborn despite the time and attention it took from her to manage all the lines, leads, and CPAP. Despite a NICU stay I never wanted, Angela was the exact NICU nurse I never knew that my baby and I needed and helped to make our little family's experience everything we could have hoped for when in that situation. I understand the additional stressors and items that need her attention throughout the day however Angela always made us feel that we had her full attention. While I may have been just another new NICU mom and it may have been another day at work for Angela, she will forever be the nurse that helped to keep my baby girl safe and stronger her first few days in this world and for that, I am forever grateful for the person and nurse that she is.