I am writing to nominate Laura Taylor, a nurse whose exceptional care during a critical moment of my pregnancy and labor at St. Luke’s deserves recognition through the DAISY Award. I don’t know if my baby would have made it without the care and advocacy of Laura in Boise L&D, as well as for the amazing NICU staff. My first encounter with Laura was as my nurse in triage. I thought my water had broken and I was going into labor. Turns out I just peed myself. Laura didn’t make me feel like a crazy new mom. She made it normal. A few days later I was admitted overnight for fetal monitoring after the triage nurse detected an abnormality in my strips. In the morning the doctor told me everything looked good, I wasn’t progressing quickly in my labor, and that I should go home to labor more comfortably. I was dressed and ready to go home when Laura came in and told me that despite the doctor’s orders, I shouldn’t leave. She said they like perfect strips, and mine weren’t perfect. She told me she was going to talk to the doctor and ask them to reconsider. Laura told me, “I’m going to be honest with you, nurse to nurse, I don’t feel comfortable with you leaving.” Laura went to bat for me, and eventually, the team decided it was a good idea for me to stay and have a baby that day. As I went into labor, complications arose, and my baby's condition deteriorated. Laura remained composed and coordinated efficiently with the medical team to make crucial decisions. It was her swift action and medical knowledge that ultimately saved both my life and my baby's life. I will be forever grateful for her ability to remain calm under pressure and her quick thinking during a moment of great crisis. She also was very honest with me as to what she was thinking, how I was doing, and when something would become an emergency. Laura was very straightforward about my and my baby’s condition, and I appreciated that so much through what would become a harrowing experience. Several times, the alarm would go off, like ten nurses would run in and flip me over. Laura was there, she told me “this isn’t good, but it’s not an emergency yet”. The last time it happened, it was Laura who broke the news to me, she leaned over to tell me “This time it’s an emergency, were going to have to do a C-Section”. I will never forget hearing the code blue alarm going off over my head in the delivery room while I was literally paralyzed on the operating table. As an ICU nurse, that sound does something to your gut, and this time it was for my baby. I didn’t get to hold my baby, he was intubated in the delivery room and taken straight to the NICU. Laura’s hunch was terrifyingly correct, my baby was in trouble. I was in the recovery room when the NP came to tell me B was very sick, and they were considering sending him to Seattle for ECMO. My heart hit the floor. I had just taken care of my first ECMO patient in ICU the week before. I didn’t know what to say. All I could think was “my baby is really, really sick” over and over. Luckily B didn’t have to go on ECMO, he was extubated 7 days later and after 2 weeks in the care of the amazing staff in Boise NICU I finally got to take him home with me. Laura wasn’t even my labor nurse; she was the charge nurse that day. Somehow, she managed to be there for me, fight for me, coach my nurse, and make all the difference, along with all her other responsibilities that day. If it wasn’t for her sounding the alarm and really advocating for me, my son might never have made it into this world. Instead, he’s about to turn a year old in October.