My daughter was born unexpectedly, 5 weeks early. She initially did very well following labor and delivery. Unfortunately, throughout the day, our daughter progressively started to slowly decline. She was not eating well, unable to keep her temperature up, etc. Taylor was our night shift nurse after we were transferred to Postpartum. After returning our daughter to the room, she took the time to tell us that our daughter required additional warming and did not eat well. She said, "keep a close eye on her, especially her color. If anything changes, please let me know." Taylor placed our daughter on my chest. My husband and I then began to read our daughter a book. Shortly after, my husband noticed our daughter's color was blue. We alerted Taylor who came running to our room (I should add that Taylor is pregnant with her third child, so I know running was not comfortable). She then ran her immediately to the nursery where she contacted the Pediatrician on call. She explained the situation and was our daughter's advocate. Our daughter was taken to the NICU that night where she spent the next 30 days.
Had Taylor not educated us on signs to look out for and not acted assertively, this episode could have easily been overlooked. These apneic episodes could have occurred at home and could have been devastating. My husband and I look at our daughter today and we remember the superior care we received. We credited Taylor for saving our daughter's life.