Sandi was above and beyond exceptional in her care! Not only did she perform to the already high standards of the St. Joseph's nurses, she genuinely is interested in our learning, understanding, and care for ourselves and our baby. Although she had 4 other couplets last night, we felt like she was our dedicated private caregiver as much as a mother or auntie looking after their own. But we know all of her patients must get the same level of care and detail. Sandi took hours of her time to make sure we were comfortable as new parents. We've taken over 20 hours of parenting courses and asked people for tips, but we truly learned the absolute most from Sandi on one single night. From self-care, pain management, baby-care, feeding, swaddling, burping, clothing, and diapers...we will use her tips (and videos that she let us record of her) to care for our family forever. Our night with her has made all the difference in staying here!
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his wonderful nurse, Sandi, had been our son's nurse during nights. She has been watching him and observing his vitals and behavior. I noticed she really takes her time when checking him. She would stand there and hold his little hands still and just quietly study his movements for minutes at a time. Not speaking, just watching. I thought she was just admiring him. She was taking time to really make sure he is healthy. She just pays attention to detail and looks for missed problems. Last night she was doing her check and she quietly noticed something in his movement that didn't seem right to her. It was so subtle that she had to point it out to me, it was like a quiver in his arms that seemed like just a newborn baby movement to me. She said, "I don't know why, but I want to check his blood sugar levels, is that okay? I have no real reason to do it, I just have a feeling I should." And she did. Her machine said it was really low. So low that she thought the machine was broken. She said, "that can't be right" and went and got another machine with a longer needle that would get a better measurement. Took another reading, dangerously low. At that point, she ran to call the NICU and he was taken out of my arms quickly and urgently. She had no reason to check his blood sugar levels, she even said, "I don't know why I am doing this, I just feel very deeply like I need to." They didn't do it at birth because he was not at risk for anything. They didn't do it any time after because his birth weight was fine and not decreasing, he was latching and eating well. There was literally no reason to check. Any other nurse would have probably just checked his vitals, seen that they are good, said he is beautiful, and moved to the next baby on the list. We were about to go home, seemingly healthy. Nurse Sandi saved his life! I am convinced she was meant to be on that shift for him. Those false labors I had, he wasn't ready to come because she wouldn't have been his nurse. I believe this so deeply in my soul it gives me chills. You can maybe imagine how emotional we have been all night and day today, mostly in gratitude that it was caught. We are not out of the woods yet, but I think he is going to be alright. God has protected and saved his life twice this week.
Note: This is Sandi's 2nd DAISY Award!