When my daughter was rushed into the NICU, it was a surreal moment. It was scary and I felt powerless. The doctor explained what was going on, but of course, I didn't really understand anything beyond the fact that it wasn't life-threatening. Then our nurse, Emily, took over and ran the show for the rest of the day. When our baby was first rushed in, she worked quickly and knew exactly what to do. She was obviously experienced. Then she very gently and compassionately explained what was going on with our daughter. She walked us through what all the numbers on the monitor meant, what we could expect for her, and what the big medical jargon the doctor said actually meant. In a moment of powerlessness and fear, I knew my daughter was in phenomenal hands while simultaneously feeling like this nurse was both caring for my baby and teaching me every step of the way. She explained what a pneumothorax was, how much she needed to be eating, what blood oxygen levels should be, and how the admitted process to the NICU worked, while at the same time she was feeding my baby, inserting a feeding tube, cleaning up a historically large meconium poop, and making sure that she was breathing properly. In retrospect, after spending days in the NICU I realized how awesome she was as a nurse. Her ability to explain what was going on was unique while also taking great care of our daughter with great skill. These were all conditions and concepts that she's probably explained hundreds of times and probably one of the hundreds of babies that she's cared for, but she made us feel like our daughter was just as unique and wonderful to her as she was to us. She did all this while being present, but also giving me those precious moments with my new baby. If anyone must have their baby admitted to the NICU, I will hope that would have someone like Emily to care for their baby