My family and I were so overjoyed to welcome our baby boy to the world. As any mother plans, we anticipated leaving the hospital in 24 hours, but quickly realized breathing challenges for our baby were going to change our plans. What was originally diagnosed as Transient Tachypnea of the Newborn or TTN, was 48 hours later identified as pneumonia. Thirty-six hours after he was born, his oxygen-breathing support was not meeting his needs and he quickly began to decline, which was an incredibly difficult and traumatic situation for me to witness. He was placed on Vapotherm on and at this point, there were several scenarios running through our minds of what his future may or may not look like. I can’t accurately convey our state of concern for our baby, and how we were managing as a family, but what I can say is that when I first talked with Christen a few hours into her shift, she laid out clear expectations for me of what to expect overnight.

She accurately conveyed how hard our baby had been working and how tired he was. I vividly remember her telling me to go to sleep, call her at any point in the night (if I needed to) and we would talk tomorrow. She also shared there was no intention to wean him down just yet and given everything he had been through not to expect a lot of progress overnight. I talked to Christen several times throughout the night and by the morning, our baby had made remarkable progress and she was able to begin weaning him down. That morning, I arrived at the nursery prior to the end of Christen’s shift, and at 60 hours into his life, he had finally begun to make progress. We had hope.

Just as I had been the morning before I was in tears, but for an entirely different reason. The morning before I had watched my baby rapidly decline and witnessed the concern on every caretaker’s face, but on Sunday, there was some optimism and hope for our baby. The things Christen did ensured that our baby’s care was exceptional, and was incredibly thoughtful, detail-oriented, and took everyone into consideration. A Nursery nurse has one primary patient and that’s the baby. But Christen had two patients that she needed to manage, and there is no better example of representing the Conway Regional values and culture than the way that Christen supported our family.

I was a mother that didn’t intend to breastfeed but six months later, I am still breastfeeding because of Christen. She laid out for me how hard it was, but also what I could do for my baby. She asked me if I had gotten to hold him and at that point, I had not since his immediate arrival. She said to come back that evening and we would do skin to skin. She laid out the plan on what I should expect that day, never promising more, always managing my expectations, and being clear about the plan, and more importantly, what I could and should be doing. Later that evening, I was able to return and spent 2 hours holding my baby, and it was what everyone needed at the time.

Over Christen’s three shifts as our baby’s nurse, he made remarkable improvements and the day after her last night shift, he came off of breathing support. Christen continued to check on him and me through her days away from work. I witnessed Christen not only provide exceptional care for my baby but also ensure that the day shift coming in was set up for success, as well as thoughtful planning and communication for the team scheduled to return the next evening. I cannot imagine the stress Christen felt having such a sick baby, knowing that it was the height of COVID (Delta) with no beds available to transfer. Her response to this situation was remarkable, and perhaps even more remarkable is the exceptional care she provided that took our baby from a place of declining to a pathway of thriving. I will forever tell the world that Christen saved my baby’s life, and we are so lucky to have her here at Conway.