Lauren was assigned to cover the night shift of baby nurse coverage for my new twin babies at the hospital. That day was very emotional for me and my wife. Lauren's help was vital for us to make it to the next day on such a triumphant note. First, I must give a little backstory before Lauren starts her shift. On that day, our twins were preparing to be discharged along with my wife, but we just had to perform a few more tests and see the doctor one last time. During a final feeding of our babies, they seemed lethargic and unresponsive to feeding. We asked the current nurse to perform a glucose test to make sure everything was fine with the babies before departing home. Unfortunately, the blood sugar tests came back at 20 for our children.

Due to this, the series of events that followed utterly devastated my wife and me and our morale. Immediately following the blood sugar level identification, my wife was officially discharged from the hospital. Her worst fear of having to leave her children at the hospital was starting to come true. Secondly, we were informed that we would be allowed to perform Parental Care and stay with our children in the hospital. Still, even after being discharged, my wife wouldn't be in a position to leave due to needing to be present to provide feedings and also due to my wife being on pain medications. This parental care was great because we could remain in the room that we had been staying in for the entire time of our visit. Still, now my wife would be fully responsible for managing her recovery and pain without any support from the nursing staff. Third, we were informed that if another patient came into the hospital and needed our specific room, we could be relocated to another room. We were technically not a patient for the postpartum area and are just pediatric patients now. All these events became a perfect storm of a scenario for my wife and me to surpass mental and emotional thresholds, and we needed a lifeline to save us. That lifeline came to us in the form of Lauren Stearns, NICU nurse, on the night shift right after most of these pieces of news were handed to us.

Lauren probably knew about the situation that led to her covering our twins for the night. However, I promise she did not know the mental/emotional state that my wife and I were in with the news of us staying another day. Lauren's first act that was above and beyond expectations was to start answering questions about what Parental Care meant for us that we hadn't thought to ask the nurse who performed the discharge orders for my wife. These questions ranged from what features were still available to us like aide coverage, baby essential items restocking like the diapers and formula, and providing tips and tricks on how to continue taking care of our babies in their fragile state. Next, as we continued to monitor blood sugar and overcome the low body temperatures for the babies, Lauren continued her dedicated services by thinking of all the ways we could help move in the right direction, like moving the kids away from the window in case there's a draft, suggesting we try and to find items at the hospital (Lauren's contribution) or contacting a friend to run to the house and grab heavier baby clothing (our contribution), and also providing a training session on how to perform a super tight swaddle effectively!

Lauren's larger and probably most significant act occurred later that night when another doctor visit and some nocturnal baby activities were not a welcomed event for two new parents of twins who have been extremely sleep-deprived and recovering from a major operation. At around 10 pm, the pediatrician doctor arrived to review the stats on the baby's developments and cut straight to the chase. He reinforced the fact that we might be relocated to the pediatrics side of the wing, but that even worse news was that we were potentially not looking at just one more night; we were looking at possibly 2, 3, or maybe even four more days at the hospital to make sure our babies are in good health to go home. We understood the news, but once the doctor left, we cried. Lauren had to watch the glass shatter and was the only nurse assigned to our family that could pick up the pieces. Lauren spoke nothing but positive messages and pledged her support to help us through this devastating news. First, she extended her support by understanding the amount of stress this had just placed on my wife for her breastfeeding journey. She knew we had already been struggling with the progress of the twins, so she comforted us that it was ok to augment the process to keep us sane at the moment and that taking a one-time break from latching the babies would not ruin their ability to latch in the future. Next, we continued the daunting task of trying to provide nourishment to our babies to get them to produce sugar and body heat, but it was quickly draining us of our remaining energy. Lauren helped us come to terms with formula supplements and provided us with the formula to perform a hybrid breast/bottle feeding to get those blood sugars where we needed them to be. Here's where I decided to submit this letter of recommendation for The DAISY Award.

Around 2:30 am, it was time for another feeding for the twins. Our alarm went off, and Lauren came into the room to perform the blood sugar tests and check the body temperatures before performing the feedings. With all the events before this alarm went off, my wife and I had no more energy to use for the feeding session. Lauren used her expertise to assess the situation quickly and could tell that she needed to assist not only her patients but also their parents in this time of need. Multiple nurses had mentioned previously the ability to watch the babies for a few minutes. Still, Lauren insisted and provided reasons why this would be an excellent choice for the babies, us, and Lauren. Lauren told us that she would be more than happy to take the twins to the nurse's station to perform the 2:30 feeding and then bring them back to the room since we had no energy. She was adamant that her work in the INCU does not allow her for close contact with most of her patients, and she would be happy to hug our babies and feed them. Secondly, Lauren told us that the postpartum floor was not that busy that night, and there would be plenty of eyes and hands at the station to keep an eye on our children. Finally, she consoled us that if we were not rested mentally or physically, we could not perform the tasks needed to take care of our children. We had to think of ourselves in this recovery time to be there properly for our two new human beings. Her comfort and understanding of our new parent status helped comfort us to trust her fully and let her help our babies. My wife and I laid down to rest while Lauren performed the feeding. Before I knew it, it was 6:50 am. Lauren had not only fulfilled her pledge to feed the babies at 2:30, but she also kept them safe and sound for over four hours to allow my wife and me to bounce back from a horrible day. I do not doubt that her love for her patients and dedication to improving their health was a direct contributing factor to our children going from 3 more days in the hospital to rapidly improving their temperatures and blood sugars and getting all of us released from the hospital that same day!

My sister is a nurse in Indianapolis, and I have heard her talk about wanting to be honored with a DAISY Award her entire career, so I know how important this Award is to the nursing community. I do not doubt in my mind that this interaction with Lauren was not an isolated event. She deserves to be honored with this prestigious award not because of how my life has changed but for the countless other lives that she has touched, and those other patients may not know what Lauren is doing behind the scenes to love and support those patients.