Once upon a time I was a bit scared of taking care of babies in the nursery. (OK, still scared on occasion.) As the intern on pediatrics call, I had to do an occasional admission for sick or premature baby going to the NICU. It was all a bit overwhelming... breathing tubes and oxygen masks and IV tubes and beeping things were massive compared to the little people that they supported. Of course we don't have all that fancy equipment at Kudjip. It was quite a learning curve when I first started looking after the nursery. And now I love it!
Yesterday you met one of our larger residents. Baby of Selah weighted 5kg or 11 pounds when he was born. Such a big baby is actually pretty rare on our maternity ward.
Preterm and low birth weight babies are more the norm for our nursery. Baby of Dorothy twin 2 is one of the smaller ones that I have cared for. She and her sister were born at about 30 weeks gestation, 10 weeks before their due date. Both of them were quite small, weighing only 1300 grams or about 2.8 pounds. Teeny tiny! Twin 1 did poorly from the start. She developed respiratory distress syndrome due to prematurity and died after only a couple of days. But twin 2 was born a fighter. She has remained strong despite being small and having neonatal sepsis. After an initial drop in weight, baby of Dorothy is now growing and is up to 1450 grams... well on her way to a 2000 gram party!
"For I am the Lord, your God,
who takes hold of your right hand and says to you,
Do not fear; I will help you."
~ Isaiah 41:13
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