I haven’t had to personally experience the hell of being on the other side of it as a parent, but I still have dreams of when I worked in a NICU as a resident (one brief rotation still sticks with me years later).
Discussion
I remember the new students and residents that would rotate through. Most folks have no idea humans can be so small, and seeing how it affected even them was telling. I remember Dylan’s first day I was able to take my wedding ring and it could have fit all the way up to his shoulder without touching him. Of course I didn’t actually do this because we weren’t allowed to touch him for several days. But I never forgot how small that was.
After NICU I was assigned to OB/GYN and delivered babies.
First week I was like WTF is with all these giant babies. They were normal sized babies. I just wasn’t used to it yet.
Beeps definitely stick with me. The hours and hours of that beeping of a heart monitor and the alarms that go off for any weird reason. You find yourself constantly staring at a monitor and then looking for one when you get home. Luckily when we went the second time, we knew that they knew what they were doing so that helped, but definitely stressful!