Background: I work in a very large and busy 120-bed neonatal (premature infants) intensive care unit (ICU). One of the units, within our ICU, is the "small baby unit" or SBU. These are the tiniest and most premature infants, typically born under 27 weeks gestation (40 weeks is considered term). As such, everything about the baby is not well-enough developed to survive and thrive on their own, they need specialized everything, from breathing apparatus, to intravenous catheters, feeding tubes, etc. We also have a thing called "skin-to-skin" (some places call it kangaroo care) but it involves is us very gently and carefully moving the baby out of the warmed, humidified incubator and then placing the baby on mom or dad's chest so that both can have that bonding experience. It's been great for everyone involved, not only does it reduce stress hormones in the baby, but it really helps parents with their mental health during the long stay and roller coaster ride that is the neonatal experience. At any rate, if the baby is on a high-level of support, this move requires sometimes 2 respiratory therapists and 2 nurses to safely manage all the tubes and lines, get the baby onto the parent's chest, and then re-secure everything so nothing gets accidentally pulled out, etc.
Yesterday: We had a team of 5 respiratory therapists, including myself, all of them happen to be very heterosexual males...and a weird sense of humor. I will call us "X, Y, Z, A, and Me" for the story.
Text thread:
X: "Can someone do skin-to-skin with me at 14:30?"
Me: (realizing the language) "X, I am married, I don't know what my wife would think of me doing that sort of thing with another man."
X: "She doesn't need to know, homie."
Y: "I will do skin-to-skin with you X."
Z: "I have some P. Diddy baby oil that might enhance the experience for you two."
A: "Did someone say, baby oil? I'm in."
Then, off course, all the laughing emojis
Yesterday: We had a team of 5 respiratory therapists, including myself, all of them happen to be very heterosexual males...and a weird sense of humor. I will call us "X, Y, Z, A, and Me" for the story.
Text thread:
X: "Can someone do skin-to-skin with me at 14:30?"
Me: (realizing the language) "X, I am married, I don't know what my wife would think of me doing that sort of thing with another man."
X: "She doesn't need to know, homie."
Y: "I will do skin-to-skin with you X."
Z: "I have some P. Diddy baby oil that might enhance the experience for you two."
A: "Did someone say, baby oil? I'm in."
Then, off course, all the laughing emojis
