Christmas in the Hospital

I worked the weekend before Christmas so I missed out on Christmas with my in-laws and Christmas with my Dad's side of the family. Thankfully, I had a few days off before Christmas so I was able to see some of my husband's family before they left town. 

I worked Christmas day along with the 27th and 28th, so my immediate family had our family Christmas on the 26th. 

I don't know what it is about this year, but the Christmas season didn't feel like Christmas.  The weather was rainy and warm/muggy, we didn't have any snow, and no one really seemed to be in the Christmas spirit. 

That whole week was a blur. 

As I said before, I worked Christmas day. Holidays in the hospital are hard. Even when you make your patient a cute little Christmas-y name sign to hang over their crib, or their parents bring up a precious outfit and want to take pictures, it's just not quite the same. 

What breaks my heart is when a patient, any patient, has no visitors on a holiday.  I saw it on Thanksgiving and I saw it on Christmas. It's HARD. 

Or when a parent gets unfavorable news about their baby. Or when a patient has a set-back. Or when there's a shift when the alarms never seem to stop ringing.

BUT, what brings absolute JOY to my heart is when a whole slew of family members come in shifts to visit the little one and bring gifts and "ooh and ahh" over a patient. When they dress up in their nicest outfits to take a family Christmas card picture, grandparents and all, in the hospital with their family members that are too sick to be home with them. 

Or when a precious little patient who has been at the hospital for months finally gets their feeding tube removed on Christmas day. 

Or when you get to discharge a patient HOME on Christmas morning and you almost cry when you walk them out to their care and watch them load up their little miracle in their car and drive away.

We even had "Santa" come by and take pictures with some of our patients and their parents. 

I'm getting teary just thinking about all it again.

I had a great day, all things considered. I usually do. I get to love on (mostly -ha!) sweet babies every day for my job. And pray over them. And wonder what they will grow up to do with their lives. I get to help new parents learn how to feed their babies for the first time. I get to teach a new parent how to change a diaper and see the excitement on their face when the doctor says things are improving and they can discuss discharge orders. 

(image credit: Google)

Tis the Season,
Holly