Week 48, 2012: Babies!

THE IDEA of handling kids used to frighten me. On my rotation in Pediatrics, I don't have any other choice but to deal with them—these little people.



I don't just carry babies around, I get blood samples, insert IV lines, and make them cry in the process. In a way it's both harder and easier—harder because they have smaller vessels, so extracting blood is a  big challenge; easier because they can't complain much, and all they can manage to do is cry.

My first week was at the Pedia ER. I was a baby catcher at the nursery on my second week.

THE FOLLOWING are some photos taken during that two-week period.

Friendship begins earlier than we expect. These kids were sharing a crib inside the nursery. Surprisingly they were more quiet when they were together.



Our favorite kid at the ER was a case of hydrocephalus.



Our residents were gracious and kind. I wondered where all the nice-ness was coming from. For instance, even when a patient was dying or needed an artificial airway—events that would otherwise make people shout in panic—they would instruct us, in the gentlest of voices, "Dear, pahingi naman ng ET tube. Salamat!"



God designed babies to long for their mother's milk minutes after they're born. Here was a kid on his first 30 minutes of life, exhibiting the sucking reflex.



And here was a baby sucking his mother's milk with so much gusto!



Some babies were too small, especially this pre-term infant who had tiny feet.



Finally, a totally unrelated photo: intern Jamie Chua finding a dirty pair of briefs while cleaning the call room on our first day.



(All photos were taken with permission, except Jamie's).