Newborn Nursery and Baby Names

This week was the first (of two) on a Newborn Nursery rotation. It's been great! Very laid back (as I mentioned before, I've basically been "sent home" early afternoon-ish most days of the rotation!), but I've been able to do a lot of newborn exams, be present at the C-sections where the peds team is called, helped with resuscitation, learn about common newborn issues such as jaundice and hypoglycemia, and seen some pretty interesting stuff, which has included:

• A baby with gastroschesis, where abdominal contents (i.e. bowel) protrude through a defect in the abdominal wall. This was diagnosed with ultrasound, so we knew it was coming, but it was still a bit scary to see a newborn with loops of bowel hanging out right below the umbilicus. After IV access was finally obtained, the newborn headed off to the OR, where surgery was successfully performed.
• A 33-weeker Down Sydrome baby with basically one (left) functioning ventricle of the heart (hypoplastic right ventricle) and several other associated anomalies. The baby was quite little-- just under 4 pounds-- but came out fine and only needed minimal stimulation before she started crying. She will spend time in the NICU before any kind of surgical correction is attempted.
• A "miracle baby" born to parents who struggled with infertility for over 15 years before getting pregnant on their own soon after a move from the east coast to the Pacific Northwest :) . I love stories like these. The new parents, both in their forties, were just so thrilled with their newborn baby boy.
• Twins with twin-twin transfusion syndrome who were going to be given up for adoption until the birth mom changed her mind after the delivery... a very, very tough social situation (teen mom). I'm surprised there aren't laws that protect against this.
• Today, a set of 31-week old twins conceived through IVF and born vaginally, as well as another tiny 3 lb baby at 30 weeks for premature, preterm rupture of membranes who breathed fine on her own, thankfully! It was a busy day!

I love being at the deliveries and being around all of these adorable newborns. It is really reinforcing my love of OB-- today while the twins were coming (albeit slowly!), I wanted to jump in and help deliver the whole bab(ies) rather than just transfer them from the delivery to resuscitation room, although I of course also like to be around the newborn(s) once they're out. Perhaps that will help somewhat with the residency decision-making.

All of this baby stuff does make the biological clock tick a bit... I would love one of my own to take home and cuddle! :) And while I know that the possibility of having a child of my own is, at this point, a very long way off and perhaps not even a possibility, I think I could find a lot of personal satisfaction (and be a vicarious mother) by being the family doctor for a pregnant woman, doing her delivery, and then caring for her child as well, even if I'm never able to have children myself.

This is going to turn into an extremely long post, but this part is relevant so I thought I'd include it. I've been around a lot of babies in the past few days and seen "baby boy X" turn into "Thomas" or "baby girl Y" turn into a Whitney. I wonder about how people choose their babies' names. While on an OB rotation last summer, I remember hearing about a woman who named her baby girl "Chlamydia" because it sounded pretty. I kid you not. While waiting for prescriptions yesterday, I read this article in the magazine Parents (they let me take the magazine with me) that mentioned all kinds of "trends" in baby names. What do you think??

• Gender Benders (unisex): Aiden, Avery, Bailey, Cameron, Chase, Morgan, Taylor
• Organic (Girls): Meadow, Coral, Dawn, Lily, Flora, Daisy, Indigo; (Boys): Basil, Dale, Flint, Jet, Mica, Slate, Sage, Clay, Lake
• Oldies (Girls): Bess, Lula, Ruby, Cora, Nell, Hazel, Violet; (Boys): Ernest, Arthur, Bert, Walt, Amos, Lewis, Oscar
• Surname Swap (Girls): Kennedy, Mackenzie, Miller, Ellis, Regan; (Boys): Emerson, Campbell, Cooper, Carson, Fisher
• Fruit (after Gwyneth Paltrow's Apple) (Girls): Plum, Berry, Cherry, Kiwi, Clementine; (Boys): Hawthorn, Rowan, Fig, Huckleberry, Mulberry
• Travels well (Euro names) (Girls): Gemma, Evie, Moira, Greer, Meike, Finola, Gianna, Sabine, Tallulah, Pilar; (Boys): Alfie, Liam, Sergio, Niko, Keagan, Alistair, Rhys, Johannes, Kieran, Finlay
• And then there are the backwards names and the fusion names (i.e. David + Julian = Davian; Brandon + Lindsay = Branlin).... weird stuff.

Okay, there is NO way I'm ever naming a potential child something that ends in -berry, but some of these aren't half-bad. Then again, normal, traditional names are fine too :). No new mother in the next week or so better name their kid after an STD. I'll make sure of that.