Comic relief

Weekends can get pretty crazy around here. I spend all week cleaning, laundering, etc until finally on Friday night/Saturday morning I look around the house and think "Well, this is pretty darn clean for a house with 3 kids and 2 cats...and a husband". Well by Tuesday morning when I finish my last of 3 nights in a row, there is never a shred of evidence that this house was ever clean. It's easy for me to come home, look at the overflowing trash, open cabinets, breakfast plates left on the table, PJ's on the living room floor, along with a balled up dirty diaper and sippy cup on the floor, cracker crumbs all over the floor in the dining room and living room, cereal bar wrappers on the floor, wipes strewn all over the living room, toys covering every inch of the toy room, etc and get really frustrated, wondering how in the world the house can look like a tornado ripped through it. And that's just the first floor. I won't ever go into the mess upstairs. And try as I might to keep my mouth shut, sometimes I can't stop myself from giving Husband a hard time about the mess, wondering why he can't keep up a bit with the cleaning, which in turn irritates him because he's trying to keep the kids quiet so I can sleep. But, there is some comic relief. Last night after supper, we were both crawling on the floor in the dining room, picking up pieces of pork and veggies and noodles that Isaiah deemed unworthy of wearing in his hair. I had a hand full of food, crawling on the floor and I look up and notice Husband under the table, also with a hand full of discarded food and we both cracked up laughing at the situation. Two grown adults, crawling on the floor under the dining room table, a baby running through the house with my cell phone, covered in food, laundry piled in front of the stairs. We are the only ones in our group of friends with 3 children, in fact most don't have any children yet. We both just thought "if they could see us now!". In hindsight, it really wasn't that funny, but at the time it was pretty funny. Looking back just a few months, we were probably at an all time low at that point. We've come a long way from then and after last night, we both realized we were alright. When you can find humor in a dirty house and a fistfuls of food thrown to the floor by your 3 children, that's love. Either that or we both have a serious case of the crazies!

Things I never said until I became Mom

1. Did you wipe your butt?

2. Stop smearing ketchup all over the table.

3. Stop sitting on the cat.

4. No, don't eat your blanket.

5. Quit picking your nose.

6. No, no, don't rip off the wallpaper.

7. Isaiah, don't grab Jacob's penis. (yes, at bathtime one night, Jacob was getting dressed and Isiah was getting undressed for the bath, and he happened to notice Jacob's stuff. I caught him as his little hand was reaching. Could have been a bad situation had he gotten a hold of Jacob!)

8. Don't put toys down your pants.

9. Quit eating those nasty asian beetles.

10. Get your clothes back on.

11.. Don't ever again color on the baby with markers.

12. (me to Husband immediately after returning home from the grocery store.) Okay, I need to wash my jeans right now because the baby had a huge booger hanging out and I could'nt let him eat it, so I had to wipe it off with my finger because I had NOTHING else, no wipes, no tissues, nothing and wiped it on my jeans.

Work Trip

Wow, what a busy week. Work last weekend was a typical work weekend. I was taken off the schedule Monday night to go on an over-night work trip Tuesday into Wednesday. Amazingly, I was able to line up babysitters so I could go. It was pretty fun. A group of us went to the headquarters of one of the major hospital bed/equipment manufacturers. It was a nice break and boy, do they treat you right when they're hoping you'll spend millions on their equipment. The food was great, we stayed at their "farm" in these awesome little cottages with tempur-pedic mattresses and our own bathrooms, had dinner and breakfast in the lodge on this beautiful property and we got to play with all of their cool equipment. We rode a chart bus with comfy chairs and couches and it was stocked with drinks, food, anything we wanted. They took us to a large hospital to tour a new L&D unit that utilizes their equipment and we sat down with a couple of their people and designed our LDRP rooms. The program they have is pretty darn cool. They had the dimensions from the architect and we were able to drop in and move various equipment around to see what works and what didn't. In doing this, we realized that the way the architects/designers had laid out the room was not going to work if we want to be able to deliver twins in the LDRP room. They had thought that we could have the medical gases dropped in every other wall, so that moms bed and the infant warmer (NIC) would be on the same wall. Well there wasn't anywhere near enough room, so we came back with plans that will hopefully convince them that they really need to have medical gases on all the walls. That way, we can have the NIC's on the opposite wall that moms bed is on. We can get 2 in there that way AND mom will be better able to see her new baby. But, man oh man, is this going to change how we do things. It will be years down the road before we're in our brand new building, but when we do move, there won't be a transition into going from a LDR to an LDRP. I'm sure it will take months to work out the kinks and bugs, but after the trip, I'm pretty excited about it.

Nursing an older baby

Nursing an older baby brings with it new and interesting situations. One that Isaiah has recently started revolves around how he lets me know he's wanting "mommy-time". With a younger baby, usually you know based on what time it is, how long it's been since the last feeding and by their cry. Anyway, Isaiah doesn't really nurse that often. Just when he's ready for his 2 naps, before bed and in the morning before we're up and moving. I have used the same pillow to support my elbow and sit in the same recliner since we brought him home from the hospital. A few days ago, Husband let me sleep in and he took the kids downstairs to play. I got up about an hour later and when Isaiah saw me, he grabbed his blanket and dropped in in my lap in the recliner. Then he went over to where Husband was laying on the couch, using The Pillow, and he grabbed it and tried to pull it out from under his head. He couldn't get it right away so he was grunting and whining until Husband gave it to him, then he proceeded to bring it to me. Earlier today, I was sitting in the recliner and he went and grabbed The Pillow and brought it to me. It's really pretty funny. That I can handle. He hasn't started pulling up my shirt yet, but he does kinda pat my chest until he's got what he wants. When he does start asking for it with words, or by pulling up my shirt, then we'll see if it's too weird for me.


I am soooo far behind in reading my blogs...
Stork Nurse, if you read this, can I be invited to your blog?

Rules I've Come to Accept

Home:
A freshly swept and mopped floor is an invitation for the baby to make a milk puddle on the floor by bouncing his bottle/sippy cup on the floor upside down, and for the cat to puke.

After the last load of laundry is washed, folded and put away, then Clara wets her bed, the cat pukes on my bed (as he runs across it, making sure a pillow, the sheets, blanket and bedspread have all be puked on), Isaiah poops through his diaper, Jacob spills his juice and Husband drops his plate on the floor.

Wearing white is an invitation for disaster in the form of spills, spit up or mud

I've come to accept that I will probably be wearing either spit up or snot on my shoulders for awhile.

Anytime there's extra money, like a tax return or Husband's quarterly bonus, something big and expensive will break.

The more likely something is to stain, the bigger the mess the kids will make.

Never leave a child unattended with crayons and markers.

Spaghetti sauce is best absorbed through the face and hair.

After bathtime and getting the baby to smell oh, so good, he fill his diaper with the rankest of nastiness.

After changing a wet diaper, Isaiah will poop in the fresh diaper. Every. single. time.

Four days are spent cleaning, straightening and catching up on housework. It is all undone in one day: Sunday while I sleep and Husband home with the kids.

The kids only get sick shortly before I'm ready for bed. 85% of the time it will be Sunday night into Monday morning, or Monday night into Tuesday morning when I've worked all night and will have to stay up with them all day. The other 15% of the time will be at 8:30 at night when I'm exhausted and ready for bed. Ah, motherhood ;)

At work:
When you are short staffed and every labor room is full of active labor patients, that triplet mom who has been hanging out on bedrest for the last several weeks, will start to have contractions, and you'll end up in the OR for delivery.

If we've been busting our butts all night long with labor checks that aren't really in labor, 5 deliveries, including 1 c/s, a patient transfer for preterm labor, we'll get a patient with a previa who's bleeding at 6:15a.m. By the time dayshift comes in, we'll have just sent our last delivered mom to post-partum and we'll only have 1 outpatient left and this c/s being prepped. They'll say "So, it was a slow night?" and then they'll wonder why the hell we're still there charting an hour later.

Leave the saline lock in a redhead a little longer than you would normally.

Never say "things are pretty slow" or "it's been a good night so far" or even "it's so crazy it can't possibly get worse". Those are invitations to fate to prove those statements wrong.

If you know the patient you're admitting, you are most likely going to miss her IV start.

You will be doused in every imaginable bodily fluid at some point: blood, poop, pee, vomit, and amniotic fluid.

Staff meetings

I've been spending a lot of time at the Hospital this week. It seems that even though I work weekends and Monday nights, mandatory meetings and training sessions seem to pop up. Today I have to go to training on SBAR, as I've been identified as one of the superusers. Basically, me and a few others will go to training then we will train everyone else on the unit. It's not supposed to take too long, but it wasn't until Saturday that I was told about it and the training is only this week. But, I think using SBAR as a way to give report to physicians and in any patient handout will be a good thing. More on SBAR after my training. Yesterday I had to go to our monthly staff meeting. Staff meetings are always on Wednesday and that makes it very difficult for me to get to. Reason being is Husband has to be at work at 6:00 a.m on Wednesdays for inventory, so I can't ever work Tuesday nights. We use daycare 2 days a week and I need them for the days after I've worked overnight. I've been lucky as my mom is usually able to come up and watch the kids so I can go, but it's an hour drive for her. I'm sure she doesn't mind most of the time because she gets to see the kids, but it would be nice to have someone closer. I did get some answers on the changes coming to weekend option, and as I suspected, some of what I had heard wasn't true. Right now, I have to work 50 out of 52 weekends a year. Until now, no one cared if you were sick over a weekend, you still got to take your 2 weekends of vacation, but I guess really, it should be counting as one of the 2 weekends. Starting next year, they will be keeping better track of people's weekends. They will give us 3 weekends off a year, but those 3 weekends will include vacation, sick time and if we get someone to work for us. So, lets say I take a vacation weekend in May, and then I'm sick over a weekend in July, I will only have 1 weekend left to take off. The day during the week right now is paid at time and a half and no PTO is earned, but next year it will be regular pay, but I'll get PTO. Flexing doesn't count against my 3 weekends off because it's a staffing decision. We are just flexed last unless we offer to flex so as not to tax our PTO bank. So I'm pretty happy with all of that. I won't bring home as much with my extra day at regular pay, but I'll get PTO. That way should I need surgery, or get really sick, I'm not screwed. I also found out that there was a HIPPAA violation on our unit and a job was lost. I'm not entirely sure what happened, or even who it was, but it's a little sad, and makes me a little anxious about this blog. Everything I write on here is basically a composite of multiple situations that have been changed so that I am giving a sample story, but not of one actual patient. But, even with that said, it's a bit unsettling. HIPPAA is a very serious thing and I make sure without a doubt that no one could read my stories and say "Hey, that's me she's talking about".

Forgetful

As a nurse, I really feel like I should have my stuff together when I go to the doctor. Especially when it comes to seeing the OB/GYN. Today I had my yearly routine appointment and there were a few things I needed to bring up with my doctor. I wanted to make sure I remembered to let her know that I still have migraine auras and that I had follow-up with my PCP, that way she has that on my chart since it affects the type of birth control I can use. Going along with that, I wanted to continue on the mini-pill for now, and wanted to talk about what my options are down the road. I had intended on Mirena, but had heard from some people it's okay with migraine auras and from some that it's not. The whole issue is since I have auras, I am at more risk of stroke, so my understanding is I can't take cyclical pills, or any methods that contain estrogen. But, I didn't really know because when I saw my primary care doc, he said what I was taking was fine, and at that point in time, I didn't care...I'd talk with my OBGYN in February. Well, I managed to remember to bring up the migraine auras, but when she asked if I was good with the mini-pill, I forgot to ask what other types of BC I could use down the road. It's really not a big deal because I can always make another appointment down the line to discuss it, but In my defense, I made my appointment for 8:20 this a.m., after working a 12 hours shift. This weekend I regretted that. I make most appointments on Monday a.m.s because the kids are always in school or at daycare and I don't have to worry about dragging all of them in. Or it's an appointment where I don't have to strip down to my birthday suit. But by making my gyne appointment that early, it didn't allow me time to go home and shower, like I want to do before someone is messing around down there. This is bad, and I can't believe I'm admitting this on-line, but it's been so long since I shaved my legs, that I can't remember the last time I did. Hey, I've got 3 kids! Plus, my nursing shoes are leather, and I forgot extras socks, so not only was I not freshly showered, had worked my ass off all night, I had stinky feet. I did sprinkle baby powder on them, hoping that took care of it. And I did take one of our peri bottles from work to make sure I was at least clean, ya know? Because ever since the toilet paper incident awhile back, I worry that there is some of that flimsy toilet paper stuck to me, or that I'll soon be needing to have a BM. Plus, I'm tired after work. So, I wasn't in as clear of a mind frame that I could have been in. Oh well, I reminded myself that she's probably seen worse(like people who put in tampons and forget they have them in and they get lost. True story told to me by coworkers who have worked in offices) so I try not to worry so much about that.
On a different note, I am hoping tonight at work, or after work tomorrow morning to hear from my director. I've been hearing all sorts of rumors about the weekend option program and what's being allowed and what's not. Since I started, I've been told you could or couldn't do this or that, only to hear down the road the exact opposite of what I was told initially. I have a copy of the hospital policy, but there's that statement "up to the discretion of the director", so it really doesn't tell me anything. I decided to hell with waiting to hear what's going on and listening to rumors, I e-mailed her and wanted to sit down with her and find out exactly what's expected. I don't want to jeopardize this good thing by not living up to expectations. Just an example, I was told from the beginning you have to work your weekends, and unless it's one of your 2 free weekends, and you can't have someone work for you. Well, over the last year, weekend option people have been getting people to work for them. I didn't ever do that, worried about the consequences. Until last month, I was complaining about not being able to go to a baby shower, and a charge nurse said I could get someone to work for me. So I did, for only 2 hours. But now I'm worried that will count against me. So, I'm hoping to find something out soon.