Random Thoughts

* I'm still in mourning over the loss of my breastmilk stores. But, I'm hopeful as I've been really "pumping it up" over the last few days and I did the best I could to nurse Isaiah every hour or so, with pumping after at least 2 feedings. I've also been eating oatmeal, because I heard that it supposedly helps increase supply. (although I'm not sure it's really making a difference) It's been a lot of work, but it'll be worth it. Plus I should eat more fiber anyway. We did finally buy a highchair and cereal, so we'll be ready in a couple weeks. When I found this highchair, I was really excited (yes, I know, its a highchair) but we had the traditional ones with the other 2, and they took up so much room. This fits perfectly on our dining table chairs. I can hardly wait to try it out. Just a another 1-3 weeks, though.

* The fashion show was last night and it didn't go too bad at all. The kids were rowdy, but there were plenty other kids there. It was also nice to see co-workers and some of the docs outside of the hospital. The kids didn't spill anything on their outfits, they didn't fuss and they actually walked the cat walk and behaved. I was impressed. One funny thing did happen: one of the doctors was in it with his wife and 4 boys. One of those boys ran up to husband, and grabbed husbands "stuff"! Husband was quite surprised and the kid thought it was hilarious. I sure hope that's not a boy thing!

* The bug guy sprayed for bugs, thank goodness, and not a moment too soon. Two hours before he came, I spotted the biggest spider I've ever seen outside of a biology lab. Yuck, yuck, yuck.

* My sister is moving another 1 1/2 hours away this weekend. Husband is going up to help tomorrow. I can't go because, one, I have to work at 7pm, and two, the kids would be in the way. She starts her intern year in July. She'll only be about 4 hours away, but we won't get to hang out like we used to. I realized the last time she was down, that that will probably be the last time for a very long time that she's able to come down and hang out like that. But, we thought the same about med school, and she was down quite a bit. But, we'll see. It does give me an excuse to spend a couple days up there, a kind of mini-vacation. The kids and I are going up in a few weeks to check things out, and so they can break in her new place.

* Work last night was SOOOO boring. Not that I'm complaining. I guess I am. I discharged 2 patients before midnight, and that left labor empty! Can you believe that?! And no one came in before I left. I spent the whole night helping out with fussy babies in the nursery. Man, it was so slow. I kept hoping a patient would come in so I'd have something to do. There never seems to be a happy medium: you're either dead slow or crazy busy.

Lost liquid gold

Yesterday when I went down into the basement to pull some frozen breastmilk out, I was greeted with a horrible scene. We have a small freezer in the basement where I keep my supply of frozen bmilk, and extra meat. I opened the door and apparently the freezer was overloaded with frost and it wasn't working. Almost my entire frozen breastmilk supply was thawed. There were a few bags that were still frozen, covered under a big chunk of ice that had fallen, but 15-20 bags were cold, but thawed. I was/am devastated. I've actually been trying to increase my frozen supply over the last few weeks, and this just really sucked. I seriously cried. I know that it's not the end of the world, but I had this goal of exclusively breastfeeding Isaiah until 6 months, and then starting solid food. And I never wanted to have to give him formula. But I don't think that going to happen now. I can only pump so much at work, and sometimes its hard to pump at all when it's super busy. That stuff is liquid gold! I'm going to try to pump after he eats each time while I'm off, and I got up and pumped today a couple times. I had husband give him bottles throughout the day to try and use at least some of the breastmilk before it isn't good anymore. I'm feeling better about it today, but yesterday I was crushed.

On top of losing my frozen supply, worked sucked the big one. I spent the first 4 hours in the nursery. Not taking care of the healthy babes or as just an extra set of hands, but taking care of sick babies. I'm a labor nurse, not a nursery nurse. I told them I wasn't really comfortable being completely responsible for the sick babies. There wasn't anything too horribly wrong with them, but it isn't my area of expertise. Luckily, they got another nursery nurse to come in after 4 hours. So I got to go back to labor. Thank you God! But trouble continued. I had a patient that was preterm that thought she was contracting, but after she arrived at the hospital, she said it had stopped. But I still had to call the doc for orders. The dude on call didn't answer his phone. I tried multiple times, called all the numbers we had. No response. Tried the patients regular doc, no answer. Tried the partners. No response. It's a holiday weekend so I'm sure they were out of town. Plus they weren't on call. So, up the chain of command we went, to no avail. I did finally get orders from a doc who doesn't even cover for that group. The on call doc finally called back 3 hours later. Completely unacceptable. What if it had been an emergency!? Anyway, I'm hoping tonight is going to be better.

A few pics

Isaiah at 4 months

Here are my Dad, my sister after officially becoming an MD, and my Mom. I think the last time I saw my Dad this dressed up was when I got married!



Clara and Isaiah

Jacob at his pre-k graduation. Nothing is much cuter than a bunch of 4 and 5 year olds in mortar board caps and graduation gowns!
Isaiah in the bath today. The water spraying is the kitchen sink sprayer, not him peeing supercharged! He's getting better at sitting up lately with some support.

Time for the Bug Man

It's time to call the bug man. Okay, we live in an old house with a basement. With old houses and basements (probably new houses, too) there come bugs in the spring. I figure since our house has been standing for over 100 years, there are bug families that have set up colonies from many generations back. I do okay with little bugs, I don't like them, but can handle them. We had earwigs at the last house we lived in and I hated those damn things. Ants are gross, I don't really like those damn orange beetles that fly all over and smell if you irritate them, but I can deal with that. It's the big ones that get me. Last year, right before we called an exterminator for ants and little spiders, I woke up to make a midnight bathroom run to see a huge black cockroach in the hallway. Upstairs of all places. I can't stand the sound of crunching bugs, so I tried to put a cup over it. I missed and it chased me. Seriously, it came at me, didn't run away, but came right towards me. I screeched, it ran into Clara's closet. Husband took care of it the next a.m. And the wonderful bug man came and we didn't' have bugs anymore. Maybe a tiny spider, or two. But no more bugs. This a.m., I come home, go into the bathroom, do my thing, and notice this huge bug with big old long legs staring at me. I swear it was probably a square inch. I, again, screamed. I finally got out of the bathroom, and decided I'd drop a book on it to kill it. I thought I heard a small crunch, which grossed me out, so I moved the book. And it jumped at me. Not just once, but 5 times!!! And now it's lost somewhere in the kids toy room. I'm the big giant that could squash it if I had the balls! And it chases me! Somethings not right here. So, I think it's time for my favorite guy this time of year to come visit me. I'll show that damn bug who's boss!

Random thoughts

I realized that I've not posted a whole lot of L&D stories... I guess I've had pretty normal patients lately. I also have updated pics of the all the kids that I plan on posting sometime in the near future. Lately I've been more wrapped up in the lack of sleep I've been getting than anything else.
Today I was reading the paper and ever since I worked in a nursing home as a CNA, I always scan the obits. I noticed today an obituary of a baby girl born in March. I took care of mom while she was in labor and she actually delivered for me. There wasn't anything wrong with baby right after birth and she went home on time as far as I can remember. One of the reasons I remember her is her last name. I worked in a H.S. while in nursing school and she was a senior when I started working there. She has 2 other children. I just wonder what happened. SIDS? I'll never know, but my heart goes out to her and her family. I also found out that another patient who lived in OB for several weeks due to a previa with her 3rd child recently found out she was pregnant with her 4th baby. What really sucks is her husband was killed in a car accident recently. She is a SAHM, her husband is gone. Her oldest child I think is about 6? It just doesn't seem fair. There will only be very few memories of the dad for the oldest, maybe the second oldest will have a vague memory, but the youngest (1 year) and the new baby won't have any memories at all of their father. Just very sad. I just pray that these moms have the strength and faith they need.

On a more positive note, Isaiah seems to be back to sleeping all night. What I think the problem was was fenugreek. I had started taking that because it was recommended to increase milk supply. I just wanted to have more milk stored in the freezer. But, a rare side effect is abdominal discomfort and pain in the baby. I've since stopped taking it, but I think maybe that was the issue Saturday night. But who knows. I will say the that the fenugreek did in fact increase my supply. The strange thing about it: it really does make your sweat and urine smell like maple syrup! So very weird. Anyway, I think Isaiah may finally be ready for bed, so I'm off.

Mr. Sandman found

Things are much happier here in my house. Even though I was on the verge of strangling my dear, loving husband, the whole coming home early turned into a blessing, of sorts. I finally laid down about 4a.m.ish and slept on the couch until the other kids came down for breakfast. Husband knew how mad I was because instead of saying things and not letting it go like I usually do, I was silent, so he kept the house clean and very nice and attentive. I doubt that it happens again. After talking with Jacob and Clara for awhile and then feeding Isaiah, I went to be at about 8:30. And I slept. In my bed with my beautiful pillows, and without a baby in the crook of my arm and one of the "ladies" hanging out. It was absolute heaven. I did feed Isaiah throughout the day, but that doesn't take too long, plus I barely have to wake up to do that. It's amazing how great I feel after getting probably a good 10 hours of sleep. I needed it. And last night Isaiah fell asleep at 8:00pm and slept until a.m. I've been toying with the idea of starting him on rice cereal. I really wanted to wait until he is 6 months, but he seems so ready to start eating. The other two never really seemed interested in food, but he watches us eat and is easily distracted when he's nursing. So we'll see. Maybe it will help him sleep a bit better. But I'll be sad, I can't explain why exactly, but I will if we start giving him cereal before 6 months. I guess it's just a thing with me.

Work last night was actually very, very slow. I was working post-partum and my two patients were day 2 moms, and didn't need me to do anything. They both breastfed their babies, took pain meds infrequently, and never really needed anything. It made for a long 12 hour shift, though. One of the moms, though, had her husband there overnight, and he was kind of a pain in the ass. He slept the entire time, never got up to change a diaper, he snored and kept mom awake, and kept passing noxious gas in his sleep. To top it off, he got up at one point, used the bathroom. The bathroom in that particular room is right next to the door to the hallway. Man, the nasty odor that wafted into the hallway was overwhelming. Luckily, we were dead slow and no one had to walk past that room, except me. The mom was about ready to kill him I think. I have mixed feelings about dads staying overnight. If they are helpful, and don't sleep through everything and mom wants them there, that's one thing. It's nice to see them supporting their new family and being involved. But frequently I see more of the sort that sleep through everything and aren't much support at all. I sent husband home with our kids. I was breastfeeding and felt like it would be better if he was rested up so he would be more help once I came home. I did make him stay the first night after Clara, because we were waiting to hear her test/echo results and see what the pediatric cardiologist had to say. But, I did know all the staff, so I guess that may have made a difference. :) Anyway, I'm off to bed for hopefully another great sleep.

The trouble with men

So it's 2:00 a.m. on a Saturday night and I'm here at my home computer. You may be asking yourself "Why, Nurse Lochia, are you typing a new post and not at work? Don't you work every Saturday and Sunday night for premium pay as a labor nurse?" Very good question, very good question indeed. The answer, my dear readers, is because the baby was screaming. Yep, screaming. Long story short, I left work because husband thought that something was wrong with Isaiah and he needed to go to the ER because he wouldn't quit screaming. And husband is "Soooo freaking tired". Yeah, that makes 2 of us, except he gets to sleep every night and the nights I'm here, I get up with the baby. But, I acknowledge he probably is tired. And never mind when I had my own little break down Friday because of my severe lack of sleep, he offered to get up with Isaiah. But when Isaiah did wake up, husband did not. And I could not arouse him. So I got up and was up from 3:00 a.m. on after only getting him to sleep since 12:30 while husband slumbered since 10:30. I do love my husband dearly, but man he can irk me. But anyway, I left work, wondering if husband was just freaking out or if there was something really wrong. Leaning toward something wrong because, really, Isaiah isn't fussy, just wants to be held. Keep in mind, too, that I've called husband before to come home from his work and he won't. So I walk in the door and guess what I hear? Silence. Dead Silence. And they are both sleeping on the couch. I take the baby, look him over to make sure there's nothing obviously wrong, which there is not, and he promptly falls right back asleep. I sent husband to bed because I'm not missing out on my full day of sleep later today because he had a freak out. I've seriously averaged 3 hours of sleep every 24 hours for the last week. I'm tired. More like exhausted. And now I'm irritated. But, now that I've gotten that off my chest, I feel better and I think I'll go to bed after I call my co-workers to let them know Isaiah is just fine.