Winning at this parenting thing

After weeks (more than we deserve) of pretty nice fall weather, we were blessed with heavy rain and gale force winds.  The rain stopped around 9, and I had this great idea that we should walk to the local Starbucks for hot chocolate.  Anything to get the crazy boys out of the house.  Yeah, taking your kids for a walk in gale force winds with wires and trees blowing furiously probably not the smartest or safest idea.  We had two people warn us about falling branches, and boy number 2 was in tears by the time we got home.  Apparently he was terrified.  Guilt ridden mom equals kids getting to chill on the couch watching The Lion King.  Hurrah for screen time!

Storm clouds

I was in charge last night. We were well staffed, but things were, surprise, surprise, absolutely crazy.

We may have gotten a little bit of sun here in Seattle the past few weeks, but my charge nurse black cloud is going strong.

I was being second nurse for delivery when staffing called with a sick call for the day shift. Day shift was not well staffed. Also, surprise, surprise.

Suddenly this little vein on the top of my forehead started to throb. I'm trying to listen to baby and all I can concentrate is on the pulsing on my forehead. Baby sounds great, but I'm wondering if I'm about to stroke out.

Dude, those new grads need to get trained and fast.

Bunch of cranky pants round these parts

Chubs has a feverish cold. He is cranky and does not want to eat anything. This is not helped by the fact that he DID NOT nap this morning. I thought slam dunk afternoon nap, but someone is whimpering in his crib right now. DUDE baby, sleep, you'll feel better.

Speaking of sleep, I don't get nearly enough. So in the spirit of trying to you know, not go crazy from sleep deprivation, I was in bed by 10 last night. Unfortunately, things did not go as planned. People seemed to take sheer joy in waking me up.

At midnight, my husband came to bed. At 4 am, Chubs woke up and demanded my attention for almost 45 minutes. At 5:30, Bobby came into the bedroom, wondering if he could go downstairs. At 6, one of the cats was scratching at the door demanding to be let in. And finally, at 7, I was once again, handed a baby, by a husband who needed to go to work. The audacity.

Lessons in parenting - part 999

Sleep has been suffering the past few weeks. Night shift how I wish I could quit you.

Anyway, I was drifting off this afternoon in preparation for another night of work, when suddenly, "enh, enh, enh!" My alarm jolted me awake. Heart pounding, I sat bolt upright, thinking that I needed to get up that moment.

And then I realized that no, I had not set my alarm, and no there was no reason to be awake. Sadly, I never did fall back asleep.

Lesson - don't let your one year old near your alarm clock. Sadness will ensue.

Oh well, that is what coffee is for, right?

Essential nursing equipment

Anybody know where I can find a magic charge nurse wand that allows me to create 6 nurses of thin air for the next shift?

Clearly we have been a bit short staffed recently.

I managed to come up with 4 extra nurses. Magic wand or not. Go me

Rebirth

I had a blog. It followed me through the end of nursing school, adventures as a new nurse in the region's public hospital, and through a career shift to L&D. I chronicled my marriage and the birth of my 2 kids. I wrote a lot about work and nursing.

Then I got nervous. Despite not writing directly about specific patients, I drew a lot of my material from work. And work has issued increasingly specific edits about social networking and blogging. And even though I wasn't blogging under my own name, the photos of my boys were pretty recognizable, and I worried that if my blog was discovered, I could be fired EVEN if I hadn't broken any laws. And a blog is not worth my job.

So that blog has been retired. But, I kept thinking about things I wanted to write about. My mind needed an outlet to keep the insomnia I am starting again. No patient stories. No photos of my kiddos. Hopefully I can still come up with something worth writing about.