Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Birthday, holiday and new job tidings.

Alas, like my children, the blog has been sadly neglected of late. It is remarkable how 40 hours of work a week really infringes on my leisure time. Since I have to get up at 5:45 AM, I have to go to sleep basically as soon as I walk in the door, so that leaves very little time for blogging (or knitting for that matter--though, ever the soul of optimism, I do keep schlepping my knitting with me everywhere I go, hoping for a free hour).



Anyway, Diego's birthday is behind us. I feel a little bad because it ended up being soo stressful, since it was my first week of work and it seems even more on top of the holidays than usual. And he was sick with the first bad cold of the year. Plus, my threshold for small children is apprently extremely low (like maybe at 1--that one being Diego) so that being at his school, where incidentally, it tends to be about 100 degrees, with all his little friends with their snotty noses and barking coughs made me want to run screaming from the room. His train cake did not turn out quite as I imagined it (I really thought that I'd be able to do more with the frosting than I was apparently capable of). But I believe that it was basically recognizeable as a train.


Mom took over dealing with the brisket on the day of the party so it turned out very well (at least that's what I'm told--as it happens, I apprently don't like brisket...). The party was fun--Christine's dad brought some crab claws (always festive) and Holly and Russ brought a remarkably beautiful guitar plus their Australian friend Robbie (also always festive). We hadn't seen Robbie since he went back to Australia shortly after Diego was born, so that made me feel lind of sniffy, in a good way. My dad and Christine's dad got to talk about fish and boats a bit.

I believe that Diego actually liked his birthday sweater! I had the lady at the Chinese laundromat put the zipper in, which was definately the right thing to do.


Okay quickly now, as I need to get going: for any midwife friends who might be reading this, here is the low down on work.


My problems there (as I seem them) are three-fold (thus far--haven't even set foot in the OR yet).

1. Apparently, even if I really really concentrate, I do not know how to read a fetal monitor strip. Read it! Let alone chart or intervene appropriately in relation to same. (The good news on this is that I seem to be erring on the side of caution and want to section everyone who has walked in the door thus far).


2. I am both physically and mentally incapable of keeping track of (let alone caring for) more than, say, three patients at a time. And I'm talking just about the patients on the labor floor. Forget about postpartum rounds... Plus (this may be a separate thing, but I'm going to tack it onto problem #2), I have some kind of cognitive dissonance thing going on with the way that the rooms are numbered so that rooms 6 and 2 are switched in my mind. So I keep mixing up the patients in those rooms).


3. Computer charting is a problem for me. A huge problem.


Overall I'll say this: I am way out of my league and it is obvious that they were fools to hire me.
Behold, Al's birthday socks. They fit!

Okay, last and least, I must add some pictures of my harvest folk perching in the Christmas tree. Sorry to be so queer.


Wednesday, December 13, 2006

So I'm starting my job today. Alas, this may mean the end of leisure time for fiddling around with a blog. Or it may mean even more need to vent than ever before. Happily, for my first day, Christine will be orienting me. It will be just like nursing school all over again--without the professors, of course, or the locked psych ward (hopefully).

Kathleen advised me to focus my anxiety on my family and how they will cope rather than on the job and how I will cope. Her thinking was that even if I kill someone at work, I'll still have a warm home and a family who loves me..Kathleen can be perversely comforting at times.