Updates and musings from one momma nurse

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Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Spelling 101

"I can spell your name. M-O-M-O-M spells Mommy!"
Ooh very close, honey, M-O-M-M-Y. Good job!
"No, M-O-M-O-M-O!"

Monday, November 22, 2010

1st Quarter

We had our first ever Parent-Teacher Conference today! Surreal to see a "report card" with your child's name on it, and to discuss crazy things like kindergarten readiness. Wasn't she just born??

Despite Sweet Pea informing us about knocking people over, her teachers say she has a good balance of assertiveness and listening. She's demonstrating a lot of pre-writing skills, gets along with the rest of her classmates, and participates readily in class activities. Because of her birthdate, she is one of the kids who can switch back and forth between the "Early Preschool" and "Preschool" rooms (depending on numbers), and apparently she does well in both rooms. Some of the others hang back when they are with the older kids, but she jumps right in, and often tells me about specific friends from each room.

I looked ahead to some of the objectives they'll be assessing later in the year, and Sweet Pea is definitely already working on some of them, but I know I'll be amazed at how far she's come by the end of the year!

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Misheard Lyrics

Sweet Pea is more musically inclined than either of her parents, and can often be heard humming or singing something. My current favorite goes like this:

Ring around the rosey,
hoppa pole laposey
Ashton, Ashton
We all fall DOWN!

She also does a pretty priceless rendition of "Bringing home a baby bumblebee", but doesn't sing it often enough for me to catch all the words.

Friday, November 19, 2010

The Shoe Game

Me: So what did you do at daycare today?
Sweet Pea: "I played the shoe game with my friends."
Me: How do you play the shoe game?
Sweet Pea: "You knock people over."

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Are We There Yet?

While driving across town:
Sweet Pea: "Are we there yet?"
Me: No, honey, not yet.
[slight pause]
Sweet Pea: "Are we there yet?"
Me: ..No.
Sweet Pea: "Oh. Just checking."

Friday, October 22, 2010

Right there!

Adorable, pleasantly confused patient: "I'm hurting!"
EC: "Oh? Tell me more."
APCP reaches around EC with both hands and grabs just below the hips. "Right there! That's where I hurt!"

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Direction

Wondering what direction to take this blog.

A lot of funny things happen at work, but there is that whole HIPAA thing, so I don't want to get too specific, and when I take out the necessary amount of details, the stories lose their humor.

Perhaps we'll stick to toddler stories?

Like how the other day, when I was scolding Sweet Pea for something or other, she said, "Stop looking at me like that!" Nice to know my Mom Look packs a bit of a punch.

At a youth group meeting, as I was tickling Sweet Pea, the director asked her if he could do some tickling. She said, "Yeah, sure! You can tickle my mom!" What a helpful suggestion, thank you.

I have been amazed the last few weeks at how big she is getting. She can reach things I remember lifting her to before (certain sinks, water fountains, etc), and can climb up parts of the playground that I would have guessed she would need help with.

...And she is awake, for the first of her many nightly trips to the bathroom.. Better go help.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

RN

I'm sorry for neglecting the blog.

Since my last post, I have passed boards to become a registered nurse, and am off orientation on my unit.

Exciting and intimidating all in one!

Monday, July 26, 2010

Graduated

It is official. I am done with nursing school! Still waiting to take boards.

I have started my new job, orienting on my unit as a graduate nurse. I have had a couple days with patients now.

Day 1:
-Three patients to start
-One patient with out of control pain, worked with my clinical coach to address her pain. Worked through all the options we had available, then called the doctor to obtain more options. One hectic hour later and the patient was resting comfortably, finally. Rewarding to see the results.
-Overall, felt like I had forgotten everything I had ever learned. Points that were strong in nursing school or even as an aide? Fled my mind when it came to day 1 as a nurse. Overwhelming. But at the end of the day, all my patients were alive, pain was under control, and they were all happy (relatively speaking).

Day 2:
-Three patients
-First 4 hours of the shift FLEW by. The rest went pretty quickly too.
-Got surgery consents signed for one patient who was going to OR the next day. (The next shift can thank me later. ;) )
-Finished up nearly all of my charting on time.
-Kept everyone medicated.
-Stayed mostly on the good side of one cranky patient.
-Got a lot of practice with skin assessment, staging pressure ulcers. Discovered a stage I.
-Survived my first physician call (called to clarify conflicting orders).
-Overall, day 2 was much smoother than day 1. I was able to work more independently (though my clinical coach was always close at hand). I had a better sense of the big picture.

I had been worried about the transition from aide to nurse, but so far it seems to be going well. I have a good sense of what the aides do, and how their work fits into that big picture, and I can appreciate it even more.
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In completely unrelated news, Sweet Pea is suddenly making great strides in potty training. I'm very proud of her! She wears diapers only at night now, and even so, is waking up dry sometimes. Woot!

Monday, April 12, 2010

Big Girl Bed!

The time has come. Today, I took one side off of Sweet Pea's crib, converting it into a toddler bed.

She LOVES that she can climb into it all by herself now!


I took the railing off just before naptime, and let her explore her "new" bed for a while before proceeding with our normal naptime routine.

Naptime went fantastically, and getting her down at bedtime wasn't too tricky either.. but we haven't made it through the whole night yet! Time will tell whether she stays in bed or ends up elsewhere by morning. We will definitely be putting up the gate at the top of the stairs.

She and I had a conversation about her new big girl bed ("big girl" is a phrase we've all been using quite a bit lately), and how big girls stay in their beds all night, and that when she is ready to get up, she can call for us and we will come get her.

*fingers crossed*

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Potent Quotables

As we drove by a river, Sweet Pea told me she was a fish. I asked her questions about what kind of fish she was (color, size, etc), then asked if she was the kind of fish I could catch and eat. She responded in a "duh, Mom" kind of voice, saying, "No, I'm for swimming!"

Rocking before bed, she was asking me questions about my glasses and whether I wear them when I go to bed. I told her they were to help me see her, and that at night time when I was sleeping, my eyes were closed and I could take them off.
"You love seeing me?"
Yes, I love seeing you.
"I love screaming at you."

"Don't hold my hand, Mommy."
But Sweet Pea, I love you!
"No, I'm busy!"

"I need to take my shoes off."
Oh, do you have something in them?
"Yeah, I have dirt and chipmunks in my shoes!"

(As R was tickling her)
"No, Dad, it's not funny."

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Life After Graduation

Things are looking promising for an RN job on my unit as soon as I'm done with school. They can hire me even before I take the boards.

Ah, weight off my shoulders!

Countdown to graduation: <5 months!

Thursday, February 11, 2010

So Quotable

Sweet Pea wanted to call Mamaw. As soon as the voicemail picked up, she said, "Hang up, call again!"

She told me she needed groceries. When I asked what she needed, she said, "Meat, cheese, noodles, oranges, and bananas. That's all I need. And milk!" Sounds like a pretty complete list to me..


Me: Did you have a good time at Grandma's, honey?
Her: I not no honey! I Sweet Pea!

"I need to exercise!" is usually followed by her climbing onto the couch and jumping up and down.

Recent dinner prayers have often included blessings for our daycare, our cots, our cubbies, our naptime buddies, and baby Jesus.


She loves to dance and sing, and there is a Veggie Tales singalong cd in the car that both of us have memorized.

Another popular activity is playing the drums. Her drumsticks consist of pencils, spoons, crayons, and whatever else is handy and looks remotely drumstick-like.

Friday, February 5, 2010

A Non-Kid Story!

I had been warned about my patient by the previous shift, who had butted heads with him and thrown up their hands. They offered me a sarcastic "Good luck!" as I prepared to collect his vital signs.

Tentatively, I knocked and walked in, introducing myself and telling my standard joke to break the ice. He was nothing but cooperative.

Later, he put his call light on to have me take his dinner tray out. I was stuck in another patient's room, so his nurse answered the light instead. When I finally made it out of the other room to see if she needed any help, she was walking out with his tray. I thanked her, then noticed his call light was still on. I walked in to turn it off myself, joking that the nurse was quick and had beat me to his room, and his reaction was strong and immediate. "I don't need anything from you! GET OUT! GO!!" as he pointed at the door with fury.

Near the end of my shift, I entered his room to empty his trash and change out the Intake/Output sheet on his door. He looked me up and down and asked if I'd been working on the menu yet for the lunch we'd be having together. I must have given him a puzzled look, because his next question was whether I was married. When I answered in the affirmative, he said he was barking up the wrong tree, and told me to call him if anything changed.

Who needs to go into psychiatric nursing? You can have plenty of exposure no matter where you work!

Friday, January 15, 2010

Being Two = Being Funny

Whenever we go out to the garage and she sees the new (to us) car there: "New car time!"

From the backseat while ordering at a drive-thru: "And a free toy? And a free toy PLEASE?"

When I told her this place was different and didn't have toys: "Oh no. Shoot!"

As we passed a high school: "When I big, I play football! Throw the ball, and catch it, and run run run fast!"

If she doesn't understand what I'm saying: "What your talking about, Mommy? What your mean?"

Randomly: "What?"

Sunday, January 10, 2010

What that noise?

This morning at church there was a baptism. During the baptism, the priest asks the congregation to renew their own baptismal vows by responding, "I do" to several statements of belief. With Sweet Pea in my arms, I say, "I do" after the first statement. Sweet Pea looks at me and repeats, "I do." After the next statement, I again say, "I do." Emphatically, Sweet Pea shouts, "I DO! No, Mommy, ME!"

Later in the service, Sweet Pea hears a baby squawk a little. She turns to me and asks, "What that noise?" Not getting an immediate enough response, she yells, "WHAT that NOISE?" Well, honey, right now the noise is you!

She loved Christmas. We opened stockings on Christmas Eve. My favorite part was when she unwrapped one stocking stuffer and said, "Oh! Cute socks!" and carried them around for awhile. She also had her first Hershey kiss, of which she was a fan!

On Christmas day we spent some time as a family, opening gifts from each other and from grandparents who are out of town. Sweet Pea opened one from Mamaw and said, "Oh, I love it!"

That afternoon we had my parents and some of my siblings over. It was great to spend time with them, and Sweet Pea got to play with some of her cousins.

We took down the tree this week, but Sweet Pea is still talking about Christmas, and has asked to open more presents almost every day.

My new semester starts tomorrow. I've been working through break, but haven't had any shareable stories. Maybe the start of clinicals will change that!