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!

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*

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."

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!

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.

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!

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?"