OMG THURSDAY! I am so happy that it’s THURSDAY! My 60 hour work week is over! And the last two days were rough! On Tuesday, I was the most experienced peds nurse all day long. I’ve been doing peds for the last 8 months or so, but I’m only working 4 shifts a month and not all of those shifts are even with the kids! It ended up being perfectly fine (thank the lawd for no critical patients), although we had a lot of respiratory distress kids. Luckily, two of the other nurses occasionally work with the kids too, but usually we’re the inexperienced ones… So, definitely not a stress free day, since I felt like I was constantly trying to help out with the other patients.
Yesterday was super busy too since I worked on PCU and had two admissions. One was fresh out of surgery and one was from the ER, which I haven’t really had to do much of. It was just super insanely busy and I’m still not exactly the most knowledgeable when it comes to all this floor nursing type stuff since it’s a totally different ballgame than the ER. I was thrilled when my day ended!
I used to always work 60 hours a week. And those 60 hours were always with the adults in the ER, getting my ass kicked nonstop, barely even getting a lunch break most of the time. I was an overtime machine back in the day. It’s crazy how much that has changed. Not just because I’m pregnant, but because I just got burnt out and started valuing my sanity over the money. (Also, I was living on my own and paying for my bachelor’s when I first became a nurse, still going on overseas vacations, and then I had a house and a wedding to pay for, and then Jon was only working part-time, so the hours were needed to support the things I wanted.) It helps that Jon got a full time job and I don’t have to work as much now though, for sure. After these last 60 hours, I couldn’t have been more thrilled to have a whole 5 days off work. I was so mentally exhausted last night after work that I couldn’t even focus on trip planning with Jon.
Surprisingly, I woke up at 8:50 this morning, but I spent close to an hour laying in bed. Then I watched two episodes of Jane the Virgin and laid on my couch for awhile after that. I’m about to do a discussion for grad school, go to Whole Foods, and then go on a walk. It’s beautiful out but I’m just so pooped from all that work! And oddly enough, but my back pain has really improved! It wasn’t too bad yesterday and today, I honestly hadn’t even noticed it. I’m going to keep my fingers crossed that the pain has ended, but I feel like that may be a little too hopeful.
And to end this, Jon and I are not going to Paris. I’m having flashbacks of when I was so set on going to Ecuador in 1oth grade for a Spanish trip and I was so excited about it, and then 9/11 happened and my mom made me cancel the trip! We were going to go to the Galapagos! I mean, come on, Mom! But Jon pretty much put his foot down and said that with all this Syrian hubbub going on that there’d be no Paris. So we were looking at either Costa Rica or Lake Tahoe. Jon voted on Tahoe last night, but I’m still not sure cause I really want to get another country in. I’ve also been wanting to go to Tahoe too and we found a good hotel with awesome reviews for just over $800 for the week, and honestly, I’m totally feeling the Christmas spirit this year. The other downside is than there are layovers to Tahoe and since I hate taking off, I really don’t want a layover. No layovers to Costa Rica! Okay, now I’m just thinking out loud. But also, I don’t have any winter jackets that fit over my fat belly and it’s only going to be bigger come December! (I mean, that’s two weeks away, actually…)
Okay, I’m going to go. Jon just got home and now we’re talking trip plans! I should also try and do something productive, other than sitting here in my underwear and unbrushed teeth!
at20something 
60 hours would be so tough! I cannot even imagine doing that on a regular basis. I used to do about 4-8 hours/week of overtime when I worked at the psych hospital but that was enough! I miss the overtime though & wish my current job allowed it more often. The whole Isis thing really came at a bad time :(. I hope you guys can make it to Paris some time though! Tahoe & Costa Rica both sound really fun! But, I’m all for being somewhere warm in December so I’d pick the latter!
I wish I could do OT, I know that it burns you out but I have so much bills! I almost thought about getting a part-time job.
There should be direct flights to San Francisco, maybe even Sacramento or Reno. But that depends how much you want to drive with San Francisco or Sacramento. I would vote for Costa Rica too, though it might be a bit difficult to do adventure things while pregnant. If you do decide to go to Tahoe you can go to the Salvation Army and get a coat there or to Target or H&M or Forver 21 or yard sales on Craigslist and get a $30 coat. Then layer up. Do you have a friend that’s bigger than you and has a spare you can borrow for a week? They should have an established maternity wear second hand store.
We decided on Tahoe! Since we leave NEXT FRIDAY (AH!), there was NO WAY we could swing Costa Rica. I have two papers to write and work and other plans, so no way can I plan a whole trip too. Tahoe will be low key! I actually think I MAY have a pea coat that I could wear, but I don’t even want to buy new stuff! They definitely need a second hand maternity store! But I still need such small stuff that it’s a pain to find anything that fits! No direct flights from ATL to Reno either (shockingly!!!! I have NEVER had a layover in the continental US before)! We have a layover in SLC, otherwise it would have been Seattle (or Portland, I forget which). I could see if a friend has a coat that I could borrow… All of my friends are bigger than I am, so that may work, actually!
What a crazy week! That would be so hard, especially being pregnant and having all the aches and pains of that. I’m glad you made it through! And all those travel plans sound fun. Costa Rica is on my travel bucket list! I’ve been to Panama, Ecuador, and a bunch of other Spanish speaking countries (I am a Spanish teacher after all!) but Costa Rica is one I haven’t done yet. I’d vote for that! 😉
I didn’t know you were a Spanish teacher! I was supposed to go to Ecuador in 10th grade with my Spanish class but then 9/11 happened and my mom didn’t want me to go! This Syrian thing affecting our Paris plans reminds me of that too! But we decided on Tahoe! No time to plan a trip to Costa Rica but I’m keeping that on my list of things I want to do! I’ve heard such good things from the people who have gone!