a day in the life

I've been following Leslie over at A Blonde Ambition for quite some time now. Every Friday she does a Confessional Friday linkup. I can't promise that I can keep up with that but her topic today is A Day in the Life and it has been so fun to read other people's posts that I couldn't help but think about yesterday! So here I am linking up and sharing my day in the life.

My "Thursday, July 10"

Wed. July 9, 4:00 p.m. - Wake up [yes, I sleep during the day. curse you night shifts] to Tristan coming in the room. I look at my phone with one eye open and groan "It's time to wake up...". Tristan then allows Kacee to jump on the bed to lick my face and then crawls into bed to snuggle for a few minutes.

4:05 p.m. - Get up, shower, and get dressed in my work pajamas [scrubs].

4:45 p.m. - Head to the kitchen where Tristan has made me a sandwich to take with me for lunch and a sweet pork quesadilla to eat before I leave.

5:15 p.m. - I am in the car and on my way to work.

6:00 p.m. - Meet my coach [for those who don't know, I'm 3 weeks into my new job, so I'm still being oriented], get assigned our board, and get report from the day nurse. At this point I realize that we have some complicated babies (I'm supposed to be orienting to the boarders/intermediate babies now and I'll orient to the ICU babies in a few months... these are definitely ICU babies).

6:25 p.m. - My coach asks how I'm feeling... Correct answer: overwhelmed.

7:00 p.m. - We do baseline assessment, vital signs, and care on Baby A. The charge nurse has just left the room (they were attempting a peripherally inserted central catheter [PICC line]- basically an IV that goes to the heart) so she is awake. Baby A needs her first medication [ IV, on the pump for 30 minutes ].

7:30 p.m. - The alarm goes off for a delivery! I go to watch (part of orientation means watching 10 deliveries, assisting in 5 deliveries, and then performing 5 deliveries with the watchful eye of an experienced nurse).

8:00 p.m. - Baby A needs her 2nd medication [ IV, on the pump for 30 minutes ]

8:00 p.m. - We do baseline assessment, vital signs, check glucose (this baby has a history of unstable blood sugars, he's doing better but we are still checking his sugars before every meal) and cares for Baby B. Parents arrive, are updated, and attempt to breastfeed. Baby B is too tired so we give his full feeding through his NG tube.

9:00 p.m. - Take vital signs on Baby A. She also needs her 3rd medication. This one is incompatible with lipids (she has IV fluids running because she is not eating) so we stop the lipids. [IV, on the pump for 1 hour].

10:50 p.m. - Vital signs, check glucose, and care on Baby B. Give full feeding through NG tube.

11:05 p.m. - There is a new baby admitted to the unit. My orienter is taking notes for them and I go to watch because the more I see the more I learn. This baby is admitted due to increased work of breathing. The chest x-ray shows a pneumothorax. They insert a needle into the lungs and start pulling out the excess air with a syringe. 120 ml of air later, they decide this baby needs a chest tube. They recruit me to continue pulling out the air with the syringe. I'm on cloud 9! 900+ ml of air later they have everything set up to place the chest tube. I pull out the catheter and get out of the way.

11:45 p.m. - Vital signs and cares on Baby A.

Thursday July 10, 12:30 a.m. - The charge nurse is planning on attempting another PICC line. So we give Baby A medication number 4.

1:00 a.m. - Vital signs on Baby A. Charge nurse is there to try another PICC line. I watch while my coach helps her.

1:30 a.m. - My coach tells me to go to lunch, otherwise I won't get one... I read my texts "Good afternoon my love." Sent at 1:00 a.m. from my cute hubby. I text him back goodnight. Check Instagram, Facebook, the usual... while eating my pb&honey sandwich. Text Tristan "Peanut butter and honey sandwiches are the best, you're the best!".  Realize that I have a sweet tooth and eat 2 cookies... feel guilty and text Tristan, "I'm a fatty, I just ate TWO cookies!". Now lunch is over so I head back to my babies.

2:00 a.m. - I walk in from lunch and thank goodness they were successful at placing the PICC line! My coach goes to lunch. I get vital signs, check glucose, and do cares for Baby B. Full feeding is given through his tube.

3:00 a.m. - Time for vital signs and cares for Baby A. It's her night for a bath but we decide to defer it because she is so sick. We also get her weight and poke her heel to get labs.

4:00 a.m. - We have a little bit of down time! I catch up on charting, do trends, and then my coach and I go through a bunch of the education things I have to pass off.

5:00 a.m. - Vital signs on Baby A. She also needs her last medication for the night.

5:00 a.m. - Vital signs, glucose check, weight, heel stick for labs and cares for Baby B. Mom is here again so he tries to breastfeed. He does really well this time!! So we don't have to give him any of his feeding through the tube.

6:00 a.m. - We give report to the oncoming day shift.

6:30 a.m. - Admire the sunrise... Then drive home listening to my favorite talk show, 97.1 ZHT.

6:50 a.m. - Get pulled over literally minutes from home because my registration is expired. [Tristan!!] Whoops... that's been on the to-do list for a few months now.

7:00 a.m. - Walk inside and wake up Tristan to tell him about our ticket. I decide at this point that I'm actually not that tired and ask Tristan if we can go on a walk before I go to bed. He groans for a minute but then gets out of bed and we take Kacee on a walk.

8:00 a.m. - I offer to take Tristan to Provo, follow him in the company bus up to Salt Lake so he can drop it off, and then drive him back home. We head to Provo and listen to my favorite talk show some more. They are talking about "Scorekeepers" in relationships. We decide that neither of us really do it. But if we did... Tristan: 5 (grocery shopping, dinner making, taking my car to get registered, then car washed, and taking Kacee to Petsmart to get groomed), Kristin: 2 (making money and driving up to Salt Lake instead of sleeping).

9:00 a.m. - I am following Tristan to Salt Lake when the bus starts slowing down and I know something is wrong. It just shut down. I do four circles [40 minutes later] before I finally find him. We leave the bus to get towed and head home.

11:30 a.m. - It's finally bedtime! I set my alarm for 2:30 p.m. so that I can get up and head back to the hospital for staff meeting. Sweet dreams!

Some days are more exciting then others. Sometimes I fill my time with laundry, cleaning, and watching movies eating giant bowls of popcorn. It happens.
HAPPY FRIDAY!