I swear I'm still alive

As it turns out, my free time (and, thus, blog-writing time) has taken a hit these past two months due to the following combination of factors: working full-time, going to school full-time, getting married in less than two months, and going house-hunting.

I still love work. I've become more independent these past two months. Lately, my major goals have been to do as many labor checks and triage assignments possible, since that's the majority of cases we see on night shift. It looks like I'll make the switch from days to night shift sometime around the 28th of this month. Then I'll have a couple of weeks to orient on the mother-baby unit, and then they're releasing me on my own.

How scary is that?!?

A huge compliment

One of my patients asked me what my married name will be so that she can request me to be her labor and delivery nurse when she has her future babies.

It makes me feel like I'm doing something right. I absolutely love my job.

So. Tired.

My poor little blog has been quite neglected for the past month.   

Between school, my RN residency, orienting to my unit, wedding planning, and trying find time for the rest of my life... I'm exhausted!  

It's one step forward

One and a half steps back. At least in terms of my technical skills. Take, for example, cervical checks. For every elusive cervix I find, there's one check that I'm not sure about. And those gosh-darn IV starts. Let's just say after having four days off, I've been a bit off my IV game.

Things are still going well, though. I find myself spending much more time with my patients in their rooms. It seems like many of the more experienced nurses think it's because my patients are needy, but I get such joy from answering my patient's questions and helping them try different labor positions. 

I've had a couple of kind of scary delivery moments that made me very thankful that I am still orienting to the unit. Each day, though, I strive to be more independent than the day before. My preceptor says I'm doing a great work. I'm just trying to keep it up!

I have officially been baptized

in amniotic fluid.

I consider this a labor and delivery rite of passage.

In other news, I am much more confident in my ability to find the elusive cervix in the early stages of dilation. Effacement (thickness) and station (how high -- or low -- the baby's head is in the mom's pelvis) are coming along nicely, too.

Now if I could just master the consistent IV start and the best way to communicate with physicians, I'll be set!