Baby boys galore

Just take a look at the little fatty to the right ----> We've recently had a new addition to the family - a distant relative had a baby boy yesterday morning, and two of my very close family members are taking temporary custody of the baby, due to the mother being in prison.

The baby is doing well :-) He was a whopping 9 lbs, and should be coming home within the next few days to 2 weeks, depending on how well he does medically (detox from methadone).

Also on the homefront -- my sister is expecting baby boy #1, and he's due in late spring. This is the first nephew for me, and her very first baby. I am *so* excited for her and her husband!

I love, love, love buying clothes to spoil these two new baby boys!

Updates

I've still got this cold/flu thing hanging on here, going on two weeks with it now. My boyfriend seems to have it worse than me, poor guy! As you can tell, Mr Anonymous on the last post was (drumroll please) Mr Sick Boyfriend aka Daddy-who-cooks-most-meals-and-cares-for-3-year-old-at-the-same-time. I love him bunches for everything he does for us, and I apologize to him for doing him the disservice of not showing that appreciation as much as I should.

Anyhow, I ended up taking off only 2 days of work, when I was feeling the worst. Funny thing is, we have signs all over the hospital stating that if you have a cold or the flu, to refrain from visiting patients in the hospital. What about staff? If we call in sick every time and every day that we're sick, there would be no one left to care for the patients. It's a common dilemma in all hospital units, and in hospitals all across the country.

Things have been slowing down a bit at work lately, which has been quite a blessing. It's very nice to have some downtime, and not be running all over the unit on every shift worked. I've actually had time to read my hospital email! WOOHOO!! Not like there has been too many pressing things pending in my in box.

We had a set of triplets born over Christmas, and they are just little darlings! Good sizes too, all in the 3.5-4 lb range. Mom got her first peek at her babies since the birth, and it was a very tearful moment for her.

Other work updates....we're waiting the Dept of Health approval on our new 5 bed triage unit. Fingers crossed. If all is good with the approval, we should have that up and running in January.

Ta-ta for now folks!

When Mommy is sick

It starts with a sore throat. Then the ears start aching. Head starts pounding, body aches, feeling feverish. Then the nose starts dripping. Soon the dripping turns into Niagra Falls. ACHOOOO!!!

Mommy's sick. And no, she didn't get a flu shot either.

So what's a mommy to do when both she and daddy are sick, and the pip-squeek isn't? Why, they muddle through the drug induced haze and feverish delusions, of course!

Whilst the healthy, energetic 3 year old is running around in apparent glee at her new found freedom to do whatever she pleases in the house (in only her underwear, no less), mommy is trying desperately to open her nasal passages and sleep away the majority of the flu that seems to have struck her.

Too bad mommy didn't buy stock in tissues. My tissue consumption is going through the roof in the past 3 days, prompting a closer look at my stock portfolio - when I can see better through my burning, feverish eyes.

The fruit of my loins is living la vida loca around here: toys and clothes tossed about in careless fashion, hair askew, eating whatever she pleases because mommy just doesn't have the strength to cook, much less plan a nutritious selection of foods for the littlest one to eat. So, it's granola bars, pretzels and cookies for the hyped up little wild child.


Excuse me while I go back to bed. I'm leaving wild child in charge til this flu runs it's course.

Cathy's Writing Challenge

I apologize to anyone directed here from other links for the writing challenge put out by Cathy at Cathy's Rants and Ramblin's. I simply did not have the time to devote to the writing challenge, and I apologize for not being able to participate as I had planned to.

However, I do look forward to reading everyone else's stories!

Body Worlds - Anatomical Exhibition

Body Worlds

I just went to view this exhibition on Monday in Boston MA. I was astounded -- amazed -- enthralled -- blown away. This was by far, one of the best presentations I have seen of the study of human anatomy. A definite MUST for medical and nursing students, and others who are studying human anatomy and physiology!

The current exhibitions from this wonderful array of real human bodies are currently being shown at the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul (oops, my bad, I found out that it ended on 12/3/06 there), the Museum of Science in Boston, Massachussetts and Telus World of Science in Vancouver, Canada.

If you haven't been to see this display at any of the places that it's been exhibited, I highly recommend seeing it!

6 Weird Things

I've been tagged for a meme!

Starting Fresh tagged me, so I guess I'm "it".

According to the rules...
Each player of this game starts with the
"6 Weird Things about You".
People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment that says "you are tagged" in their comments and tell them to read your blog!

1. I like to visit and explore strange and unique places. I have a special fondness for abandoned buildings, especially old hospitals/sanitariums (though I've only explored those places online so far).

2. I will NOT walk on or over grates on the sidewalk that lead to sewer systems/heating and AC units/subways. No way, no how.

3. I love freebies, and will accept almost any and all free things. Even if I can't find a use for it.

4. I absolutely, positively, will NOT drink any soda. Can't stand the carbonation. I have no clue why 99% of America likes that god-awful feeling of carbonation in your mouth. BLECH!

5. My first thoughts when I did my very first vaginal/cervical exam as a nurse was "I can't believe I'm touching another woman's vagina! How weird is that??" And I can honestly say, I've touched (more like examined) more vaginas than a male gigelo. That's something I'd *never* thought I'd say or do.

6. I have family and friends (and sometimes virtual strangers) show me funky rashes or tell me all about their medical history, and expect me to diagnose them. Although, this was something my boyfriend did as well, on our first date. Certainly makes it quite a date to remember: "drop your drawers and show me that rash you were talking about." ***** note to family and friends: I am a LABOR AND DELIVERY NURSE. Please don't expect me to be the know-it-all when it comes to a variety of non-obstetrical medical problems! *****


I hereby tag:

8 Centimeters Deluded
Adventures in Juggling
ApgaRN
Wolf Baby
Frectis
OBGYN Kenobi

Deliveries

I had a 26 weeker deliver today. Such a tiny little one! Mom had chorio (chorioamnionitis). Click here to learn more about chorio and see a placenta affected by it. The little babe was also a code, complete with chest compressions. I really don't like neonatal codes. I feel so disjointed when we have to crack the code cart. However, the NICU doc paid us all great compliments on a job well done.

I also helped assist other RN's with a few other deliveries in the past several days. Today was most definitely a very busy day, after a nice, relaxing weekend of a lower census on the unit. At one point, we had 3 women deliver babies within 15 minutes of each other. It was a non-stop baby factory today. Get em in, get em out was the motto. The floors in the birthing suites were barely dry before newly arrived laboring women were shown into the rooms.

I am *so* glad I have off work tomorrow. This job is truly draining.

FYI

Just an FYI - the pictures I posted under "Nursing Through the Years" were found on various sources online. I had saved them to my hard drive, but didn't save the website addresses.

Finding them was pretty easy though, if you're interested in seeing more historic nursing images. I did keyword searches of "nursing historic" and "nurses historic" as well as "nurses photographs".

I particularly liked the civil war era picture - I wonder how they kept those bouffants so high up like that?

Nurses through the years

Various images of nurses through the years......

Civil War Era






Nurses circa 1899






Nurses circa 1907






Zipping ahead to 1945






And the wonderful 1970's

December

Not a whole lot of new things to report, just much of the same old things.

We have had a few days in the past week that the unit census has been much more bearable. Thank goodness! I didn't know how long we would all last, with how busy things have been the past several months. I even had the oppurtunity to be off today, however, I missed the phone call this morning (the charge nurse was calling around, to see who wanted off today, since we had more nurses scheduled than what was needed).

Today wasn't a bad day though - I started out with two postpartum moms. We were holding five PP moms on L&D due to the PP unit being full. Both of my patients ended up having beds open up on postpartum for them, so I moved them up there around lunch-time. I helped get a new labor patient started, and also helped out at her delivery (she was 8cm on arrival). I admit though, I did do a lot of sitting around today. Having two different doctors bring in donuts for the staff didn't help my diet any either. I was very, very bad, and ate two donuts.

My weight loss has hit a plateau - I keep wavering around 270-272 lbs. At least my size 22 jeans still fit. And I'm also wearing only XL size scrub pants and tops at work. WOOHOO!!

The winter weather has officially hit here - yesterday it was in the upper 60's, but today it was in the 30's to 40's. Brrrrr! Not my favorite time of year, for sure. I tend to eat more and drink more hot drinks (namely cocoa and coffee) during the winter. NOT good for the diet. I'm working on trying to switch totally to Splenda in my coffee, instead of sugar. Plus I usually use fat-free liquid creamer.

I'll find more interesting things to post later............