Time Crunch

Being a mom isn't easy.
Being a good mom is even harder.
But being a good working mom sometimes feels impossible.

Right now, I'm working long hours in the neonatal intensive care unit. I'm learning new things every day and trying to make a difference in some very tiny babies' lives, but this means a lot of time away from home. I work 6am-8pm most weekdays, plus Friday 24-hour calls every other weekend alternating with Sunday 7am-8pm shifts. I do get the "gift" of an early night once a week and get home around 5pm. Here is the insane breakdown of how my days look:

5am-6am - shower, get dressed, make lunches, leave home
6:30am-7:45pm - NICU
8:15pm-9:00pm - bug playtime
9:00pm-9:30pm - bug bedtime routine
9:30pm-10:30pm - relax time with hubby
10:30 pm- pass out in exhaustion

That's right. I have roughly ONE HOUR each night with my bug. I also have what amounts to ZERO time to prepare meals or clean during the week. It would be so easy (and, I think, understandable) if I were to just admit that this schedule has me beat. Then I could let the laundry pile up, stock the fridge with frozen meals, and lay comatose on the floor while the bug pulls my hair and piles blocks on my stomach. But that's not good enough for me. And it's certainly not good enough for my hubby and my bug who deserves so much more. To try and avoid the pitfalls of a schedule like this, I've set some goals for myself.

We're going to plan a silly fun activity to do together as a family on my one free night each week, fill our Saturdays with quality time, and I'm going to plan, organize, and prep all of our meals each weekend during naptime so that we can eat fresh, local, healthy food as often as possible.

I've had these goals in mind since the NICU started, but haven't had a chance to post them. I'll chime in each week with what we did and how the meal planning went...

A Day in the Life

If you've ever wondered what a pediatric resident really does, here's the recap of my day today:

• 1:30am: Bug wakes up thirsty and doesn't want to go back to sleep without cuddles. I fall asleep with her on the couch.
• 4:50am: My husband wakes me up to let me know my alarm just went off in the bedroom.
• 4:55am: Bug is back in her crib. Time to shower and get dressed.
• 5:30am: Time to pour and label the bug's milk for daycare and make lunch for my husband.
• 5:45am: Last minute scramble through the house (in the dark) to find my keys, bag, and sunglasses.
• 5:50am: Friday morning indulgence - Dunkin Donuts for an iced apple cider and egg and cheese muffin sandwich.
• 6:20am: Arrival to the NICU to start pre-rounding on my babies (checking their vitals, calculating urine outputs, figuring out fluid status).
• 7:00am: Night team signs out the major overnight events.
• 7:35am: Finish recording the vitals, check in with the nurses, and quickly examine my babies.
• 8:15am: Arrive late to Case Management conference to hear a case from the previous fall about a patient with an interesting H1N1 complication (this is when I actually ate that egg and cheese sandwich I purchased two hours previously...).
• 9am: Back to the NICU for rounds with the Neonatology fellow and my two interns. Rounds were complicated as the interns were discharging three patients with complicated prescriptions and one of the fellow's babies was found to have a very bad complication and needed emergent interventions.
• 12:30pm: I escape from rounds to write some last minute orders, update my patients on the sign out list, scribble my notes, and dash to the cafeteria for a sandwich.
• 12:50pm: Arrive at the outpatient clinic to see I have 9 patients crammed into my schedule between 1-4pm and there are no free computers in the resident room (we have electronic records). I devour my sandwich while standing at a computer station in the room we use for pelvic exams (you eat when you can in medicine).
  
• 4:45pm: I breath a sigh of relief. Somehow I managed to see two sick visits, one surgical clearance visit, two well child visits, and one teen visit in less than four hours (two of my patients didn't show up and a helpful second year resident took my last newborn weight check as he had a lighter schedule).
• 5:15pm: I finish dictating and get my bum out of the office as fast as I can. My husband and I have a quick conversation and decide to treat ourselves to take-out so I don't have to cook when I get home. I grab a bottle of bubbly (just because) while the take-out cooks.
  
• 6:15pm: Home! Once my in-laws leave, we eat our disgustingly unhealthy takeout and heat up some leftover homemade lasagna and frozen veggies for the bug.
• 6:45pm: Damage control - time to wash dishes, clean up the big mess under the bug's high chair, and clean up the bug.
• 7:20pm: Impromptu trip to the Fresh Market (my husband's first time there!)
• 8pm: The hardest part of the night - undressing the bug, changing her inevitably messy diaper, washing her up, and getting her redressed in pajamas while she fights like a mad woman
  
• 8:15pm: Silly time with the bug and husband - dancing, singing, wiggling, and lots of time spent trying to take things away from the bug that she isn't supposed to have (knitting needles, scissors, my reflex hammer, the cat's tail, etc)
• 9pm: Buggy bedtime! Bug and I lay in bed while I read her a book. I sing a few songs and settle her into her crib just as she's about to drift off to dreamland.
• 9:30pm: Quick assessment of the bug damage - winter hat, 1st birthday cards, baby powder, nasal saline, and protective ear muffs for loud noises are strewn about the living room. I decide to deal with it in the morning and crack open the bottle of bubbly...
• 10:45pm: Bottle of bubbly is gone and I barely remember the stress of the morning NICU rounds. Time to cuddle with the husband and enjoy the rest of the weekend...