Night Owl

I'm now a woman of the night. No, not in that way. Rather, my whole life has been turned upside-down (yet again) by my final month of night call. According to the standards of my pediatrics residency, all of us spend 4 months on night call. Night call consists of Sunday - Thursday overnight shifts from 7pm - 8am and every other Sunday 24hr call from 7am - 8am. 2 months are spent on the general pediatrics floor and 2 months are spent in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit). I survived my two months on the peds floor trouble-shooting and dealing with the all night barrage of admissions from the ER and transferring hospitals. I've now survived a month and a half attending deliveries and taking care of some of the littlest babies you can imagine all night long in the NICU. The main reason this is SO HARD is that the hours I have to log make getting an adequate amount of sleep an impossibility. My "day" looks like this:

• 7pm - 8am: NICU (manage babies, attend deliveries, study for boards)


• 8 - 8:30: drive home


• 8:30 - 9:30/10: Tidy up at home, laundry with delay timer when necessary, prep dinner, re-pack my overnight bag for the next day, shower, dry hair, read a few pages of my peds textbook as board prep


• 10 - 3pm: Disjointed sleep (frequent awakenings to pee from all the coffee I drink overnight, phone messages, doorbell ringing from packages being delivered, birds chirping, cats battling on my bed, etc)


• 3 - 3:30: Get dressed and eat something


• 3:30/4 - 5:30: Bug time! (park, painting, reading, playing house, etc)


• 5:30 - 6:15: Dinnertime (and the only time I see my husband)


• 6:15 - 6:25: Put on my scrubs and scramble around the house assembling all I need to get through the night


• 6:25 - 7pm: Drive back to the NICU to repeat!

Not to toot my own horn, but I'm one Sunday 24hr and 10 nights away from completing all of my night requirements. This Sunday will be my LAST full 24hr call of residency. I know, WOW!

And as an FYI - just because I haven't been blogging and have been stuck in the NICU all night doesn't mean I've given up on my creativity! On slow nights, I've been known to turn the NICU resident room into a full on craft central with paper punches, glue sticks, calligraphy pens, and scrap booking papers galore in preparation for bug's kid party in June. I've also squeeeeezed in the time to bake cake pops for bug's teacher appreciation potluck at daycare (pics soon!) and some delicious blondies for my colleagues in the NICU. Current project is menu planning and constructing paper globes for table decorations for bug's party!