Life as the Charge Nurse

Sunday I had the honor of being the charge nurse for my Intensive Care Unit. This is a job that is usually very undesired. This is because of the added duties that one has to perform above their routine role as an RN. You still have the same patient assignment as you would any other day as a staff nurse but you have the multiple added duties that come along with the title of "Charge Nurse". Most of these duties are dealing with problems. Be it trying to get staff to work together as a team, getting staff extra help, disciplinary issues, and dealing with family and staff complaints. I found it to be quite eye opening to see that from my last shift I was a "staff RN" but now with the name of "Charge" people flocked to me, mostly to complain. I thought to myself, I am no different than I was the last shift and I haven't gained any magical power to solve these problems, but now I am the one dealing with every one's issues. To see the role of charge nurse, through the charge nurses eyes was quite eye opening. I never go to the head nurse with daily issues, rather deal with them myself and approach her only to get advice on large issues. But most people I see come with you about everything. I must admit it was an interesting day with the staff nurse fighting with the nurse practitioner, the young 30-something patient who was dying, the overwhelmed nurse unable to get work completed, the teenager suicide patient, the sitter who feel asleep at the bedside, the nurse who doesn't like to transfer her patients because she doesn't want an admission. And this was a Sunday, usually weekends are quieter. As my unit clerk said to me at the end of the day -"What a day to be in charge! It was a crazy day!". I think that sums it up. In the end, I was told of only one complaint that would be voiced to my manager and I was told that in that complaint I would be praised for my attempt to re mediate the problem. This day left me wondering if it is really worth the extra pennies you get on your pay check to wear the name "Charge Nurse" on your lapel. The only good thing is that I do know I can deal with this role, and won't be so nervous when it happens again.

Lyla at 6 months

Where has the time gone. 6 months has flown right by and Lyla is no longer a newborn rather an infant. She visited the doctor for her 6 month check up and so far so good. I was nervous about the whole vaccination deal as we had such a bad result last time, but she has done fine this time. Maybe it was due to the fact that her doctor decided to give her only half of her shots now and the other half will be done in a month. Lyla is growing great. She is 16 pound 2 ounces, and 26 inches in length.

On Monday November 10th, when I got home from work, I could feel Lyla's 1st tooth. The next day, on her 6 month birthday, I could see her bottom right front tooth. I am glad that she got a tooth because she was having problems sleeping this past week, and I said to Ryan, by the end of the week she is going to have a tooth, and sure enough here is a tooth. Now it appears like the left front tooth is coming through as well. I am glad that they are coming in at the same time. The top teeth don't look like they are coming in right now.

She continues to babble away the day. Mum-ma has continued to be spoken. It seems she does know that is me as she will say it when she wants to nurse and be cuddled by me. She will also say it if she wants me to pick her up, say out of her playpen. I am working with her now to get her Dada back, as she doesn't say that as much as she use to.

She is enjoying her jolly jumper, her activity center and her latest toy the Fisher Price cookie jar. She has learned how to take things out of the this "cookie jar" and put things back in. Very cute.. and very smart if I do say so myself....

She continues to add to her diet. We are trying to eat at least 2 times a day, trying to add another in to get her to eat three times a day. She has tried sweet potatoes, peas, carrots, apples and bananas, and is continued on her oatmeal cereal. Tonight at dinner, I was feeding her and eating my dinner at the same time, and she had her eye on my chicken burger. So I put the burger up to her mouth and sure enough she opened her mouth right up for the burger. I guess she would like to advance her diet. ... We are going to try Cheerios and cookies as soon as I buy some.

Ryan is continuing to struggle with her eating when I am at work. She detests anything in the bottle form. Ryan has tried different bottles, sippy cups, different holds, positions, distractions - everything, and Lyla continues to be determined that she does not like bottles. She continues to nurse really well and the doctor says that the 2 days that I work in which she has poor oral intact isn't hurting her growth so he isn't too concerned. It is definitely a blessing that I got the part time position as it is best for Lyla to not have me away for longer than is necessary.

We have enjoyed fall so much. Lyla loves to look out the window and see what is going on outside. She loves to look at her "red tree" outside the window...

As 6 months has flown by, I look back and think of our life without Lyla as a distant memory. Don't get me wrong, that was a great time of my life. But this time as a new family is much better. Seeing Ryan playing with Lyla, the two of them giggling together makes me realize how much more complete we are with Lyla in our lives. We once thought that no matter what - we would be going somewhere exotic this January for our 5 year anniversary, and now we both can't imagine leaving our little girl behind, as she is as much a part of us as we are to each other. I am sure a time will come when we do venture away without Lyla, but right now we are so much in love with being the 3 of us, and we realize that this time will soon be gone away and we will be looking at Lyla as a big girl rather than our baby girl. It is nice to have some family time. Speaking of family time, tomorrow is Ryan's 29th birthday. I have Saturday off so we can celebrate his birthday football style with Ryan.

Anyways, I am off to bed... Hope you are all well....

Mum-ma

She said it, and my heart soared! Tonight after Lyla had been put down to sleep. She was upstairs farting around and I was downstairs on the phone with my sister, and I heard it. She started with the "Muh-..... Muh".. Then with all my teaching and coaxing she put it together. Mum-ma! Then she kept saying it over and over until her Mum-ma went to her and there she gave me the biggest smile when I walked in. Like she knew she had accomplished what we had been working on.

In retrospect she seems to say her first words alone. When she sad da-da, she was alone up in her crib just waking up from her nap. Ryan says that her Da-da is too spaced apart and sounds more like babbling and he says her first word is Mum-ma because it was more compact and definite. We will have to see how she works her vocab now that she has these 2 words in her repertoire.

On another note, she loved Halloween. She is such a people person, and especially a little people person. I mean a kid person. We sat with her at the front door and opened up both doors. Ryan sat with her on the steps and then we put her activity center at the door so she could see all the kids as they came to the door. She would huff and puff excitedly and more her legs excitedly when people would come. It was very cute.