Scrubbin' Mama

"Do you stay home with the babies?"  

Notices the twins, "Oh, so you don't work then?"

"How do you like being a stay-at-home mom?"

All are actual questions I've received from mostly strangers when out and about with the babes.

I grew up in a household with 2 full time working parents and so for me, stopping work wasn't even a thought in my mind, because I had just really started my career of nursing and I didn't feel ready to step away so early.  I also knew that with 2 newborns, daycare costs would burn up my paycheck quicker than a cheap candle from Big Lots (that's a true story and I'm still bitter about it).  So returning to my 40 hour a week job wouldn't work for our family.  

By the grace of God, a new position was opening on my unit.  For those of you that don't know, I work as a nurse in a Cardiovascular Operating Room.  I started there right after nursing school and have loved it beyond words.  In basic terms, we do heart and thoracic surgery (lungs, esophageal, tracheal, etc) and the experience I've gained from this job is incredible.  I'm a scrub nurse, which means I pass instruments to the surgeon.  The new position is called a Restricted Call position and was created for our hospital to give some stress relieve to the full time day shifters.  I hold a pager and take call for after hours surgeries (emergencies, late days, etc).  I start call when Alex gets home from work which is about 4:30 pm and I'm on call through the night until 6:30 AM, leaving me home during the day.

It's been working out great for us.  I love being able to stay home with the babies and being able to get into work.  I am seriously so grateful because I know it's not a normal lifestyle for mama's out there.  Not knowing my schedule does add stress to our lives a bit, because if Alex is running late or has something going on at school at night, we have to be prepared for me to leave at the drop of a hat.  We have AMAZING neighbors (shout out to Amy) and family who take back-up call for us some nights.  I don't know what we would do without them.  

I worked extra this week, meaning I went in for a day shift and my mom watched the babes.  I do this as often as I can to keep my skills up and to make sure I get full cases in.  As I was scrubbing on Tuesday, I realized that I think scrubbing has made me a better mom and being a mom (especially of multiples) has made me a better scrub.  In both areas, you have to multitask the hell out of yourself.  Sometimes you've got so many things in your hands, you forget what you're carrying and every so often you can have an extremely angry person yelling at you for something they want/need.  I've noticed myself being more patient in both areas because of that and knowing that what I've accomplished and completed in the past is/was harder than what I'm doing now.  I HOPE that makes sense... hard to put into words.

L i f e   U p d a t e...

I realized today, this is the last "free" weekend of no plans for us for awhile!  We have weddings, parties, holidays, etc. filling up the weekends all the way through summer.  I used to get so nervous about outings, routines getting messed up, feeding the twins, and so on.  Now that they are older, smarter, eating regular food, things are just simpler.  Not necessarily easier... just simpler.  I used to think that leaving the house was harder than it was/is.  I'm starting to change that now.  Now that they can walk and are active little toddlers, there's pieces of KC that I want to explore with them.  Spring is here, but it's been so rainy this week.  Once that clears, we are starting.  Hold me to it readers.

See you next week!

Lauren E&B

Photo courtesy of Heidi West, my mom. 

Photo courtesy of Heidi West.