A Mommy Story

(Looking for Haiku Friday? Go visit Janny – she’s hosting this week’s Haiku Friday for me. And I’ll have a long-term solution for my Haiku Friday hiatus set up by next week.)

Wanna know what it’s like to go two years working part-time from home, then suddenly go back to work full-time, pulling 12 hr shifts that are really 12.5 hrs, which is really 14.5 hrs when you add in the commute both ways?

It’s pretty friggin’ hard.

I’m exhausted. Completely exhausted. I come home each night, intending to warmly reunite with my laptop and type out a thought-provoking post. Or at least throw out a cute photo of one of my kids.

But instead I come home each night, walking gently on my sore feet, read through my e-mail, try to reply to a few of them, check Twitter to lurk on any conversations going on, and then go to bed. On my days off, I want to sleep in. I feel foggy headed all day. My daughters climb all over me, but I don’t have the energy to wrestle with them.

I know this is not permanent. Not only do I have a new job, but I’m also trying to learn an incredible amount of information in a short period of time. Unlike some jobs, the learning curve is high in nursing and mistakes can cost lives. (Or in the world of medical paperwork, mistakes can cost the hospital a payment, which is nearly as bad as costing lives sometimes.)

Or maybe I’m just reacting to a week where we’ve had patient after patient appearing at the doors. That whole full moon and laboring women superstition? It’s all true. And then they turn into werewolves.

Either way, I think I’ll be back to my normal routine in a few weeks. Which means that I picked a lousy time to start a new job, considering I’m one of several local mom bloggers featured in Columbus Monthly magazine for August. (On newsstands now, locals! Go buy your copy!)

If you’re new here, don’t judge me by August. I promise I’m more interesting than this.