the dark side.

When I was pregnant with Jack, Spencer Pratt and I were trying to figure out ways that I could keep working without putting love nugget in day care. I knew it would require quite a bit of sacrifice and commitment to motherhood and nursing to stay with both, but it was too early to retire from the ER (still too much of an adrenaline junky) and I cried at the thought of anyone else being there for the big moments like crawling, walking, etc.

how the night shift is perceived by day shift.

So, I joined the dark side. I love it. Don’t get me wrong, some of my best friends are still on days, but the night shift has such amazing people, too, and the appeal was too great to me:

- weirder patients (i seem to find more objects in or near the crotchal area at night).

- don’t have to get up early to be at work (I hate being at work at 0630 more than anything in this world).

- fly under the managerial radar (who DOESN’T want to be ignored by the big dogs? staff nurse for life).

- already used to no sleep from a newborn baby (my body hates me already, so why not?).

- more money (which means more lululemon and shoes).

It was the perfect fit, until I realized that i would literally be getting ZERO sleep after my first few full 12 hour shifts. Going from RN duties to mom duties with no sleep means I end up trying to think of creative ways to keep an (ALMOST) one-year-old entertained while laying on the floor of his room with my pillow and blanket.  So far hide-and-seek is working, he just thinks I’m really, really, really good at hiding. Anyways, I decided to do partial shifts, much to the chagrin of my co-workers.

“Oh, working a princess shift, huh?”

“Must be nice going home early.”

You know what, jerks? It sometimes is NOT awesome going home early! For example, last night, I got home at 2 am. I showered, drank some water, then I proceeded to toss and turn in my bed for 2 1/2 hours. Around 430 am I finally gave up and went to my guilty pleasure, Netflix. It is because of night shift I have discovered TV shows my parents would never let me watch when they were actually on TV. For example, the awesome-ness that is “Felicity.”

Ben, Felicity, Noel. So much early 2000 drama and angst. I love it. Even Dr. Doubter watched this show when it was in syndication.

Some nights, I swear my child can just SMELL me when I walk in the door and he wakes up. So we cuddle and sing and I try to get him back to sleep. Sometimes it works, sometimes I’m stuck with a wide awake baby who wants nothing more than to bask in the afterglow of a night shift (partial, for you haters).

but, I love it. I get adult human interaction (although I do talk to Felicity Porter like she can hear me). I get my weird patient fix. I get some dollar bills. And I get to find precious jewels on Netflix to enjoy. WIN-WIN.

- hannah.

P.S. we leave for Kona next week, so I should have a much more interesting post about traveling for 12 hours with an 11 1/2 month old. have mercy.

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