I'm not quite at the full 12 hour shift yet, but I will be next week. Currently I'm doing 10 hour shifts, a graduated step between 8 and 12 hours. But I'm doing three consecutive shifts. I've been off work for 15 months with a herniated disc and the road to recovery has been riddled with complications and setbacks, so for me to get to this point is utterly fantabulous!! (Yes, I made that word up.)
Here's how it works at our house when I'm on three in a row:
- get up anytime between 0400 and 0600
- coffee
- get ready (includes waking child, dressing child, packing lunch, etc etc etc)
- visalus shake
- leave the house
- drive 15 minutes to sitter
- unpack child
- drive 15 minutes back to town to work
- go hard for the entirety of the shift (sometimes longer)
- drive 15 minutes to retrieve over-tired child
- retrieve child
- drive 15 minutes with overtired child who is alternately crying from exhaustion or falling asleep
- unpack the car
- enter house and feed child
- bathe child (or not)
- cajole child into staying in his own bed long enough to fall asleep
- collapse into my bed with every intention of brushing my teeth in a few minutes
- wake up at 0100 with a very full bladder
- pee
- get into pyjamas
- back to bed
- wake between 0400 and 0600
Note: I have not included the possibilities that child may wake at 0430 and refuse to sleep anymore, exacerbating his tiredness at pick up time and interrupting my quiet and peaceful morning.
Nor have I included the little bloopers that make up a normal day. Spilling a portion of the shake on the passenger's seat, forgetting swipe card at home and being unable to enter the hospital, stopping to fix irritating windshield wipers, and so on.
By the end of three days, mind and body are ready to enter a coma state.
Have I mentioned lately that I love nursing?
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