Going Good, Makenna's Sick, Low Milk Supply

My new job is going good. I was in the nursery for 2 weeks and then I was on the floor this last week. I thought I would like the nursery better but I actually like working on the floor and taking care of the mommas better. I really like talking to them and helping them. Hopefully when I'm off orientation I will get to work mostly on the floor. I don't like that I have to get up at 4:00 am but I really like working during the day. When I see the night shift come on I'm so glad that its not me. I worked Friday night in the ER and I'm very glad that it's not my primary job anymore. I definitely made the right choice.
Makenna is sick. She started getting a runny nose on Tuesday. Then she had a fever of 102 on Thursday. She is VERY congested. I try suctioning her but its not helping. She isn't able to nurse because she is so congested. She starts sucking and then has to pull off and pants and tries to breath. After a few attempts to nurse she gets so frustrated and starts screaming her head off. She gets so upset that she can't nurse. She is only able to nurse when I use neosinephrine in her nose and I can only use that 2-3 times a day. So I'm pumping and DJ is feeding her milk in a bottle with a fast flow nipple. Friday she just laid around and cried. It was pitiful. But Friday evening while I was at work DJ said she started to want to play. This morning she played in her playroom for a long time. So, she is feeling better but she is still too congested to nurse. Hopefully this will pass soon.
My milk supply is low again. Usually when this happens I take Reglan but it isn't working this time. Makenna seems to be getting enough from me when I'm home but I'm not pumping very much when I'm at work. I used to pump 10 oz in a 12 hour shift. I have only been pumping from 5-8oz. Hopefully I can make my milk last until she is a year old and then I can mix breastmilk with whole milk. It's not helping that she is sick and not able to nurse so I'm having to pump. So I'm using my milk store on my days off when I normally wouldn't be doing that. It's stressing me out but hopefully it will work out. I think it may have to do with the fact that I'm working so much more. I used to be home for 4 days in a row to nurse her. But now I'm only off 1-2 days at a time. I think that's why my supply is low. Stressing about it makes it worse but its hard not to do.

New Play Room

When we moved into this house we decided that we would use the dining room for a playroom. It is connected to the living room so we thought it would be perfect. We don't have any use for a formal dining room so we decided it would be a good use of space. Lately Makenna has gotten very mobile using her monkey crawl and walking along the furniture. She can get from one place to another very quickly. So, it has gotten impossible to leave her in the floor to play because when you get up she follows you. This is a problem because you can't get anything done like eating or drinking or doing laundry, etc. So we decided it was time to set up the playroom.

DJ did some research and found a 16 foot gate that would work to section off part of the dining room. Then we had to decide what to do about the floor because it is hardwood. DJ wanted to do carpet squares but he did some research and found that they are hard to find and that we would have to use adhesive to stick them to the floor. He looked around and found puzzle piece mats. They are soft rubber like material pieces that fit together. They had multicolored and alphabet. We decided to get the alphabet ones. We bought several packages and DJ put them together tonight. DJ and his dad are going to have to put brackets on the wall to secure the gate so that Makenna can't knock it down. But for now he has put it in a zig zag formation so she can't knock it down. I love it!! I think it looks so cute and now we have a contained area to put her in. I think it is going to be awesome. I think she will like it a lot too. Here are some pics.






DJ decided to put his xbox headset on Makenna. She looks so cute. Oh and that outfit is 6-9 months and it actually fits her! Can you believe it!

Makenna's First Step

This afternoon Makenna was standing next to the couch and DJ thought he saw her take a step. I didn't see it and he said it was just a shuffle. Well tonight he was playing with her in the floor. He stood her up and she took a step. Her first step!!! I can't believe it! So I got in the floor and we stood her up and had her walk to each of us. By the time we were done she had taken 3-4 steps at a time. I'm still in disbelief. Where has all the time gone. She is such a big girl now. Here is the video of her taking several steps. She's also talking a lot too.

Walking Around

Makenna has gotten really good at pulling up on things. She has also started cruising around the coffee table. That is basically all she does when she plays in the floor. She plays with her toys for a minute and then she crawls (well she does her monkey crawling or whatever it is) over to the coffee table and pulls up and then starts walking around the coffee table. She makes several laps, trying to grab anything and everything on the table and then she will "crawl" over to the side table and walk around it. She prefers to do this instead of play with her toys. Needless to say she can't be left unattended anymore.

First Two Days

Well I started my new job on Monday. I worked Monday and Tuesday. It was really good. I hated getting up at 4:00am but it was really nice being awake during the day. I was tired on Tuesday since I had worked Monday and I only got to sleep 6 hours on Monday night (thanks Makenna!). I'm in the nursery for the first two weeks. It was really crazy! It is very busy in the morning and they said that they didn't have very many babies! I would hate to see it when they do have a lot. The pediatricians call when they are about 10 minutes away to let you know they are coming. You have to see which babies belong to that doc and then get them ready for the initial assessment. The hard part comes in when they are calling one after the other. You aren't even finished with one set of babies and you have to get another set ready. It was stressful. Hopefully I will get used to it as time goes by and it will stress me less. I'm also very intimidated by the computer. They have computerized charting so it is very different from what I'm used to. What they chart is also different from what I'm used to. It's just a whole different world and it will take some getting used to. But so far I really like it. After the crazy morning it slows down some and you can relax and not stress as much which is nice. So Tuesday when it was crazy I just kept reminding myself that in a few hours it would calm down. I also saw my first circumcision on Monday. Wow, I never knew how barbaric it was. I felt so bad for this baby. Some docs use numbing cream but some don't. Even when they use numbing cream it only numbs the top of the skin, not all the way down so the baby is still in pain. After watching this I'm not sure if we have a boy if I want to circumcise him. Maybe we will have all girls and I won't have to worry about it. I work again on Friday and then Sunday and Monday. I'm anxious to get to the floor to see what that is like and decide which one I like best. I found out something interesting on my first day. I thought the lactation specialists were just lactation consultants. Turns out they are nurses who worked on the unit then decided to be specially trained to be lactation specialists. This is awesome for me because this means I could be eligible to do that someday after I get some experience on the floor. That is AWESOME!! I'm very excited about that and can definitely see that as my ultimate dream job.

First Real Day

Tomorrow I start my first real day of work. Last week I was just in class all week but tomorrow I will meet my new preceptor and I will be on the floor. I will get to see part of what my real job will be like. I'm very anxious and excited. I have a lot to learn. I hope I like my new preceptor and she likes me. I hope that my coworkers think I'm a valuable addition to the team. I guess I will soon find out. I have to be there at 6:30 in the morning so I have to get up at 4:15 which is about an hour earlier than I had to get up last week. Now I know you might be thinking that is so early but I'm not primping that whole time. It takes me about an hour to get ready, fix my lunch, etc, then I have to feed Makenna. Sometimes it only takes her 10 min but sometimes it takes her close to 30 min so I have to allow enough time so I'm not late on my first day. I also haven't worked 12 hours in about 2 weeks so I'm sure I'll be tired. I work Mon and Tues this week. Then this weekend is my preceptors weekend to work so I work Sat, Sun, Mon this weekend. I can't wait to get into the flow of things and now what I'm doing. I hate being new and not know what is going on. I like to be good at my job so I'm ready for that to happen. I know that sounds silly because I haven't even started yet but I just feel uncomfortable not knowing exactly what I'm doing. I hope I catch on quickly. I also hope Makenna does better this week. She wouldn't take her bottle last week and because she didn't have much liquid she is very constipated now. I have given her several suppositories with very little results. I feel bad for her and hope that she drinks her bottle this week. At least I only work Mon and Tues so she won't have to go 5 days like she did last week. I also really missed spending time with her. I feel like I've hardly seen her lately. Starting this week that should be much better cause I will only work 3 days a week. Hopefully her constipation will get better soon. I work Mon and Tues so I probably won't post about my days until Wed afternoon or night. When I work back to back days I will just come home and go straight to sleep. I'll let you know how it goes.

First Week

I just finished my first week of my new job. It was just hospital and nursing orientation so it was just class. I didn't get to be on the floor or really see how my job is going to be. I start on the floor on Monday. I'm very excited and also nervous. This week was long and tiresome. I had to get up between 5:00 and 5:30 every morning and then I had class all day. Some of it was boring but some of it was very informative. I hated being away from Makenna so much. I really missed her. She decided that she didn't want to drink her bottles while I was gone this week. Yesterday from 7:00 - 4:30 and she only took 2 ounces. She is eating her solid foods well so at least she is eating something. But now she is constipated from eating so much solid foods and not having any liquids. She is still nursing fine though which is good. Today we had her Mimi feed her prunes and then tonight I fed her another thing of prunes so hopefully pretty soon she won't be constipated. I don't have to work until Monday so she will get to nurse all weekend so hopefully that will help too. I hope she missed me as much as I missed her.

New Job

I start my new job tomorrow. Well, I start the hospital orientation tomorrow. That part lasts 2 days and then I have general nursing orientation for 3 days. Next Monday I actually start working on the floor. I'm nervous and excited. It is different from anything I have ever done as a nurse so please keep me in your prayers. I think it will be fun but I also have a lot to learn. I'm nervous about interacting with all the new people. I'm also very anxious about being away from Makenna. In January I will be working more than twice what I would have worked if I still worked weekends in the ER. I know it will be very hard to be away from her that much. My milk supply has also been a little low this last week so I hope it will last and that my supply will pick up. It will be a big change for all of us but I hope I'm doing the right thing for my family. I feel like God has opened up this opportunity for me and I know he will help us work out all the kinks. It will be nice to be off most weekends so I can spend time with DJ. I'm also not used to getting up early and I will have to get up about 4:00am so pray that Makenna will start to sleep better. I think this new job will be a great opportunity for me. I guess we'll see soon enough.

Makenna's New Move

In the last few days Makenna has started to move around really well. It's not a crawl or a walk, she made up her own move. It is so funny. I hope you can see it well enough in this video. She just started doing this a few days ago and already she is really good at it. We can't just put her in the floor anymore and let her play. Before we know it she is half way across the floor. My baby is growing up.