January 9th was my first day back at Trident Medical Center. My last night of work that I had worked prior to this point was December 26, 2010. After that I was put on bedrest until I delivered Charlotte. My FMLA from Trident was up at the end of March so instead of going back to work, I decided I would stay home with my precious little angel. So I had resigned April 14, 2011. I decided that I wanted to go back to work to keep my license active but I didn't want to work all of the time... mostly because we don't have family here to watch my crazy kid while I would sleep during the day. So I decided to go back to the place that I had been for over 6 years and just start back up where I left off... and work 2 nights per month. In order to do that, I had to do 7 days of hospital orientation... all in a row. SO, I enlisted the help of the grandparents of my kid...
When I asked my mom and Alex's parents if they could watch Charlotte, naturally it was a no brainer. They all jumped at the chance. Not having family that is local is hard bc I don't have a built in babysitter. But mom was able to work it out with her schedule to come down Sunday through Wednesday and the Jackson came down Wednesday through Friday.
I had to be at orientation every morning around 7:30 or 8 and would get done anywhere from noon to 4:30... just depending on the day. It was nice to get back to the nursing world and talk about nursing stuff. Naturally Charlotte was in love with all of her one on one attention. She called all of the shots while I was working... naturally. She was even a good sleeper for her grandparents... something she does not always excel at with her momma.
It was so nice having so much help. The house was always straightened up and clean. We had a few home cooked meals and mom even made enough of her meals for us to freeze for future nights. Alex was home until Thursday evening. He had to go to drill that night so I had the weekend without him. Laundry was caught up, the dishes were clean, the floors were vacuumed. It was amazing. I felt like a waste of space since I wasn't really doing any of it. So I actually went to bed every night around 8:30. Mom slept with her door open and she got up with Charlotte each night if she woke up.
It was a hard week for me emotionally. I've never left Charlotte for that long. Yes we have had a few babysitters here and there and mom and dad have watched her while Alex and I have gone on a few dates. But I've never left her days in a row for entire daytime periods. I texted/called a few times a day but made myself limit how much I would text. I know that other people are capable of caring for her, but when you are all by yourself a lot and your husband works a lot of hours, it's hard to give up the control to other people. It 's hard to even just let people help you. I'm an independent lady and most days I have the thought in my head that I need to accept any of the challenges and accomplish all of this difficult stuff on my own... no help.
I was so grateful to have them come and spend time with Charlotte. She loved it. I cried everyday on my way to work. BUT I know this was good for both of us.
On Monday and Tuesday during my orientation, my fabulously amazing friend Niki watched Charlotte. At the time she was almost 8 months pregnant and had a 17 month old of her own. However, both of our kids are better when they are together. So Niki had 2 full days with my little crazy girl. She said she loved it and so did Charlotte's boyfriend, Gavin. It was so cute dropping her off at Niki's in her jammies :)
Charlotte loved all of her quality time with everyone. She loves to show off and this was the perfect week to do it!
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