There are times I would love to be able to stay home with my munchkin and not worry about going to work or scheduling things around it but I'm incredibly thankful for the situation we have instead. I honestly couldn't be more blessed with how things are working out. It's so hard for moms to go back to work especially when they don't have the choice and it was hard for me to go back too but also a very good thing for all 3 of us. So what do we have going here?
Well, as a nurse I only work 3 days/ week. That is full time employment with a full time paycheck. Ha-lay-freakin-loo-yah! It makes me proud to be able to help provide financially for our family. And until we pay off things like my car payment, our nebraska furniture mart card and our student loads I want to stay full time. I have been taking the advice of Dave Ramsey and want to quickly attack what little debt we have and just get it gone so that when we have more kids we can take fun vacations and do more fun things and have more financial freedom. At that point I will probably drop my work percentage and maybe only work 2 days/week or so.
The other beauty of my schedule is that I work nights. That means a HUGE raise in pay from day shift pay and we don't have to pay for childcare. What a blessing. Seriously. I had no idea how expensive child care is. We probably couldn't afford it, at least not for more than one child. It's robbery and insane! Basically how it works now is that I have Henry during the day and I nap when he naps. He takes 2 good 3 hour naps, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. That is plenty of sleep for me to work well at night. In the evening Taylor gets home at 5pm and I have dinner ready, we eat together, I feed Henry and then I go to work and leave the boys on their own. Taylor gives Henry lots of male bonding and snuggle time and a bottle (maybe 2) and then he goes to sleep at 9pm. To be honest they both probably do. It's so good for them to have father/ son time. To give Taylor the opportunity to have Henry on his own has made him appreciate all I do during the day with/for him and gives him so much confidence that he is a great dad even without me around to meddle and direct and control the situation. He can feed, bathe, snuggle, swaddle, diaper, rock, dress, soothe and get the nugget to sleep just as well as I can and I find so much comfort in that. I am so thankful for my husband. They are probably only awake for about 3 hours in the evening while I'm gone and then another 3 in the morning before I get home. Not too bad. Aunt-E got to watch Henry for the first time too one morning when I had a pediatric pain conference to go to at work after one of my shifts for 4 hours. We have to earn 30 CEU's or continuing education units every 2 years to renew our nursing liscence so I used this opportunity to earn 4 of them while Erika stayed with Henry. I left her some instructions because I am a control freak but they did great of course.
They obviously had a blast. I got lots of pictures of dress up time.
On top of that, since I work at KU and they have fantastic healthcare coverage, we have our insurance through them, this means that since I work full time that we get full benefits and that means free health care. Our entire labor and delivery stay literally cost us $ free.99. We didn't pay a dime for our entire "high risk" pregnancy with 19 ultrasounds, extra bloodwork, a hospital visit for IV fluids and meds when I was so sick and all of Henry's kidney appointments and testing. Amazing and soooo worth going to work for.
And most of all I love my job. I really do. I love being a nurse, especially a NICU nurse. It's so much fun for me to be able to help a tiny or sick baby grow strong and healthy and see them go home to be with their families. I love that I get paid to snuggle and care for a baby when their momma can't be there. That I can be a source of compassion and comfort and snuggles (and food and oxygen and medicine lol) for them when they need it most! I miss my babe so much when I am gone but at least I can be distracted with others for the time being and know I am making a difference while I am away.
So really, We've got a good thing going, it's been hard to leave but seeing Henry's face when he sees me when I get home makes it all worth it. It's the best situation you could possibly have for being a full time mom and I feel so blessed. Plus it's been good to get back in the swing of things for me and when I'm gone I Get pictures like these.
So really, We've got a good thing going, it's been hard to leave but seeing Henry's face when he sees me when I get home makes it all worth it. It's the best situation you could possibly have for being a full time mom and I feel so blessed. Plus it's been good to get back in the swing of things for me and when I'm gone I Get pictures like these.
Love my goofballs!!
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