The End of an Era

Friday was my last day of work at Huntsville Hospital. I am officially “retired”.

I feel like I have worked in pre-op forever. It all started in the summer of 2008. Travis and I had been married for about 5 or 6 months, and that summer we lived in Huntsville so he could co-op for the summer. I wanted to get a job as a tech for some good work experience in the hospital since I had the summer off from nursing school. I applied for several jobs and got an interview for a tech position in the ER. I didn’t get the job in the ER, but a few days later, I got a call from Cheryl in pre-op at Women’s and Children’s up the road from the main hospital. They were looking for a PRN tech. I didn’t even apply for that job, but my name got passed along by someone in HR (actually, my friend Laura’s mom) after I didn’t get the ER job. Long story short, I got the tech job in pre-op! I think I worked 3-4 days a week that summer until it was time to go back to Tuscaloosa for the fall semester. Same story the following summer (2009). We lived at Baugay’s for the summer while Travis co-oped and I worked in pre-op. I had one more semester of nursing school that fall, and then I graduated!

It wasn’t a great time to graduate from nursing school unfortunately. I applied for tons of RN positions at Huntsville Hospital, and only got ONE interview (on the 3rd floor at W&C). I thought it would help that I was a current employee, but apparently most departments were just not hiring at that time, especially not new grads. I didn’t hear back from that 3rd floor interview for several weeks, and in the meantime I contacted Cheryl in pre-op. She’d told me at the end of the summer that she’d never hired a new grad before (she preferred nurses who had some med-surg experience), but that if I couldn’t find anything else, I should let her know. So, that’s what I did, and she offered me a PRN position (all that they had at the time). I started in January 2010 and worked about 3-4 days a week most weeks until Brooklyn was born almost 3 years later. It was a steep learning curve, but I eventually caught on ;) You wouldn’t think a pre-op job would be that complicated (it’s mostly paperwork after all!), but it really is. So many forms, doctors’ preferences, Joint Commission rules, etc.

It was really a great job! You can’t get much better hours working at a hospital than what I had. No nights, no weekends, and we were closed on 6 major holidays of the year. I never had to work Christmas, Thanksgiving, 4th of July, Memorial Day, New Years Day, or Labor Day. I was seriously fortunate! When I first started working there, I was the youngest person in pre-op by at least 10-15 years…haha. But that slowly changed over the years, and now the demographic includes quite a few nurses younger than me even. Every unit at the hospital has its own drama and problems (that’s what happens when you work with a bunch of women!), but I really did genuinely like just about all of my co-workers. People came and went over the years, but it was a great group to work with.

When I was pregnant with Brooklyn, I talked to Cheryl about my plans for working after Brooklyn was born. I was originally hopeful that she would be okay with me working once every 2 weeks on Travis’s off Friday, but she felt like I needed to be there once a week at a minimum just to keep up with everything. (Things change so fast there!). So, that’s what we planned on. Although I wanted to primarily be a stay-at-home mom after Brooklyn came, I really didn’t want to just quit my job completely at that point. I think part of it was that I felt like I had worked too hard in nursing school to just let my degree go to waste so soon afterward. We also thought maybe I could keep working one day/week until all our kids were school-age, and then I could plan to work a couple days a week while they were at school. So, the plan was that I would work the one day/week minimum just to “keep my foot in the door” since the job was such a good one.

So, that’s what I did from May 2013 until last week. I worked every other Friday when Travis was off work, and on the weeks he worked 5 days, my mom (or both my parents for the last year) would come up from Trussville to babysit. It was a good system that worked pretty well for the most part. Travis got to experience what being a stay-at-home dad was like on the days he kept Brooklyn and Savannah, and I think he would tell you that it was good for him. It helped him understand a little bit better what my days are like at home—some are good and some are not-so-good ;) He experienced that first-hand. I think he understood the feeling of just wanting some back-up from your spouse at the end of the day like I do when he gets home from work. And, vice-versa, I understood better how he felt after working all day, coming home tired, and still being expected to pitch in around the house, help clean up after supper, and get the kids ready for bed. Basically on a small scale, we walked in each others’ shoes, and it helped us appreciate each other a lot more. That’s one of the main reasons I don’t have any regrets about continuing to work after the girls were born. Rae Rae and Paw were a huge help in babysitting about twice a month as well! We couldn’t have made this work for several years without their help. I think they enjoyed coming–although they probably left here exhausted most of the time. :) It’s not easy to keep up with our kids all day! Brooklyn always looked forward to the days that Paw and Rae Rae came, and often she would ask me if I could go ahead and leave right after they got here…haha. Apparently, I was impeding on their fun if I stuck around too long ;)

Working one day a week after the girls were born was good for me too. I had a hard time adjusting after Brooklyn was born. I had no idea what I was doing, breastfeeding wasn’t going well for several months, and I was just exhausted. Starting back to work one day a week when she was a few months old gave me a change of pace that I really think I needed. I was able to get out of the house once a week and have adult conversations. It was so nice! Being a first-time mom of an infant can be really lonely—there’s no one to talk to but yourself. Although I hated pumping at work, I managed to survive that for the first year of Brooklyn’s life too. Fast forward to the first months of Savannah’s life….wow. That was a rough adjustment too. Savannah was just not a happy baby for quite a while. So much crying! And Brooklyn had her own adjustment to go through in becoming a big sister—so throw in toddler tantrums and whining on top of that. It was tough, and some days I felt like working full-time would have been easier in some ways than being home with a toddler and baby driving me crazy. Going back to work after Savannah was born was just what I needed. It was only one day a week still, but it was an opportunity to escape all the crying, meltdowns, and bad attitudes for a few hours at least. I honestly think it helped me keep my sanity some days.

Working after having kids wasn’t without its hassles though. Working all of Travis’s off Fridays meant that we missed out on a lot of days we could have spent together as a family. Or days that we could have gotten projects done around the house. I also had to work a day or two around Christmas and New Years when Travis took days off. Mom and Dad had to board their dog, Charlie, at the vet just to come up here and babysit. I usually worked til 6 on Fridays, so we were never able to have people over on Friday nights or do anything socially with others. And it got increasingly difficult to keep up with all of the changes at work that happened since I was only there one day/week.

All of that said, I don’t regret sticking with it for almost 4 years since having kids. Overall, I think me working was definitely beneficial for our family, even if we had to make some sacrifices to make it work. However, time is ticking away, and Brooklyn somehow only has a year and a half left until she starts school. (WHAT??) I want to make the most of the days she has left at home. Being home full time will give us more flexibility to spend Fridays together traveling or getting things done at home—so we’re really looking forward to that. Travis has also gotten several raises since October which basically cover what I would make in a year anyway. I hate to use the word “quit” (I feel like this is more of a temporary retirement), but quitting my job was really on my mind since last summer. I gave it a lot of thought over the past several months, and we finally decided in October that it was the right thing to do. It was TOUGH—I will miss my co-workers and even the work itself so much. I really did enjoy my job. I feel like God had a hand in me getting the pre-op tech job in the first place. Without working there those two summers, I never would have gotten the RN position after graduation. It all worked out so well and was such a blessing for our family. Friday, my co-workers bought my lunch from Steak-Out, had cake (yum!), and a sweet card for me. It was a bittersweet day, and I’m not sure it’s fully hit me that I won’t be there again wearing my ceil blue scrubs and badge (at least not in the near future).

Maybe one day down the road I will work in pre-op there again. Time will tell, I guess. For now, I’m going to enjoy making memories with my girls and worry about my future in the nursing world later. Brooklyn was thrilled last week when I told her Friday was my last day of work, so that made me feel really good about our decision. In some ways this is the end of an era, but in other ways, it’s just the beginning. I’m looking forward to what’s to come for our little family!