The Pager Saga

I have been on call the past three weekends. It's the most call I have had to take consistently ever, but I am essentially paying my dues. Since I will be transitioning and training for my new urgent care position at Saltzer in 3 weeks, I won't be able to take call late February through my last day. So I offered to take the pager now to account for me not being able to take it later.

I have been on edge because of the pager. I am not a person who does well with call, I came to find out. I have never been more irritaed in my life then a couple weekends ago when I was paged by the ER for something at 3am that our group doesn't even do, let alone know anything about. I was paged so much this week that I thought I might lose my mind. It wouldn't bother me if the calls were legit, but they often are not. And some of them are from people who cannot fathom why we won't come in on a Saturday and see them for something non-emergent.

So I have been super crabby and anxious about "the pager" going off. So much that when it went off at 430 today my husband (looking ever so irritated) quickly said, "I cannot wait to never hear THAT THING again." It's pretty funny in retrospect that it even makes my husband insane, but a little more irritating for me in that I am the one who actually has to deal with it.

But I find all these irritations to be a good thing. I thought I really knew who I was as a provider. I thought I knew what I liked and disliked. Now, being a mom, a lot of that has changed. When I am at home, I want to be at home. When I am at work, I am at work. I don't like to muddy the waters and mix the two. I like knowing within an hour of when I will get to go home. I like being good at my job, but I love being able to be a good wife and mother.

So despite the insanity of switching jobs in the third trimester of pregnancy, I am looking forward to this change. I know God has laid all of this out and it's my job to be obedient and follow.

The Second Haircut and Life Updates

Jesse Jay got a second haircut. I know, didn't he just have one like 3 weeks ago?? Yes. The above is the newest haircut. It's shorter and much more managable than the first was starting to get. So since Melinda and I were getting our haircuts yesterday, we asked Maya to trim the little guys just a tad shorter. Luckily, despite it being short he does still have some curl to it!

He is growing a lot and babbling a ton. He is pretty reluctant to speak a whole lot, and is quite stubborn about communication. He prefers to whine until we figure out what he wants and vigorously shakes his head yes when we figure it out. It's so frustrating to know he can learn to speak, he just really doesn't want to. He is fine with "this," "that," "mama," "dada," "yeah," and "hi."

And he keeps freaking me out with all of his toddlerisms. The other day I came home and my husband told me that the little guy had spontaneously grown very dark freckles. Knowing a little about medicine, I looked closely (and doubtfully- freckles don't grow THAT fast) and realized they weren't freckles at all. They were tiny petechiae (broken blood vessels) all over his cheeks. He had cried and screamed so loudly when my husband put him down for a nap, it caused the blood vessels in his cheeks to burst. If you google petechiae you get all these scary diagnoses like leukemia... etc. So even though I knew better, I had to call my pediatrician and be reassured. So even medical mommy freaks out. If it was anyone elses child, I wouldn't have been concerned, but because he was mine... well, I worry. This is why I try and avoid treating and diagnosing my own child. I turn into a freak.

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Jesse (Sr) starts student teaching at Birch Elementary tomorrow. He woke up today at 530am. I couldn't figure out why he was so adamant to be up. Later on he told me he is super excited about student teaching. How cool is he? I am excited for him and I am certain he will do a great job! Hopefully he will be employed this summer for the 2010-2011 school year.

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Meanwhile, I am feeling very pregnant. I feel more achy this time. So I battle a lot with back pain and such. And Toby hits really hard. Last night I let out a brief yelp that scared my husband because he had kicked me so hard that it hurt and scared me. Like a brief ripping sensation.

It's also time a came clean with the things that have been going on with me. I got an unsolicited job offer from Saltzer Medical Group. This group is literally down the street from where we live. We prayed and considered it for a long time and finally decided to make the switch. Starting at the end of February and beginning of March I will be phasing out from the Spine Institute and I will be headed to the Urgent Care at Saltzer. I am very excited about being so close, working less hours, and having more time as a mom and wife. I will miss my coworkers at the Spine Institute terribly however.

So we have a lot going on the next few months. Jesse teaching, Little Jesse growing like a weed, Toby's impending birth at the end of April, Me switching jobs. We are praying a lot, and relying on God. We appreciate any prayers you can give us as well.