Everybody Needs a Little Time Away (from residency)

As usual, the 4th Monday has come at a crazy time, so I am my usual few days late in posting.  We are in the middle of one of our rare, has been planned out for the last year since we put in our vacation requests, finally a chance to get out of town together and not going to a family gathering, vacation.  And it was very much needed.

 I'd just turned in my take home final for my math class (and decided I didn't want to take any classes this upcoming semester because this last semester I really did not love putting all my time and energy towards math when instead I really just wanted to stare at and hold my belly.  And I assume that I'll be even more attracted to holding and caring for my child once it's actually born, so a math degree is officially on hold.   And I'm very much ok with that).

 My husband had just come off of what seemed like 3 months of crazy hard rotations.  Lots of nights and weird hours, making any conversation or time together either very minimal or filled with charts and checking up on patients.

 With a baby on the way, it seemed a good opportunity to have some time with just the two of us (though some hiking and activities go a little slower because of my 'condition') before most of our attention gets diverted to the beautiful, adorable child that we'll be blessed with.

So we came to Grenada!  That's where my husband did a year of medical school and he couldn't stop talking about it (and after hearing about it, I really wanted to go).  So we scraped together as many vacations days as possible and have an amazing 9 full days and 10 nights in a warm, humid (which I'm really enjoying), beach filled island.  The food is delicious and as a bonus, we got to have our layovers in my hometown, so I got/get to see my parents and get emotional about not living there anymore.

I know things will change once children enter our lives, but I can't recommend enough that you take whatever time you can to be as calm and relaxed and enjoy yourself before something crazy happens ( like your last year of residency and your lack of any definite ideas of where you plan on going in a year and you're about to have your 1st child).  Good luck.  If luck had anything to do with it.

-Rachel C.

When the Husband's Away the Children Will Try to Kill You

**WARNING this has been a rough week and this post is filled with anger, bitterness, and frustration**

Dr. Barton is on his second rotation of pediatrics. Since our location doesn't see enough Peds cases in the hospital, all first year residents spend two months out of the medical year working in a bigger city 3.5 hours away. This kind of really sucks when you have kids because you can't really go with them. To top it off it's one of those rotations where they only have four days off the entire month and they work super long days. This doesn't leave much time for visiting or coming home, especially since instead of two weekends off Dr. Barton was given one day each week. That's not very condusive for a seven hour round trip to see the family. It also makes it *almost* not worth the drive alone with two toddlers and being five months pregnant. (We're expecting baby #3 in September!) 

Anyway... basically life is hard right now and I'm not taking it well. I'm going to partially blame the baby hormones (because I can), but it is a fact that my normally sweet children drastically change their behavior when they don't see Dr. Dad very often. This last week they have really been trying my patience. And well, I just haven't passed the test very well. Here are just a few of the trials they have put me through in the last couple of days

Yes, those are bathtub letters that Monkey threw in the toilet (that had just been used) and yes, Princess did try to help by flushing the potty repeatedly causing it to majorly back up. This happened while I was unloading our car from a weekend trip to see my family. 

Yes, that is half the contents of my silver wear drawer and a broken cup on the floor when both girls decided it was a genius idea to climb on the counter while mom quickly used the restroom. 

Yes, that is practically every toy we own dumped onto the floor not even an hour after I had just organized and cleaned the playroom. 

And I didn't even take pictures of the flowers that were pulled off of their stems just two days after I planted them or the bright blue sharpie that was used to color a mural on my wall. Then of course there is the bedtime problems we've been having since Dr. Dad left for this rotation. You know, the one where three hours after we've gone through the bedtime routine of reading books, brushing teeth, putting on pajamas, singing songs, giving multiple rounds of hugs and kisses, both children are still awake and coming out of their bedroom. 

Basically these past two weeks have been super ridiculously hard. I don't feel like a loving mother because I'm struggling with my patience. I don't feel like a supportive wife because I'm angry that Dr. Barton can't be around to help at all. I don't feel like a good person because I'm frustrated and so focused on getting through my day that I can't really manage to think of anyone else around me. This month is hard and I am barely surviving. 

- Clara B.