On Call

I actually wrote this last night but my internet was being really awful, so I had to wait to post it until now...

I received a phone call this evening around five.  Generally speaking, on the days (or nights) that nurses are scheduled to work, receiving a phone call around five (AM or PM) is a universal sign that we are going to be put on call.... or that my mother was calling and wanted to talk for a minute (I might be lying if I said that it didn't annoy me a little bit when it is my mother because she got me all excited for a minute by thinking I was being called off for a few hours).  But today, it was not my mother... it was in fact my place of employment asking me if I wanted to take call for the night.  I happily accepted the job of taking call; it has been probably over a year since I was put on call or cancelled altogether.  Plus my husband had been attempting to make dinner for us while our girls were simultaneously deciding to make the evening a crying, whining, make-life-miserable-for-daddy evening.  So everyone wins.

It's 1 AM, and still no call.

I have a love-hate relationship with being on call.  One the one hand, I enjoy being able to have a non-rushed dinner with my family and help get the girls to bed before potentially going to work.  But on the other hand, the rest of my night is marked with constant anxiety over where my phone is at all times and those Oh crap, where's my phone?  Did I miss a call?! moments.  And of course there's the never answered question of Go to bed?  Stay up because I'll probably get called in?  I don't know if there's ever a good rule-of-thumb answer to that question.  However I am not complaining because I'm still at home in my pajamas sipping on coffee and not at work doing.... all the things that I cram into a 12-hour shift.

Chris (the husband) and I have the next two days off together.  I have no idea what we will be doing, but I'm glad we'll be home together.  My 3-year old always has a special spark about her in the morning when she notices that we are eating breakfast "allllll together".  It's adorable.  Chris is a nurse like I am but he switched to the day shift a month ago and now leaves the house around 6 AM.  So on the days when he is at work the girls do not get to see him until the evening just before they go to bed.  It has been an adjustment but I think we are all enjoying a better rested Chris instead of groggy, no-energy Chris.  Needless to say, our days off together are very much valued.  Even to my 3-year old. 

It's now 1:35 and I think I might try my luck by going to sleep for a bit.  Half of the shift is over so I might be in the clear zone by now.