Pluses and Minuses of Working at My Job

     I just finished my forty hour work week in three days and have the next 6 off before cramming another 4o hours in three days next week.  This is how my hours are at my job at the moment.  I work two 12 hour shifts and one 16 hour shift and have the other 4 days off.  This is a definite plus of my job, at least for now.  Of course when the baby comes, I'll be changing my schedule and just doing the normal 8 hours a day, 4 days a week (hopefully)!  

     All of this got me thinking of the pluses and minuses of my job, as a pregnant woman.  My schedule and flexibility in changing it as necessary, is a definite plus.  A minus is that I have to be at work by 6:30am, meaning I will have to search out a daycare that opens by 6am for when I do go back to work after maternity leave.  Another plus is that my scrubs are provided for me.  Not only is that inexpensive and comfortable, but I don't have to buy maternity clothes for work!  Another minus is my exposure risk related to my job, such as x-rays, MRIs, CT scans, fluroscopy, nitrous oxide, anesthetic agents and methyl-methacrylate (all of which I've been able to avoid so far, though I fear things may change as summer approaches and we have less employees around with the summer vacations!).

     The last big plus is my access to medical equipment.  I have to admit I've been eyeing up devices that are just sitting around that may give me any information about my baby.  One device is a doppler, used to find the baby's heart beat.  We have these around to check patient's pulses and I have on more than one occasion used one to find my little one's heart beat!  I also had noticed that the echocardiography machine that we use in our heart ORs looks an awful lot like the ultrasound machine used at the OBGYN office.  So, sure enough I've been sneaking up to that OR and trying it out - and sure enough I've been catching glimpses of the little "skeletor" baby.  It's a little different than the ultrasound at the doctor's office.  The picture seems grainy and much closer up than the machine intended to see your baby.  And it seems I can see bone structure really well, thus the "skeletor" baby, but soft tissue is much hard to see (like noses and lips).  But I have seen his or hers little heart beating, moving arms and legs, the baby's head moving around and maybe even some hiccups.  It's a lot of fun, but I'm definitely no ultrasound tech, so now matter how hard I try, I still can't tell if our little one has little boy or little girl parts!  I guess I'll just have to wait until the professionals do it!