Micro, Patho, and Chem online..together-am I NUTS?

Baloney Amputation, BSN, LPN, RN · Dec 18, 2008

I would be an RN by now if I wouldn't have had my first daughter right after my LPN coursework was done in 2001! I wanted so badly to go on, to go back to school when she was days old. I thought I could handle it, but everyone helped talk me out of it. In retrospect, there would have been no way I could have. I just could not leave her for that long when she was that little. Granted, you are doing classes at home, but babies take up infinitely more time and energy than imaginable, and that is in a normal, uncomplicated delivery. Even if you have a helper, the exhaustion you feel will be a detriment to the magnitude of courses you have listed doing all at once. I really understand that you want to get the classes taken care of, but it is okay and necessary to sit back and heal. If nothing else, that micro course sounds like it is supremely at a poor time in your timeline. However, other people do just fine going back to coursework days after having a baby. I thought I could do it, too.

Let us know how your delivery goes! Good luck to you and your baby!

rescuegroomer · Dec 27, 2008

When I had my kids..all I did was sit and cry for 6 weeks. I was exhausted and overwhelmed and there would have been NO WAY I could have taken those classes..not one. I could barely take a shower without dissolving into a pool of tears. But they grow up so fast. Mine are now 9 and 11 and I swear it seems like yesterday that they were babies. Don't get me wrong... I enjoyed them and treasure the memories of their infancy, but I still can't imagine having to do another thing when they were newborns. It was just too much. And really once the baby gets here, maternal instinct usually tells us to focus on nothing but the baby anyway....well that and sleep.

nursing8648 · Dec 27, 2008

Thanks for the replies. All of my close friends have kids under 2, and they must have had an easy time of it! Many of them had to go back to work FT after 6 weeks, and luckily none really suffered with any baby-blues. I have started Chem online now, and hope to have it done before the baby is born, then I will see how it goes before I sign up for anymore. I know it will not be easy, but friends have told me that infants sleep so much during those first few months that if you are staying home and not working, you should have time to read and/or study. Are they just pulling my chain????

I mean is it really so tough that you cannot do anything but manage a shower and some sleep?

Baloney Amputation, BSN, LPN, RN · Dec 28, 2008

Thanks for the replies. All of my close friends have kids under 2, and they must have had an easy time of it! Many of them had to go back to work FT after 6 weeks, and luckily none really suffered with any baby-blues. I have started Chem online now, and hope to have it done before the baby is born, then I will see how it goes before I sign up for anymore. I know it will not be easy, but friends have told me that infants sleep so much during those first few months that if you are staying home and not working, you should have time to read and/or study. Are they just pulling my chain????
I mean is it really so tough that you cannot do anything but manage a shower and some sleep?

Sometimes it is that tough, and sometimes you won't get a shower. With my second baby, she was 10 pounds and I hemorrhaged. My husband also brought home influenza that was going around the nursing home, and the flu shot didn't cover it that year. All of us except my newborn got it. (Reason #101,388 I am a big breastfeeding advocate! I think it's what kept her from getting it, that and her size.) The babies do sleep a lot, but they don't sleep when you can or want to sleep, and they sure don't sleep all in one big long slug. Seriously--even with help from a husband or parent, you will have very broken-up sleep day after day. It started to get better for me after they were 2 months old and were able to sleep several hours the night. The first month is rough. Everyone does differently with tolerating this, but you don't know if baby is going to be colicky, have a demanding temperment, etc., etc. I would only suggest you take it easy early on and not take on too much, but you will make it work out--mothers just do that somehow.

BabyLady, BSN, RN · Dec 28, 2008

I think, even without the new baby, you would be setting yourself up for failure.

It is simply, too much to take on and get a good grade.....you may pass but may not get the grade you need to get into the program.

TashaLPN2006RN2012, ASN, RN · Jan 1, 2009

I have two kiddos...8mo and a 3yr old. I went through LPN school full time when my first born was 6 mo old. It was hard with him, he had stomach problems and was up every two hrs at night so when he slept during the day, i slept too...lol...now my second born was sleeping all night long at 5 wks and i went back to work full time. so it depends on the baby...which of course you wont know til they get here! i think one course at a time would be better and if it seems that the baby is "easy" then take on another course. you deserve to ahve great grades and your baby deserves to have a momma that's not stressed beyond belief because of school...plus wit this being your first baby...you want to cuddle and hold him/her all the time! they are great and they only stay small once! enjoy your mommy/baby time and slowly add in school as you feel fit to do...only YOU know what YOU can handle! hugs and congrats!

bananabubbletea · Jan 12, 2009

i barely found time to eat when i had my daughter...it is doable but don't push

[yourself...you will be exhausted, stressed and soo frustrated. plus you want to enjoy the newborn time period