As you will have seen if you read my last post or saw my youtube video(!), I was working Christmas this year for the very first time.
I had kinda braced myself for it this year given that as a newly qualified midwife, any hospital you work at knows that you have spent at least the last 3 Christmases tucked up at home with your family on your Christmas holidays from uni, and not on placement on the day itself.
So, it was only natural that when the Christmas shift rota came out, I was scheduled to work on Christmas Day. And actually, I didn’t mind it too much. It would never be my first choice, but a 6.5 hour shift on Christmas Day morning really isn’t that bad in the grand scheme of things – I still got home in plenty of time for drinks and Christmas dinner, so it didn’t really feel like I missed out on much.
What I found more difficult than working the day itself was working full time in the run up to Christmas. I did take some annual leave so I worked fewer shifts over the festive period, but even so, working 24 hours in the week of Christmas (spread over 3 shifts – two 6 hour shifts and one 12 hour) and full time all the other weeks of December and the first week of January was tough, and I found it quite tricky to get myself into a festive state of mind. I probably didn’t feel properly festive until Christmas Eve this year, which, for me, as a massive fan of Christmas and the girl who normally is singing Christmas carols out loud on the first of December, I found really weird. I’m sure I’ll get used to it as the years go on, but this year it took a lot of getting used to.
Overall though, I actually had a really nice Christmas and we managed to squeeze in seeing both sides of the family; even if it was only for a day or two!
Thankfully, I was off for New Years eve and New Years day which was lovely. We saw friends and drank too much gin, just as it should be, so that was just perfect – and I was very pleased that my scheduling worked out that way – would have been properly pants if I worked Christmas and then couldn’t go out for new year either!
It’s all getting into new routines I think and there is always going to be an element of getting used to it – but overall I think it worked alright, and didn’t interrupt the festivities too much. Working over the festive period is part of the job, but I’m glad that I still feel like we had a proper Christmas in amongst it all!
Do check out my video over on youtube for a bit more detail of my working life over Christmas. I’m looking forward to expanding A Girl On A Journey on there whilst also focussing on expanding my written content on here too – the well-requested night-shift-routine is finally coming people!
Hope you’ve all had a good Christmas – and happy new year! 2020 is gonna be a good one, I can feel it!
Image by T. Rampersad
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