My husband is an EMT-I and weeks away from becoming a full
blown paramedic.
Unlike most husbands I know, he doesn’t work a 9-5, Monday through
Friday. He works for 48 hours straight, no real breaks, no real time to sleep or
eat, and his life for next two days is now controlled by the cities discretion.
He could go all day without a single call and by the time his head hits the
pillow he is immediately called to a cardiac arrest and he doesn’t stop moving
until the sun comes up just to turn around and do it all again the next day and
pray no one gets hurt for an hour or two to get some sleep in. Most of the time
when I tell other people what he does, especially women, I get a lot of “I don’t
know how you do it” and “Wow! What do you do with yourself?” and most of the
time my response is always James and I keep busy, we fill our hours with pooh
bear and mickey mouse and hours of reading and snacking. However when those 48
hours are up and daddy comes through the door the smile on my sons face is absolutely
magical, not sure whether it’s just because he is sick of me and ready for Dad
or he knows he is about to play with his dad, which is always his preferred playing
partner.
Honestly I am not sure how he does this for 48 hours
straight and still has strength to stand.
Don’t get me wrong some shifts are better than others, but there is
something about when the sun sets and the wild things come out to play,
especially in Yakima, WA or Crackima as I like to call it. The stories I have
heard from him are enough to keep me up at night and I get told the calm
stories.
Before our son was born Sean (my husband) would work 80 hour
weeks with the ambulance company split up by his regular 48 hour shift on top
of random overtime that became available and what he called the wheel chair car
shifts throughout the week as well. Sean and I both worked for a resort and
when winter came business went way down so the company decided to lay off the
majority of their workers, myself and Sean were included, however no one seemed
to want to hire a pregnant lady so I spent a lot of time by myself looking for
a job, with a growing belly while he was working hard at his new job.
After James was born he cut back and worked his normal 48
hours with a few overtime shifts here and there but the majority of his time
was spent at home with us. Shortly after James’ first birthday Sean began
paramedic school, the most grueling year of our lives was about to begin.
We moved two hours away from our perfect little house in
Fircrest, WA to the small college town of Ellensburg where Sean would attend Central
Washington University in the fall. We had lived here the year before while I was
pregnant with James but ended up moving about a month before he was born to
Fircrest to be near our support system. When class started Sean was in class
8-5 and riding in the ambulance as a student on the weekends. James and I were
lucky to catch a glimpse of daddy as he ran in the door to inhale dinner and
run out to go to the library to study. A big change since James and I knew absolutely
no one in the small town that consists mainly of college students and farmers.
Needless to say the past 9 months have been lonely and difficult,to say the least, but now we are
on the eve of Sean’s last full day of class before finals week and I couldn’t be
more excited. I am so proud of my Husband and all of the hard work that he has
been putting into his career the last 9 months.
Good Job Pooh Bear, Buster and I are so unbelievably proud
of you.
Love, Tigger
Love, Tigger
