Certified! (aaaanddd....a change)

I took the Maternal-Newborn RNC test the other day! Not a huge deal- basically it just means I get to add another letter, a "C" after the "RN" but I am still glad to have gotten it done! I have been meaning to sit for the exam for a year now; it just means you are a RN certified in a certain specialty and you're eligible to sit for the exam after you've worked a couple of years and a certain # of hours in that area. It was different than I thought, a lot of questions about newborn skin stuff (what the heck is a 'blueberry muffin spot'?! I need to google that!) as well as some more complicated newborn management questions like choanal atresia, cyanotic/acyanotic heart defects/etc. Not quite as many 'oh-we-do-that-all-the-time' questionsas I figured there would be; just a few questions about postpartum hemorrhages, breastfeeding, etc. I do get a (small) pay raise, about 1500-2000/year depending on hours worked. I have a lot of stuff to keep up though- more continuing ed due to the new Washington laws, RNC, BLS/ACLS, NRP, EFM, and I want to do the IBCLC (lactation) as well. Whew! 
And in other news, sadly, I am leaving Swedish. I have really mixed feelings about it, I really do like the organization as a whole pretty well, it's a good place to be a nurse, and it's a good hospital, especially for my specialty. I am really lucky because I have never had a situation there that I felt I couldn't handle [with the assistance of my awesome co-workers.] Those girls are great! I have learned so much from so many of them. Buuuttt the commute is quite difficult, and driving into downtown Seattle 2-3 nights a week is a little much for me, mostly because it is rush hour on the way in. I would love love LOVE to come back as a per diem/on-call and pick up a few shifts every now and then after I am settled in at the new place. I am lucky because my boss was not only really supportive and understanding, but wants to look into the possibility of making that happen for me, if we can work out a leave-of-absence. I hope we can work something out! The new job is at Providence Everett (yea for a 20-30min commute!) in OB. They have all nurses do antepartum/labor/delivery/postpartum there so it's a bit of a mixed bag. I really hope I like it there! Swedish has spoiled me a bit :-) The cool thing is, the lady who took me on at Swedish is now the manager at Prov, and hired me for that job! So yea! So that's what has been up around here- a little busy trying to adjust to the upcoming changes :-)