u/NoEffect--

I'm at my wit's end, there's nothing else I can do. My bottle babies fight every single feeding so hard and are such a high aspiration risk. I really want/need to get them in with a lactating queen. I will foster myself, preferably, if anyone is local and has a stray queen or knows someone who has one or whatever. I just can't keep doing this. It's so stressful. I have tried every single trick in the book to get them to latch and I'm terrified that I'm going to kill them by aspirating. They're 3.5-4 weeks and weaning attempts were as unsuccessful as one would expect at this age.

I'm with a reputable rescue. I can give you all sorts of info, I don't expect someone to just hand over vulnerable animals. But please, any leads would be appreciated. I don't know what to do for them anymore, they just fight harder every single time and it is so exhausting.

They're 3 weeks old. One latches for the first 6 mL or so, but he's 280 grams so I have to force-feed him the rest while he fights the nipple. His sister won't latch literally at all. She fights **hard** the whole entire time. My hand is a mess from her fighting me. I've tried the cupping method, it's what got Apollo to latch, but Artemis is having none of it at all. Is it going to be like this for the whole next 3 weeks??? 😭

Someone dropped bottle babies on my doorstep last night. I've done litters twice before, but i freak out in the beginning every time, so i can't remember if this is normal.

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They won't latch to the nipple. I'm essentially force-feeding them so they eat. They're barely peeing, it's been 12 hours and no poop yet. My rescue is supplying me, but they're not officially "in" the rescue yet for complicated reasons.

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Man, I hate kitten season.

My first residency was really difficult for me; high ratios, a difficult population, and not enough support despite me asking begging for what I needed to be successful. I was asked to leave. Which is fine, I clearly wasn't going to be happy there. But the market here is oversaturated and tough, and I have bills to pay, so I took a job in home health for now. Everyone has made it abundantly clear to me that this is a mistake, so I'm still looking for hospital jobs, but this whole thing is so messy and I don't know how to talk to recruiters now. I have a phone call tomorrow morning with one.

A question I almost always got was "have you worked under your license yet" and I didn't want to be like "lol yeah I was fired" but I also didn't want to lie, so I just hedged by saying "I have not completed a residency". But I graduated in August and got licensed in October, I feel like it's getting to the point where it will look bad if I apparently just haven't worked at all yet. And since I'll be in a current job when interviewing, I have no earthly idea what to say. I feel like it will all just come off to them as "I have a job and I'm unreliable because I'm looking to leave instead of completing my first year".

What do I do? What do I say? I could really use some tips here, this whole thing is just such a wreck.

I live in Arizona, the job market is really competitive for new grads. I finally got a pediatric home health job after waiting for months to even get an interview for an acute care position and posted about it on another social media platform, and immediately had dozens of nurses telling me that it's not good experience and that it won't make me marketable in the future. It's gotten in my head a bit. I can't keep waiting for a job, I don't have family to support me, but i also don't want to jeopardize my career by getting "poor experience" and not being marketable in a year's time. I don't know what the right move is. Is home health really that bad to start off in? Will it really hinder my experience that much? The company seems great and very supportive to new grads, and one of the main things I was told on the other platform was that new grads just aren't ready for home health, end of.

How was it? I'm having a hard time finding a job and am considering just doing home health to get my experience under my belt, but worry that it will limit my skill set. I'd really appreciate some feedback :)