Playdate With Jude

Once a week, Jude comes over to play. My sister, Sarah, is a senior in college and I remember how hard it was trying to study. I take her for the day, and that way, Sarah gets some studying done. Jude is really good when she comes over. She and Riley are connected at the hip. They get along really well together. Jude and Mia tend to fight a little more. It makes for an interesting day.

I don't remember what they were doing, but they were trying to show off for me.

You'll notice Jude is wearing Mia's dress. That didn't go over so well. :) When Jude first came over, she spotted Mia's pink skirt and wanted it on. Sarah put it on her and came out of the bathroom. Mia saw Sarah (she loves Sarah) and was smiling and waving. She then spotted Jude in her skirt and her smile quickly turned to a glare. It was hilarious. She was not happy. Then, Jude spotted Mia's dress hanging up and wanted to wear it (Jude still had the skirt on underneath.) Mia threw a fit over that. Jude wouldn't take it off when it was time to go so she wore it home. Mia, again, was pretty mad.

When Sarah brought her over today, she asked Jude what she was going to do at my house. Jude replied, "wear Mia's clothes." :)

We baked some sugar cookies. They patiently waited for them to get done.

Oops!

Here are Mike's $200 sunglasses or whats left of them. They got stuck underneath the seat in the van. We don't know which one did it, but my guess is the one wearing the sunglasses. We're keeping track of all the stuff they break of ours. When they get their first jobs, we're handing them a bill! :)

Ethan's Wish

Dream on little buddy...dream on. :)

Shadow Shift

I shadowed at the clinic I'm going to be working at today. When I think of clinic nurses, I admit that I thought their job was easy. It seemed that all they did was vital signs. Oh my goodness, it couldn't be farther than the truth. You would not believe how many phone calls and the amount of paper work they have to do. They have to do pre-authorizations for insurance companies (this is a very hated task) and call pharmacies for prescriptions. They have to return all phone calls that come in from patients but can't leave any information on answering machines, so there's a lot of phone tag that goes on. This is in between checking patients in and collecting lab tests, doing x-rays, and helping with procedures.

It's a very small clinic. There's one doctor and one nurse practitioner that work there. There are a total of three nurses, which includes me. :) One of the nurses came from the ER, one came from adult rehab, and there's me, with NICU experience. The ER nurse just started in August and the rehab nurse two weeks ago, so it's kind of like the blind leading the blinder. I'd be lying to say I wasn't a little nervous. I've floated to post-partum, but that's the extent of my adult experience.

I really like the other two nurses, which is good because we'll be working a lot together. I like the feeling of a small unit. I think we will get to know each other really well. The NICU has 120 nurses, so you can imagine the difference between the two.

The doctor and nurse practitioner are very patient which is awesome because there were TONS of questions asked. They didn't get mad or frustrated at being bugged all day.

I'm so excited for this job! Both of the other nurses love it there. They couldn't say enough good things about the job. The only downside for them is figuring out the computer charting and ordering. But, that will come with time for all of us!

I'm going to shadow a couple days next week and then start the formal training. I think I'll get a couple of weeks of orientation and then I'll be on my own. Wish me luck!

Last Weekend Shift!

I worked my last night shift! I am so excited to be done with nights. Did you know that people who work nights cut 7 years off their lives? That's how hard it is on your body.

I can't believe I'm going to have a normal schedule. I still am not entirely sure what my schedule is going to be, but I know there will be no weekends, nights, or holidays! Yey! It's going to make such a difference. Mike is very happy that he will no longer have to do "daddy daycare" on the weekends. The normalcy will be worth the pay cut!

I will definitely miss my coworkers and the babies in the NICU. There's nothing like seeing a 1 pound baby that fits in the palm of your hand. You will not believe the amazing things that go on in the NICU! I'm going to try and stay PRN, which means I'll pick up a shift here and there if I want to. This should help my baby fever stay away! :)

Parent-Teacher Conferences

We had Ethan and Mia's conferences on Tuesday. They went really well! We met with Mia's teacher, Julie, first. Here are some things that she said about Mia:
-her speech has come a long way
-she's talking more and more every day and it's clearer
-she's very sweet
-she's very quiet in class
-her two friends in class are Katelynn and Brody
-she tends to daydream in class but she's easy to get back on track
-the speech therapist said that she's starting to speak in 3-4 word sentences (she does this at home.) Do you want to know the sentence the speech therapist had recorded down? "Ethan hit me." Mike and I had a good laugh from that.
-she still needs a bit of help counting. (We weren't at all surprised by that.) She starts counting like this: 1, 2, 9, 8, etc

Ethan was next. Here are some things that his teacher, Allison, said about Ethan:
-he has a sweet disposition
-he is quiet but is talking more and more
-he is sometimes hard to understand
-he is starting to answer questions in class
-there are only 5 kids in his class and they all play together really well
-he also needs a bit of help counting. (Again, we weren't surprised by that.) He counts like this: 1, 2, 9, 6 etc. She did, however, tell us that she'll get him back on track by saying 3, and he'll finish 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. He's holding out on us! We had no idea he could do that.
-he is starting to talk in 3-4 word sentences in school (he does this at home)

Both teachers were really impressed at how far they've come. We couldn't be prouder!

Matt and Jenna's Reception

I wanted to share some of my favorite pictures of Matt and Jenna's reception. I wish I could have gotten some more pictures. I didn't seem to take as many as I usually do.


The kids absolutely loved the cupcakes. No surprise there!

Nathan and Riley. They love my little brother!

My old man. His speech at the reception was so funny. I wish we would have recorded it.

I had to include this picture. She's probably going to kill me, but it's worth it.

My little sister, Kelly, and her boyfriend, Eric.

Riley dancing with a random person. She seriously went from random person to random person that night. I had to keep asking Jenna who had my kid! She is so outgoing.

Mia has a little crush on Eric. It's pretty cute. She asks about him all of the time.

Noah+Nathan+sugar=CRAZY Ethan

My older sister, Amber, with her hubby, Shayne. They are expecting their first baby in March!

Stealing all of the splenda packets. They would bring them to my cousins, who would open them for them, and then they'd dump them on the floor.

Matt and Jenna doing the dance to "Thriller" by Michael Jackson. Jenna has it memorized and she somehow conned Matt into doing it with her. :)

Riley with splenda.

"The Krause Girls" with my Aunt Toni.

My little brother, Nathan, at the end of the night. He was sound asleep!