Couples shower

Welp, the weekend is already over :/ The days just seem to fly by when there's loads of stuff to do. Yesterday morning I got up and went for a short run before getting ready for the day. While the guys played golf and mom watched McKenzie, sister and I set off on a 4-hour shopping and errand running adventure. Shower time came quickly and we headed to Jimi and Christopher's house for the low country boil themed couples shower. We had a great turnout and Meagan and Adam really seemed to enjoy themselves! Jimi did a great job with the decor.

Dessert table

Christopher and Matt

Outside decor

Koozie favors

Chatting away

Opening gifts

Home sweet home

We made it home! Matt and I both had busy mornings but we were loaded up and on the road by 1:25 this afternoon, only 25 minutes off our goal!

This morning I got up, did a 6-mile run, washed towels and sheets, got my car washed and the oil changed, did a target trip, took Macie on 30-minute walk, went to the outlets for a litte shopping, got gas, baked two batches of cookies, showered, packed, and put together our gifts for Meg and Adam. Whew!! I'm glad to be home.

We got to visit with Matt's maw and pawpaw for awhile and we had a great time catching up. Keep pawpaw in your prayers.

We then picked up some dinner, got sister, and headed to mom and dads for some cake and ice cream. Lots of laughs and so much fun.

Now I'm baking more cookies and hitting the hay soon; lots to do tomorrow!

The coming weekend!

So excited for this coming weekend! I haven't seen these little faces since McKenzie's 4th birthday party back in August. 

Usually I try to make it home to see my family and the little monsters at least once a month. It's just been a little busier since I moved to SC in May, with the new job and figuring all that out. And now, with the other new job it almost makes it impossible for even a quick visit. This weekend is going to be slam-packed. We're leaving (hopefully) Bluffton by lunch time tomorrow and stopping in North Augusta to visit with one set of Matt's grandparents. Then we're heading to Grovetown to see my parents, Meagan, McKenzie, Steven and Caylee for some birthday cake and ice cream in celebration of Matt's 29th this past Saturday (he gets week long celebrations apparently- the same thing happened last year, lucky boy). Then Saturday morning I'll be running errands and preparing for Meagan and Adam's couples shower that evening while the boys play golf. Sunday we're going to church, killing time, and then taking our annual family pictures Sunday evening with a new photographer, who I'm super excited about!

This week at work has flown by! I have lots of stuff to do tomorrow morning before we leave for home. Hopefully I'll get at least a few things checked off :)

A day in the NICU

So, I thought I'd tell you a little bit about my work days at the hospital and what I actually do. I feel some people are under the impression I get to sit and rock babies all day :) Any pictures in this post are not from my personal collection or are any babies that I have taken care of- privacy still exists, except for the people who post on google!

A typical day goes like this- and feel free to stop reading when boredom approaches.

4:45 am- alarm goes off

4:50 am- Macie starts freaking out if I haven't gotten out of bed yet

4:55 am- shower

5:00 am- Macie finally gets her potty break and breakfast (and her daily antibiotic)

5:45 am- leave for work

6:30 am- arrive at work, clock in, put up lunch

6:45 am- get report from night shift nurses

7:00-7:45 am- get familiarized with my babies for the day, check charts, catch up on email, etc

Premature babies are still growing and since they should technically still be in the womb, they require minimal stimulation; so we're only supposed to mess with them at their designated "touch times". Today I have two babies that are super young and super small- a 7 day old who weighs 1.252 kg (roughly 2.7 lbs) and a 12 day old who weighs 1.089 kg (roughly 2.4 lbs)

8 am- this morning I had one 8, 11, 2, 5 feeder, and two 9, 12, 3, 6 feeders

I assess the baby at their initial touch time, i.e. listen to heart tones, lung sounds, belly action. I take their temperature and mess with the settings on their isolettes if needed. They all get diaper changes (so I change lots and lots of diaper a day- a minimum of 12-16), and then they get their feed. All my babies today have feeding tubes, so all I do is pull up their formula or breast milk into a syringe and hang it on a feeding pump.

9-10am- I assess, feed, and chart on my other two babies

The doctors rounded today about this time, so I got new med and lab orders on two of my babies, and the decision to retart phototherapy lights on my other one. His next touch time wasn't until 12, so I didn't restart the lights until then. It consists of getting him naked, changing his temperature settings on his isolette, and actually finding the phototherapy lights and getting them hooked up; then I had to do a radiometer check to make sure the right amount of light was hitting my baby.

I'm usually an early eater, so I headed for my lunch break right about 12:30. Today I'm in the ICN (intermediate care nursery) and there are usually 3-4 nurses in this pod, but we only have 2 today so we had to tag team with our bathroom and lunch breaks. After lunch the day typically starts to slow down, since the doctors are done rounding and most major changes have already taken place, hence the reason I have time to blog! Today we have a few screamers, so we've had our hands full plugging in pacifiers and re-swaddling the escape artists.

The day usually starts to speed back up around 5pm with the last feeding and vital sign rounds. I also get to hang new tubing for TPN and lipids (nutrition through an IV), which is not my favorite thing to do.

I usually take off right after I pass on the babies to the night shift nurse, mainly because of the 45 minute commute back home. So far I haven't gotten in trouble for clocking out before the mandated 7:08 time, so I'll continue to get the heck out of dodge while I can!

I usually get home right about 8 and immediately take Macie out for a potty break. Usually Matt has already been by around 5 to play with her and expend some of her energy, so she's not too crazy when I get home. Then I force myself to do tae bo most nights (I realllllly have to talk myself into it because I'm usually exhausted), I make my lunch for the next day, shower, and read in bed or browse the internet for a bit before I call it a night.

So, there you have it! A day at work in the NICU- not quite as exciting as the last job I had, but I really do enjoy the babies I get to work and snuggle with and I feel like this is what I'm supposed to be doing with my life right now. Just remind me of that after a day full of loud screamers :)

A day off with the pup

I got a late start this morning, but somehow managed to finish a 10- mile run with a decent time, though not without pain. That run hurt! Then I took Macie for a 30 minute walk in an attempt to cool down.

This afternoon I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone and take Macie to the beach so I could get some sun and she could play. Fail. I might've gotten a touch of sun in between all.the.ball.throwing. If I put the ball down she was all over me to throw it again; definitely not a self entertaining pup. We only lasted an hour since she ran around the entire time. So, we packed it up, ran to the grocery and pet store, and came home so we could both get clean. Little side note- I have many reasons for wanting a house vs an apartment, but today the number one reason was because I want a backyard to bathe Macie in! She loves water but hates baths, so it's torturous to wash her in a little tub. Anyway, here are some pretty fun action shots from the beach.

She looks like she's laughing here- love it!

Throw the ball mom!

Bat dog

Our maiden voyage

We woke up this morning with the intention of going to church, until we learned our usual pastor wouldn't be doing the sermon this morning, so we decided to skip the drive into Savannah and take the kayaks out for the first time. We had to get Matt a life jacket, and we found quite the steal at target on sale for $7! Unfortunately it's got a lot of pink on it so it's now mine (and you know I'm not a fan of pink) and Matt has my plain black one.

Matt did really well and I think he enjoyed himself! We'll probably both be a little sore since we pretty much paddled the entire way. I wore my GPS watch so we'd know how far we went...we ended up covering 4 miles in about 2 hours, which included stopping to watch dolphins and to explore the sandbar. Enough talk- its better in pictures!

Before we started

He made it in!

Dolphin!

Sandbar

Fun day! Now I'm off to have dinner with Matt, Scott, Megan, and Chance- its leftover night!

67 hours and Matt's birthday

So, I started this blog the night before I started a 67 hour work week and somehow I barely survived! I worked at the hospital Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Wednesday with 8 hour days at the peds office Tuesday and Thursday. Thankfully, this coming week is a normal 40- hour week!

On to the fun stuff- Matt turned 29 Saturday! Thursday evening after work we celebrated with a yummy dinner at Kobe, a hibachi grill, and it was delicioussssss. We were so full we barely put a dent in our cold stone dessert, which is highly unlike us. Macie gave her dad her present, which included lots of Gamecock paraphernalia- a gameday polo shirt, coffee mug, and koozie, and also the 4th season of Castle

On Friday I slept in until 7:30 and then hit the floor running, literally! I did an 8-mile run, walked Macie, picked up Matt's present (a kayak!), drug it up the stairs and into the apartment by myself, went to the grocery store, and then baked for 5 hours before heading up to Matt's parents house for the night. I made two cakes, a cookie dough cake for Matt and an Oreo cake for his twin, Brandi. I also made some Oreo cupcakes, which involved 2 pounds of cream cheese so I was deterred from actually taste-testing them.

Matt came to pick me up for his parents and got soooooo excited about his gift, which led us to be quite late. But his reaction was priceless and well worth it.

He loves it!

Sadly, I didn't get any pictures from the big birthday bash, but we all had a crazy fun time. The entire family ended up making it, so there were 14 adults, 5 kids aged 4 and under, plus 4 dogs- pure madness!! I got up early to run and then Molly, Margaret, Brandi and I went outlet shopping while the men hunted and watched the kids. The USC game came on and we had a delicious dinner at halftime with cake following after. I was in a house full of Gamecock lovers, so I'm actually thankful they won just so there wouldn't be a gazillion angry fans to deal with. Matt and I left after the game so we could get home in time for the UGA/Vandy game....and to feed Macie since we only took enough food for breakfast. Georgia kicked Vandys butt and I fell asleep exhausted and happy.

Good day with good people, and I have a very thankful birthday boy.

First blog post!

Ok, sister thinks I'm stupid for starting a blog...and I might be, especially after going through all the crap to set this sucker up. And I still need to figure out how to set up privacy stuff so only family can read; so if you got here and you aren't family, don't be mean or hateful about my mundane life! 

I love, love reading and following blogs, even those of total strangers and I thought it'd be fun to start one of my own! My life isn't as interesting as those of people with kids or super cool jobs or fun travels, but perhaps Macie's crazy antics will suffice as decent entertainment. Though, now that I'm thinking about it, Macie has been pretty boring today.

Today I accepted another job! I'll be working at Seaside Pedatrics as an RN one to two days a week. I'm hoping that I won't get too burned out with working twelve hour shifts at the hospital and then working more on my days off, especially when dreaded night shift comes back into play. I'm excited about the job though and the opportunity to make a little extra money so close to home.

Marathon training- sucking. I can't blame the weather right now since it's been in the 70s every day this week. Trying to conquer even 13 miles seems daunting right now, much less 26. I ordered a GPS watch last week and it finally shipped today, so I'm hoping it'll give me motivation to go more miles! Starting a new job isn't going to help much with training; oops. I also ordered the new iPod nano today in celebration...only because they don't sell ANY iPod nano's in stores right now since they're being revamped. Hoping to get it before the marathon! (its not shipping until a surprise day in October)

That's all for tonight I think. I'm gonna lay here and watch "Yes to the Dress" and keep texting back and forth with Meg about the show...though I wish she had come up here this weekend! Hopefully my blog becomes more interesting with time...have a lovely weekend!

Verse of the day: "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Corinthians 5:21