Our couch which was supposed to arrive at the store tomorrow has been backordered til April 23rd. :( Major sad face! :(

We've already been waiting for what feels like forever! I am not a patient person as most of you know! Maybe it'll come in earlier than what they estimate.

Registered for my 2 summer classes and my one fall class this morning. Clinicals (2 days a week) start in the fall & only one class is required for it (6 credit hours though)! Then I'll have one 6 credit hour class plus 3 days of clinical in the spring....leading to graduation May 13 (I think), 2012!!

Austin had a bad stretch of waking up several times a night this past week or so but slept from 10:15pm til 7:45am last night! Yay! :) I actually got up and showered before he woke up ...need to try to do that more often. Makes the morning go a bit easier. :)

It's getting more and more difficult to focus on and finish school work when Austin is awake and active!! He only took a hour & 15 minute afternoon nap today...and I held him for part of it (my fault). I hate doing school stuff while hes awake ...don't want him to get lonely..yes that's silly to think. Oh well! Just a quick vent about time management and my lack of it lately! At least he likes his playmat so I can sit here next to him for about 25-30 minutes and do case studies/study for quizzes/work on my research paper.

All About Me -- A to Z    ...this survey was on a blog that I read so I thought I'd fill it out for fun. :)

A. Age: 25
B. Bed Size: Queen --- which sometimes is not quite big enough with 2 dogs!
C. Chore you dislike: Cleaning the shower

D. Dogs: Two! Lacy (almost 3) & Larry (3)
E. Essential start to your day: breakfast :)
F. Favorite color: Blue or pink

G. Gold or silver: Sliver

H. Height: 5'2"
I. Instruments you play(ed): Piano, clarinet, flute (not sure if I remember much anymore though!)
J. Jelly bean flavor: any fruity ones

K. Kids: Have 1 -- Austin Jacob & hope to have one or two more!
L. Lucky number(s): hmm... 3 I guess

M. Month: June :) or December

N. Nicknames: Ash, Squirt, Babe, ....theres lots more!

O. Overnight hospital stays: One...when I had Austin -- was in the hospital from Wednesday (2:14pm) til Saturday noonish :) Very memorable stay!!
P. Pet peeves: Negative people, those who litter

Q. Quote from a movie: ...too many to name although most are from Gilmore Girls

R. Righty or lefty: Righty

S. Siblings: One younger brother, Alan

T. Time you wake up: Largely depends on Austin!
U. Underwear: Yes!

V. Vegetables you don't like: hmm..
W. What makes you run late: thinking I can get ready faster than what is reality!

X. X-rays you've had: teeth, lungs, right wrist
Y. Yummy food you make: cookies, cupcakes :) My baking is far better than my cooking!!
Z. Zoo animal favorites: ostrich!, penguin, polar bear
 
Your turn! :)

Feeling in limbo right now....

Dupont job is still not posted. Talked to that nurse manager today and she doesn't know when it'll be on the site and she can't move forward without it being a official position. Grr..

Nurse manager from Community called and wants to work something out with me. She has offered me a prn position where I would have to work 24 hours per 6 weeks plus one minor holiday. She doesn't want to lose me as an employee since I am experienced.

Don't want to go back to Community but I also don't know what's up with the delay in the posting of the position at Dupont.

Prayers would be greatly appreciated. :) I want to work at Dupont!!

I quit my job at Community Hospital. It was just too much. Too much driving, too much stress being away from Austin that long, not enough sleep, etc! Should have listened closer to those who told me that it would be too much!

I spoke with the nurse manager at Dupont on Thursday and she said that the prn position has been approved and should be posted online any day now. She said she doesn't want me to slip away & that I should call her as soon as I apply. :) Hopefully it happens really soon!

Andy could potentially be transfering to another branch for a open loan officer position (his branch just isn't getting enough business for them to have a loan officer). This is something that he wants to do and it's the "next step" career wise after being a teller then head teller. :) The position is also a few dollars an hour raise. :) I'll keep you updated!

Austin is such a great baby!! :) He wakes up cooing! ...even at 4am. :)

Happy St. Patricks Day! and.. Happy 3 month birthday to Austin (yesterday)! :)

Austin is changing so much all the time. Bittersweet! It's exciting to experience everything that he does but the time is just passing so quickly ...trying to enjoy every moment with him! :)

He will smile pretty much anytime now. :) Hard to get it on camera since its so fast though! He still is not wanting to roll over from belly to back but that's ok ...we'll keep doing tummy time. Cousin Camden is rolling...so of course I'm being a competitive mommy! I think its because Camden is super skinny and long so its easier! lol!!

He coos a lot! Likes to talk to mommy, daddy, grandma & poppy. :) Also likes to talk to himself in his mirror, certain toys, and the ceiling fan. Also coos during and after his bath! Loves to stand up when someone is holding him. Chews his hands a lot...and even sucks his thumb several times a day! Uh oh!! ;) Also will hold onto some toys if you place them in hand and he contines to bat at his toys on the playmat. :)

Not sure how much he weighs since we don't have a doctors appt this month but I would guess 11.5 lbs...should get on the scale with him to get a better idea. :)

Today has been great so far!!!

Talked to the nurse manager at Dupont & she said that the part time spot is going to be filled internally...but..as soon as she gets the prn position appoved she is going to hire me!!! Talked to my friend that works there & she said girls are always posting hours/call time that they want to give up so it should be easy to work 24 or so hours a week. Prn spots usually require just 8 hours a schedule. Plus...I can float to Lutheran & St. Joe's NICU. :) So hopefully she can post the position online soon.

No cavities at the dentist today. Woohoo!! The staff was in love with Austin! :)

Got a 95% on my reasearch class assignment! There's only 3 projects for that class so it was a lil nerve wracking! So I now have a 90% in that class and a 93% in advanced patho!! Yes I am being an attention seeker right now but I've been so stressed out so it's good to have a great day! :)

Austin Jacob is cute as always & such a great baby! :)

Austin & I had a ton of fun today at Danne's with her, Abbey & Jill plus...Wyatt, Jade, Gracie, Gregory Jr, & Noah. Love all the babies/toddlers!! :)

Back to work tomorrow. :( Really not sure how long the adjustment process is going to take! Calling Dupont either Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning for an "update" like she requested. She should be completely done interviewing people by then and hopefully she'll want to schedule me for a peer interview....or just offer me the job! Let's hope & pray!!

Not feeling like doing schoolwork lately...that's no good! I was in such a good groove so hopefully that's just temporary. There's just so much to do around the house sometimes and it's incredibly easy to get distracted by my sweet little boy. :)

Time for bed! Gotta get up at 3:45am .... blah.

Happy March (a few days late)!!

Austin is doing great! :) "Talks" to his toys all the time now. Wish we had a 3 month appt so I could see how much he weighs...might just have to get on the scale with him. :)

This past weekend we ordered a new couch (yay for tax return $) from Ashley Home Furniture store. We really needed a new one and they were having a sale so it was 15% off. :) We looked around and talked to some people & this store appeared to have the best price and quality for what we wanted to spend. It is a popular couch...and won't be in til April 1st. Crazy! It is brown leather (fake I believe) with light brown stitching. The pillows are attached so hopefully they won't get so out of shape like the pillows on our couch right now. I looked for a picture on their website but couldn't find one so I'll post one after it arrives.

I started on the unit Tuesday. It was great to be taking care of the babies again but being away from Austin for 16+ hours was very hard! I work again on Saturday. Still really wavering on this whole working far away thing. :(

Talked to Dupont again this morning. She said her boss has one more person for her to interview this coming Tueday and then she will start the peer interviews. She told me I am still in the running and to keep calling back for updates. She posted a part time weekend position so I did apply for that also and she is supposed to be posting some prn positions. Still praying that I get something!! Gas prices are killer right now with the recent increase...so this commute to Indy is going to start costing more than we budgeted.

School is going well. :) Not much to report on in that area.

Very ready for Spring to be here. Tired of bundling up myself & Austin everytime we go somewhere. I loved the snow while it was here but it's time for 50* and up weather!

Very excited to go to Muncie on Monday to see Abbey, Danne & Jill + kiddos. We have 6 kids between the 3 of us now!! We are just staying in at Danne's new house and hanging out....it would be insane to take them out with the youngest one being 6 weeks and the oldest being 2!

Hospital orientation went well. I'll start on the unit on Tuesday. Doing Tuesday & Saturday next week. The drive to Indy on Monday & Tuesday was yucky ....had freezing rain monday and snow on tuesday!! 69 cleared up around gas city both days though. Indy never got as much snow/ice crap as we did this week thank god. Was late both days ....7 mins Monday and 12 minutes Tuesday. Had no problems on Thursday. Luckily hospital orientation was just 2.5 days. Thank goodness I left somewhat early both days since I was somewhat prepared for it. Stinkin' weather! The drive home on Monday took 3 hours.... won't even type how I felt after that seeing how it should have only taken 1hr and 45 mins.

Ok enough ranting about the weather which we have no control over!

Still in "neogiations" with Dupont. She keeps telling me to call her every couple days since she is interviewing in house peeps. Well I talked to my "inside contact" today and she said that the nurse manager told her that she would for sure hire me as a prn status since that would be easier to replace after I graduate. She is also a little hesitant on how it would look if she hired me after Lutheran fired me. (Lutheran & Dupont are in the same network for my out of state readers.) For goodness sakes take a chance on me!!! I love being a NICU nurse and would make it worth your while to hire me is what I feel like screaming!!! But I won't, I will be respectful & call her on Monday as she asked!

My case study for adv patho is due tonight and I'm taking my midterm tomorrow morning. Wish me luck. Not at all worried about the case study...those are easy ..just time consuming. The midterm is over a lot of stuff though ... Once I get through patho stuff I gotta work on my other class..it's getting neglected since adv patho is so time consuming!

What's new is Austin's world... hmm.. he decided that he only rolls over for his doctor! :) He hasn't done it again since he did it twice for her! Oh well. He will when he's ready. He gets cuter by the minute & is so into the world around him. We watched Baby Einstein on Wednesday afternoon and he was cooing at the tv! Smart little boy! Still working on taking naps next to mommy instead of on her. I love, love, love to hold him but I know he needs to be able to sleep in his bed/pack n play/couch and not get into bad habits.

Lots of anxiety about starting my new job for some reason. New hospital, new charting system, new staff, new doctors, new boss....luckily the beds are the same and most of the equipment should be the same. Not looking forward to the drive but at least the worst of the winter weather is over. Just going to try to make the best of it while I continue looking for a NICU job here at home.

Speaking of which....I've applied for 4 NICU jobs recently! 3 at Parkview North and 1 at Dupont. I had a phone interview for the one at Dupont earlier this week. She said she has to talk to the girls in house that want the spot (if there are any) and that she may be calling me for a in person interview soon. She also said she will be posting some weekend positions. She did say she is hesitant on moving forward with the interview process since I will be done with school in 15 months but....she said she has a lot of inexperienced staff on night shift so I would be as assest. They currently have to call in a more experienced nurse if there is an impending micro preemie admit! INSANE! And a complete liability considering the fact that most nurses are not required to go in.

Prayers please that I can get a job close to home. I know it's all up to God.

Forgot to include some things in Austin's 2 month post. :)

Likes:
~bathtime
~having books read to him
~talking to mommy & daddy
~swinging in the swing
~looking in the mirror

Dislikes:
~having a wet or poopy diaper!
~waiting to long to eat...he's become impatient!
~being put down for too long when he's awake...sometimes he's ok if he can see/hear you or if he's on his playmat

What can Austin do now? :)
~smile
~coo
~roll from tummy to back if his arms are propped under him
~track a toy or mommy/daddy with his eyes
~still the best snuggler ever! :)

Austin had his 2 month well baby appointment today with his 2 month immunizations. He weighs 10lbs 8oz (25th percentile) and is 21 inches (5th percentile) long now! His head measured 15.5 inches (25th percentile). He is going to be short at the rate he's going..but thats ok with me! I'm short too! The strawberry hemigoma near his left eye has not grown anymore, thank goodness, so we will just be keeping an eye on it.

She increased his Zantac to 1 ml twice a day  (this medication is weight based) and said he can stay on that dose until he's 4 mts old unless it appears to not be effective and then she will increase it again. We might try weaning him off of it after his 4 month visit. Sleeping/napping on the incline are working for his reflux so we are going to continue doing that. :)

Developmentally he is doing great! He rolled from belly to back twice for her when she propped his arms under his chest for him. He also did well when she held him up to stand....straightened his little legs out and put some weight on them! Obviously he won't be standing anytime soon but they have to make sure they can straighten their legs. :)

He had three combination vaccines (thankful that some vaccines can be combined--theres 5 maybe 6 they get at this age) and then the oral rotavirus vaccine. Silly nurse didn't bring another nurse in the room with her so she had to do each one individually instead of them doing two of the three at the same time. Oh well. He calmed down as soon as I was able to pick him up.

FYI for those who don't have children yet or those that have small children...they don't recommend giving tylenol before vaccines anymore. It has been shown to weaken the immune response in the body. I knew this beforehand but wanted to pass it along to those that might not know.

Came home, fed him, gave him tylenol and now he's sleeping. :) Such a snuggler.

Happy Valentine's Day! I'm lucky & have two valentines this year! :)

Austin has his 2 month well baby appt & immunizations on Wednesday afternoon. I'll post about his stats later that day!

Not a whole lot to report from our house...but my goal is to blog at least once a week. :)

Austin had his first crying fit this morning. Lasted about 15 minutes and started when I was in the shower. I had him in the bouncy seat in the doorway of our bathroom so he could hear me and whatnot but he still started to get fussy so I hurried my shower but by the time I got out he was full out crying with tears.  :( Not sure what the deal was but he continued to cry even after I picked him up. Hasn't cried that loud since he was born! I think more of his personality might just be coming out. Andy thinks he is going to be demanding & impatient like his mommy. Uh oh! He has been super clingy the last few days which doesn't really bother me...just hard to do things one handed sometimes! He hasn't been a fan of the moby wrap lately...I think he gets to hot.

Well that's all for now. Gotta do some more reading/studying/homework before Austin eats again. :)

Happy February everyone! Got out the red, pink & white hand towels with hearts on them for the bathrooms yesterday. :) Yes I'm a dork!

Had my post partum appt yesterday. Not completely healed yet so I am on activity restrictions for 2 more weeks. I am also 7 lbs under my pre-pregnancy weight now. That's exciting! I think it has a lot to do with breastfeeding. That and I had gained a bit of weight when I was on fertility meds before I got pregnant. Just need to tone my belly before summer!

As far as classes go...soo much reading for my patho class....what did I get myself into? The to do list never ends for either class. At least the reseach class doesn't have a lot of reading...just searching for articles for our group paper right now. We are in groups of 2 for that class so that's nice. :)

Really not looking forward to the work orientation...wish I could just orient part time. I think the 3 days a week is going to kill me along with classes and hmwk/studying. Just trying not to think about it too much since I still have 3 weeks before it starts!

Let me end this post on a good note...Austin has slept 6 hours straight at night for the past few nights. :) He also gave me a HUGE smile today when I picked him up after I got dressed/ready for the day this morning!! He is my perfect lil peanut! The Zantac also appears to be helping him. He still spits up or has symptoms like he's refluxing if he is laid flat right after a feeding but he no longer gets a red face or acts like it's hurting him. Yay for meds that work.

My little peanut is getting bigger! He will officially be in size 1 diapers today...we have one newborn sized one left to use. We tried him in size 1's two weeks ago but they were still pretty big. They are still bigger on him than I would like but he is getting the newborns pretty full with pee and sometimes it leaks out the top so we gotta make the switch. :( 

He is also growing out of some of his newborn sized clothes! Some brands (gerber) run smaller than others and some outfits fit snugger than others. On the other hand, the brand Circo (one of the target brands) runs bigger. Some of the pants/leg lengths are a good inch longer than Carters! Luckily it's only a handful of things that we decided were too small this week. Slow transition will be better for me! Of course, the 0-3 month size stuff is still long and most of it is loose. He's going to be short I think....all of his newborn pants are still perfect or have a lil room left at the end of the legs!

He is so animated in the evenings and at bathtime now. :) Love it!! Also likes music, any kind, and being read to. :)

Classes are continuing to go well. Advanced Patho is a lot of reading but going to Indy for lecture days is helping a lot...learning stuff that is specific to the neonatal population. The second (and final) evidence based research class is a tad boring right now but should become more interesting soon now that we will be starting our research for our paper. So excited for the summer semester already...I am taking 2 classes again: Assessment & Procedures and a diagnostic class. (2 classes is considered full time for graduate students due to the amt required for each class)

A little interesting fact about my class ...there are only 4 of us in the NNP major that are graduating at the same time. It's certainly not a popular thing to major in! But the other speciality class sizes aren't huge...not exactly sure on their numbers though.

Sorry for yet another long post!! It was quite a rambling one too!

Had Austin's weight check appt this afternoon and he is 9lbs 1oz and 20.25 inches long! :) I asked the nurse if I could see his doc or the NP due to some questions I had about possible reflux. Well since we didn't have a appt we had to wait to see his pediatrician...which was fine..would rather wait for a lil bit then schedule another appt.

After talking to his pedi and telling her the symptoms of silent reflux that I thought he was having she decided that we could try Zantac twice a day for a little while to see if that helps. Bascially Zantac lowers the acid content of the stomach so that when he does reflux it won't burn his throat and continue to cause the irritation and inflammation that is currently going on. She also hopes that once his throat gets a chance to heal that the congested/junky sound that he has will go away.

She then noticed the hemigoma (red spot) near his eye and asked me about it. I told her that yes it was new since his 2 week visit and she said it will go away by the time he is one. I wasn't worried about it since I knew thats what it was but it was nice that she noticed it. :)

She did a complete all over check on him since he was undressed anyways from being weighed and said he looked and sounded great! Commented on how well his butt looks for being a breastfed baby that poops a lot. Made me feel good about always using aquaphor (or store brand) with each diaper change!

Sorry that this turned into a super long post!

In other news, classes are going well still and I am starting to get into a routine of reading/studying/doing hmwk during Austins afternoon sleepy time & once Andy gets home from work. Not really looking forward to going back to work (mostly due to the drive)...still have just under 4 weeks so I'm enjoying every moment and trying not to think about Feb 21st yet.

First week of classes went ok last week...didn't get even half the amount of reading done that I wanted but oh well! Trying to get into some sort of routine with school work and taking care of Austin. It's proving to be a bit challenging.

Having the new (used) laptop helps a ton because it can sit on the couch next to me and I can do some stuff (my advanced patho class has most of the learning stuff online through a program) one handed while holding/feeding Austin. Thank god for the Boppy too!

Any ideas for better time management?

Happy one month birthday to my sweet baby boy! :) Austin is changing every week and is alert for longer stretches of time now. Loves his playmat and loves to be talked to! Sleeping and eating well. :)