My busiest week for September is over!!!

Wasn't quite as bad as I thought it would be thankfully. It started with cohosting Emily's bridal shower Sunday the 18th. Then clinicals at Riley on Monday & Tuesday, PICC insertion class in Indy on Wednesday, babysitting all day Thursday, and NRP recertification in Indy on Friday. Whew! Over 1,000 miles on the Equinox this week...and lots of coffee! The next two weeks are still kinda busy but then I'll get a little bit of a break after that. :)

I think Austin is happy to have his mommy to himself this weekend! :) He is such a sweet baby. Very fast on crawling now. He likes to go after the dogs, dog toys, my laptop cord, my school papers, etc.... theres always something more interesting than his toys. haha! His first tooth is showing a lot more now and is sharp!

Just over a month now til my bestie, Emily, gets married!!

Happy (belated) 9 months to Austin Jacob! :) He had a great appointment yesterday morning! Stats are on the right side of the column but I'll list them again with the percentiles... weight 20lbs 11oz (50th%), length 26inches (5th%) and head 18inches (55th%). Everything has stayed in roughly the same percentile which is a good thing...shows he gaining and growing along his growth curve. He still is a shorty...wonder if he'll have a length growth spurt?!

We had a chat about his development and she is very happy with it all. I told her about my comparisons between his 3 cousins of similar ages and she showed my the Denver Developmental chart and how he is within the normal range on everything. That helped to ease my anxiety. Wish there weren't so many questions/exclamations from people though!!! .."He doesnt have any teeth?!!" or "Hes not crawling yet?!!" or "He doesnt devour puffs/cheerios,etc?!" Gah people! Leave us alone. He is doing it all on time!! Your baby/friends baby/relative was probably the exception and not the rule!

Austin did start crawling this past week on Wednesday night. :) Very exciting!! He also has the beginning signs of his first tooth on the bottom left! We can see the white part so it should come through completely within the next week. :)

He is still sleeping 9pm to 7am. Although on the days where Andy has to take him to my Moms or Maya's he has to wake him up around 6:30am. Very nice that it works out for Andy to do drop off and pick up because I would have to drop him off at 4:15am (on 2 of the days) if he couldn't! We do still have some days where he wakes up at 4 or 5 am (about once or twice a week), eats and then goes back to sleep. I don't mind it AT ALL because I miss him terribly when I am in Indy so I enjoy the extra nursing/cuddling session even if it does make me more sleepy. He is still in our room. The video monitor has arrived (thanks mom & dad) so we just need to hook it up and try it out. Sad that he will be in his own room soon! :(

He is also starting to pull up on the couch ...crazy! He doesn't go all the way to standing but he pulls up on his knees. Loves to read and be read to! Enjoys being outside and going on walks with us and the dogs. :)

He is growing so incredibly fast and I can't believe he is that much closer to being a year old!

Compliance officer finally called me back with her decision today (first call about this started Aug 9th). They have decided that I will not be able to do my spring semester clinicals at Lutheran Hospital due to my previous termination. I said "discrimination against a student". They don't care...they have a statement in their contracts saying they can deny whoever, whenever. Just fab. So I'll be driving for clinicals both semesters. Guess it could be worse...I could not be in school and still not have a job. Hopefully I will have employment opportunities (that arent a bazillion miles away) when I graduate in May.

The next step is Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie. They have an NNP who has expressed interest in the past about the possibility of being a preceptor. Hopefully she still has interest and hopefully since they are now part of IU Health there will be no red tape and contracts to figure out.

So...in short..Lutheran Health Network sucks ass! Sorry for my language but I've tried (nicely) to try to get into both Dupont and Lutheran. Management should WANT students to come and LEARN! The compliance officer did say "I commend you for advancing your education."....ummmm ok ...so why deny me a chance to come learn in your facility? Alll I said was "Thank you."

Remind me why I'm in school again?! My stress level is insanely high right now since I am having a huge nervous anxiety attack about the start of clinicals on Monday. After that I hope things will simmer down. I know clinicals will be challenging...its the nature of nurse/nurse practitioner school. JUST SO FREAKING NERVOUS! I feel inadequate compared to my other 3 classmates that have more NICU experience than I do. Just have to type all these feelings out. I know that most reading this are prolly like "get over yourself wacko." ...you try having the responsibility of small babies looming over your head!!

We had a great labor day weekend! :) We took a family trip to the zoo which was fun! :) Andy used vaction time to make the long weekend even longer so that was very nice. :)

Then on Sunday Austin & I joined my parents and some other family members on a trip to my brother & sister in laws house! Austin got to meet a baby pig and get his hair cut for the first time by his Aunt Cassie!! :)

Back to Indy for class tomorrow. Then clinicals start on Monday at Riley Hospital. Getting nervous about being in that NICU!

Happy September blog readers! Soooo ready for fall...this summer has been crazy hot!

Just over a month and Starbucks will have their Pumpkin Spice lattes available! :) Hope I can get one at some point in October...they are yummy. Yes...I look forward to silly things!

My first lecture class of the semester went well. :) We got out early too...can't get used to that though..she said that'll likely be the only time we get out early. Oh well..at least we don't have to go every Wednesday. Being there from 9am-4pm will be an adjustment though...it's hard to sit that long! But we get an hour lunch so thats nice and its not just our professor jabbering away all day...there is a different speaker most weeks on different topics related to neonates! I have a feeling the 4 of us (yes, only 4 NNP students in this last graduating class for IUPUI) will become quite close.

Also found out that clinicals will likely be 10 hour days (7a-5p) instead of 8 hour days. Not totally sure if that'll be the case but the NNP's usually do 10 hour days (4 days a week) at Riley so I don't know what they do with students since we won't take their full case load. If that's the case I will be sad. :( That would be 2 extra hours away from Austin and would put me arriving home after 7 and he goes to bed at 8:30ishpm. Just gotta tell myself its 2 days a week of craziness. One of my classmates thinks its crazy that I am not spending every Monday night in Indy once clinicals start since the drive is kinda long and we have to be there so early. Oh well...we'll see how I do.

Enjoying every minute with Austin! He is soo sweet and so very active now! Not crawling quite yet but he is able to move backwards and roll everywhere. He also gets up on all fours...but doesn't crawl forward yet. :)

September is going to be very, very busy for us so I might not blog as much. Just a warning. :) Theres 2 extra Indy days in Sept for things our professor needs up to go to in addition to class & clinicals...and we have a cookout, a bridal shower, and a baby shower thrown into the mix!