Easter

Despite the fact that I had to work the nights before and after we had a pretty relaxing Easter. Saturday the 11th my hospital puts on an Easter egg hunt every year. Aaron loves it and it was really fun to see Wyatt enjoying it this year too. The kids get separated by age groups and just go at it. Then there's activities inside after. We met up with my good friend Jen who has kids the exact same age. The mom's went with the babies and the dad's went with the big boys! Unfortunately each family only had one camera. So I got to take pictures of Wyatt and Stella and Jen's husband took pictures of Aaron and Will. I don't have their pictures yet and I haven't given them a copy of mine yet either.So here are a few pictures of Wyatt and his friend Stella at the Easter egg hunt.







Wyatt got bored really fast and started to go to the playground and eat rocks! Boys!!!

ICU update

The ICU is going great! I should have moved there years ago. I am in week four of my orientation. The hardest part about it is being full time again. That is a huge adjustment for me! Another hurdle has been health issues. In the first week Wyatt got RSV and I had to leave to take him to the ER. It was really scary. He progressed really quickly. The ER doctor told me that he would be admitted to the hospital if he wasn't going home with a nurse and an EMT. They really don't do anything for RSV anymore due to evidence based practice these days. What they would do in the hospital we could do at home. All we could do was nebulizer treatments, suctioning and Tylenol for fever. He turned around very quick. I was amazed. Now, in the beginning of week four I got Strep throat. I don't think I have ever been so sick. I never knew strep throat was this bad. I had a fever of 101.9*, chills, and I head a upper chest cold as well. Let me tell you I am a huge fan of Penicillin now!! Charlie started to have symptoms so he got antibiotics as well. He came home with a fever of 103*!! Who needs work in the ICU when I have one at home?!?

Here we go- What I've learned so far:

-What it feels like to breath through a ventilator. We got to be hooked up to one for a few seconds. Let me tell you it's like breathing through a straw!!

-I hate phlegm. Every nurse has their thing they hate. Mine's phlegm. In ICU we have to do oral care at least every 4 hours when some one's on a ventilator. It helps to reduce ventilator acquired Pneumonia (VAP.) And the ironic part is that both my boys are phlegmy boys!

-2 critically sick patients can keep you busier than 4-5 non critically ill patients.

-Ambulate, ambulate, ambulate!! If the patient can walk assisted or by themselves, make them at least 4 times a day - even if they're 6 hours post heart pass!!

-Breaks are overrated!

-Knowing where a drug metabolizes and excreted from the body is really important.

-Lab values are not just for doctors.

More to come later. I'll try to do week by week. ha ha!!

Aaron's Reward Party

Charlie and I have always struggled getting Aaron to go to sleep and then staying in his bed all night. It has really been frustrating! Our bedtime routine would take us 2 - 2 1/2 hours from start til asleep in bed. Exhausting!! So, in December I made a poster with 4 rows of 7 boxes that made up 4 weeks. I called it "Aaron's Sleep Transformation." (He really likes Transformers so I went with it.) Any night that he slept in his bed all night he got to put a Transformer sticker in a box. When all the boxes had a sticker in it he gets to go to Chuck E Cheeses. He was so excited. He was good for a couple of nights and then had a set back or two, but we just kept going along with it. Half way though we mixed it up a bit and told him that 'when we tuck you in, you have to stay in bed until you fall asleep and all night and then you get a sticker." His response, "Ohhhh, okay Momma. Goodnight." We walked out of the room and he stayed!! A week before Valentine's Day all the boxes were filled and we got to take him to his reward party at Chuck E Cheese. He thought it was the coolest thing! Bedtime isn't a struggle anymore. It's fabulous. He still comes in our room at night sometimes, but we just put him back in his bed.

Disney Live on Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day we took the boys to Disney Playhouse Live. Aaron has recently gotten into Disney shows, his favorite being 'Phineas and Ferb,' and he had the best time. I don't think he sat down the entire show. Wyatt made it through the first hour and was DONE by the second. Afterwards we took them to McDonald's to have lunch. It was fun and I loved including them on Valentine's Day.

Charlie did surprise me with a dozen orange roses(my favorite!!) and a box of chocolates. I know, you're thinking how original. How ever does he get these brilliant ideas?? Well, regardless of how cliche it was, it was still appreciated since we rarely have time for each other these days!


Hotdog Dance


Aaron showing off his Little Einstein's baton


Handy Manny


Tigger and Pooh


After the show.

-PS: I got both the boys' hair cut a few days later. This picture opened my eyes to how long their hair REALLY was!! Yikes!

Movin' on Up

I have decided to make the big plunge and move to the ICU. As of February 8th I am officially an ICU RN. I am currently working in the step down unit for the ICU, but I am ready for a change and want more of a challenge. It'll be a huge learning curve for me and I am really excited. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

The Big 2-9!

On the 15th was my 29th birthday. We didn't do really anything exciting. Charlie came home from work and surprised me with an ice cream cake from DQ (my favorite!!) and 2 - 1 hour massage gift certificates. We all went to dinner at Famous Dave's. The service was horrible, the food was okay but the boys were amazing for being there for about an hour and a half!! All in all it was a good day.

Christmas

Christmas was nice this year. It was pretty quiet and calm. Charlie and I stayed up late setting up presents on Christmas Eve so imagine how tired we were when Aaron woke up at 7am!! We convinced him to wait until Wyatt woke up to go downstairs. When he did Aaron ran into his room to tell him that's it's Christmas and noticed that Santa left him a plush 'Perry the Platypus' from Phineas and Ferb, his new favorite show. All morning he was saying, "I love this Perry. It's my favorite." And since then apparently everything is his 'favorite.' We went downstairs to open presents. Aaron just started ripping open everything in sight. Wyatt just stood back and watched. It was really fun. We went to dinner at Charlie's parents house at around 1pm. We stayed until about 7:30. By then Aaron was exhausted. We went home and all fell asleep by 8:00.




Aaron opening presents from Santa.




Wyatt and his cousin Bud.


Aaron and his cousin Michael.