Welcome Colin Michael

On June 1, 2009 at 5:13pm Colin Michael was born. Andrea had an amazing textbook perfect delivery. It was unbelievable. He was a little guy at 6lbs 12oz, but was perfectly healthy. The funny part was she was scheduled for induction that day and went into labor herself at home in the morning. Mommy and baby have recovered great and are doing fabulous. Baby Colin is 1 month today and grwing like a weed!

Dad introducing the brothers for the first time.

Hanford Expo

Once again it was time for the Hanford Expo. Charlie and his department got to put on a show on and the boys loved it. Actually they just loved going down and playing with all the equipment and trucks. He's just a few pictures of them on the trucks.

Aaron's 1st dentist appointment

I finally took Aaron into the dentist. I know this sounds bad being that he is 4 and a 1/2 and I'm a daughter of a dentist and should know better. But come on, what do they really do before that anyway. Some call it "getting used to the dentist." That is all fine when your 18+ month old can sit still long enough. Aaron, not so much. There was no way he would have been able to do this even 6 ago. . He did have 3 cavities (bad mom!!), but in my defense they were really small cavities. I was so amazed how quick he filled them. I'm talking maybe 5-10 minutes tops per cavity. He had a total of 3 appointments and did amazing every time! I was so proud of him.


Appointment #1. X-rays and a simple cleaning. Notice that Optimus Prime had to come along for support!

Appointment #2. 2 cavities down and 1 to go. I recommend laughing gas for every dental appointment! It was a life saver for Aaron.

I don't have pictures of the last one, but you get the idea.

Juniper Dunes

A couple of weeks ago my friend Jen invited us to go to Juniper Dunes for a couple of hours to let the kids run around and get dirty. Her husband has 4 wheelers and they go out there often and camp out. We'd thought it would be fun the take the power wheels and let the boys participate some what.








This is Aaron on Will's Power wheel. I promise it's not a real 4 wheeler. I would never let him ride one without a helmet on!!

Andrea's Baby Shower

Last month my good friend Andrea had her baby shower for baby boy #2. Who knew we'd both end up with 2 boys. I get tired just thinking about it. The shower was really laid back. The fun part about it was that our friend from high school was there too. We just came back into contact with her and it was fun to be together again. We had fun catching up and eating, because that's what you do at shower's...EAT!! I only took one picture, but it's a good one.



From left to right: Sandy, Me, and Andrea. I am the only one not pregnant. Literally, every girl I know is pregnent or just had a baby. Crazy. Oh, did I mention I have to wear glasses now?!?

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!!