Christmas and Such

So, I'm working the OVERNIGHTS, yep it's that time again, and as a bonus...I'm floating. This seems to be a weekend pattern, floating that is. I'm starting to think I'm part of the float pool (the nurses who are specifically here to float). I was dreading this very very much, it's so sick and wrong to leave for work at 7p, it's actually worse than leaving at 7a.

I got to work and saw that I was floating, to the MICU, the dreaded medical unit, the place I went 3 Saturdays ago and had the worst shift ever. Well wouldn't ya know, I got the exact same room with a patient with pretty much the exact same problems, no blood pressure to speak of and delerium! Yes! So, I ended up getting to leave there at 11pm, but for the four hours I was there, all I did was push fluids and call the doctors every 2 seconds.

Then, at 11p, they switched me to the neurology ICU, the only ICU I hadn't been yet. It's about 3am now and so far so good! Everyone's nice and I have 2 moderately easy patients. I just had an hour break and now I have 4 hours left. I hope they go really really fast!

Well, Christmas has come and gone. It was a weird Christmas because my mom and dad were sick and couldn't partake in any of the activities. It was sad not to have them at the grandparent's houses, but I was glad they were at least home together.

Christmas Eve was at Gran H.'s. First we went to church, which was nice, then we had din and hung around and then opened some presents. It was like every other year, but that's how I like it! We watched a lil' bit of A Christmas Story, which is necessary, and us "adults" did a new thing, we bought gift cards instead of presents and played a game were we could trade/steal them from each other. I ended up with Target! Yay!

Christmas morning was the bestest. Chris and I got up around 8a and had breakfast together, him cereal, of course, and me waffles! Then we gave each other a few things. I got a new purse and a movie! I love both! Chris and I also some of our budgeted Christmas money to buy special gifts for people through World Vision, the company we sponsor our "child" through. We figured they needed things more than we did. They got some chickens and clean water, fun fun. Then, at our own risk, we went to Mom and Dad's and just tried not to touch them too much, ahah, they both had that nasty norovirus (Gavin did too!) It was so fun trading presents with everyone. It's always fun to see what my brothers come up with. I got a camera!!! from Mom and Dad and an ipod car charger from Brice and Gavin. Audrey also got spoiled with things from everyone, she's gonna be a lucky lil' baby.

After a bit we, minus Mom and Dad, ventured to Gran E.'s. We arrived as everyone was lining up to eat. The food was awesome as always and it was fun to catch up with the cities cuzzins who I dont' see as much. We did the stockings/presents and we got lots of fun things! Audrey again, was spoiled. It'll be interesting to see what happens once she's actually born :) We stayed until after supper then brought Mom and Dad back their presents. And then went home and went to bed! It was an awesome day.

The evening of the 26th, Chris and I drove to Austin to hang with the other side of the family. Linda, Angie, Katie, and Laura seemed pretty glad with what we got them and we also liked what they got us! It was fun watching the annual wrestling matches between Chris and his sisters. Katie (26) has lost a ton of weight, so now Chris can throw her around, it's pretty funny to watch. We all went over to Culvers for a while and had icecream. It was a fun night :)

Yesterday, I slept in until 11am to prepare the best I could for the overnight. Chris and I went to Tinn's and my family showed up too! Later Mom and I went up to visit the Dietzman's. Cara's home! I was so excited to see her, it had been since August! I missed her a lot. We did the present thing and then I played Wii for the first time. They have had it for a while, but just got the Wii fit, so Cara and I did a dancing game and a skiing game, it was so cool. Since I am such a slug now, the dancing game actually was a slight workout, haha.

Before I knew it, I had to come here and work, sigh. I don't know where I'm meant to work, but I hope I figure it out sooner than later, I think I need to do something away from the "bedside" like at the clinic or something. I dunno.

Audrey is having a kicking frenzy right now. She's probably confused as to why I'm moving around and eating in the middle of the night. Now I got her all hyper. Chris and I continually amazed at the fact that we'll have a baby girl in 4 months. It's becoming more real as I'm sticking out so much now. I need to do my registry soon and start getting the room ready! I have lots of time left though, but I'm assuming it gets harder to move once I get bigger. I'm officially 23 weeks and 3 days now. I have felt her twice now with my hand, but not enough to have anyone else feel, but soon maybe! I feel her all the time inside though which is really cool. My Mayo book says that she can "feel" now, so she'll be likely to just be touching whatever she can, hahah, makes me laugh. She has taste buds now too. Oh sweet, I totally just felt a really strong kick in the middle of my belly with my hand, ahhh, it's the strongest she's ever been. I wish Chris were here right now cuz I'm pretty sure he could feel it. Oh fun.

Ok, I better end this. 3.5 hours left! Hurry!

Maybe I'll add some pics now, stolen from Mom's blog...

Christmas Eve

The Hemmer Grandchildren...

Christmas morning stockings

Mommy and Papa. He is very excited about something!

I have some from Gran E.'s on my home computer, so I'll have to add those later.

Adios!

PS: For some really obnoxious reason, my blog won't let me have spaces between my paragraphs, sorry, it looks really hard to read.

Snow Day

Hello friends and family,

I'm too behind, so I'll just start with today!
It's been a fun day. I woke up to find a pretty new layer of snow on the ground! Then Chris and I had a baby appointment. Audrey was kickin' away so it took the Dr. a few seconds to find her heart beat. It was in the 140s, this is good. My uterus is also an appropriate size, haha. Basically everything is about me, my weight, my blood pressure, and such, and all are find. I have a few new issues, gastric reflux (heart burn) and leg cramping! I eat one thing and I feel like it's coming back up and it burns and then at night I either get a really bad leg cramp (like my muscle becomes a hard rock and foot is pointed and it won't move) or I feel like it will come on at any moment. It hurts so bad! She said I can take TUMS and drink more milk for the calcium. I have also gained 9 lbs, which is appropriate, haha. She is kicking around more and more, but I cannot feel her with my hand, just inside. I like it though, it's fun to know she's there. One day she wasn't kicking and I got nervous, but then she kicked!

Chris and I then went to Erbs and he headed back to IBM. That's right folks, Chris is done with college, done with his internship, and has started his "professional" job at IBM! He's on his first week and seems to like it ok. It's not to thrilling at this point, a lot of reading and self-directed learning on the computer. He expected a cubicle, but has his own office.

Later I met up with Mom at the mall to tag along with her while she was shopping. I then decided to sparadically get my hair chopped off. I get an "itch" to get my hair cut and I cannot wait, I have to do it right then and there. I don't think I"ll ever be able to grow my hair out super long again, it just gets too heavy and I feel like I look too young with it like that, all long and straight. I think light and fluffy works a lil' better. Plus I never want to get so attached to it that I refuse to cut it like some of those peeps on What Not to Wear who start bawling when they get it cut, heehee. Anyhoo... Mom and I talked to aunt Cindy for a while. She has a kiosk at the mall which sells pretty purses, bags, and more fun things. It's kinda by Santa and I can almost always expect to see her there! It was fun :)

Now I am home and was going to sort out some Christmas receipts, but then I started checking blogs and facebook and email and now it's an hour later. I guess I better go do that before it all builds up. I am glad to have the weekend off, then I just work Mon evening and then get 4 days off! Yes!

Hope you all have a wonderful day and see you soon!

Where Have All the Sick Vascular Patients Gone???

I am done with my weekend at work, finally!

Our unit had 3 patients left, at least they did yesterday.

SO.....I floated, the entire weekend. Floating means you get to work, go see what your assignment is and find that you have to go work on another unit in the hospital because your own unit doesn't need you, but someone else does.

Floating adds a bit of challenge because usually you're not familiar with the unit, where things are, the little different things they do, how to find what you need. Everything just takes longer to accomplish. But often times, your assignment is the easiest, because you're the float nurse, so usually you end up bored, but not always.

On Saturday I floating to the MICU (medical intensive care unit). I had never been there, but the set up is similar to many other floors in the Mary Brigh building so I felt like I knew where things were. I had a 2 patient assigment, both were pretty easy and my job would be transferring them to the "floor" since they were doing well. Transferring is not just pushing them down in a wheelchair. It's a multiple step process and all parts must be in place, it can take all day to come together or it can be done in an hour, just depends. One guy I got out right away and the other had to wait for a bed until after lunch. Meanwhile, I got an admission. A man from the floor who was doing poorly and had to come to the ICU. I was thinking, ok, it's fine, usually they try not to give admissions to float nurses, but I don't think they had much of a choice. Obviously I cannot talk about my patients. But I can say that this became the most difficult shift of my LIFE. The man just basically went downhill. I worked non-stop for about 6 hours in his room. I did many new things I'd never done before and I feel like a much more experienced ICU nurse now. Nothin' like dealing with life threatening things while you're floating, fun. The other nurses were helpful though, they had to be. So yeh, I barely got outta there by 8pm (supposed to leave at 7) and I was on my last brain cell. Oofdah.

So, I come into work on Sunday and oh, shock, I'm floating again. I went to the cardiac surgical icu, where my mom actually started as a nurse. I had one nice patient that I transferred out in a few hours. So, at 11a, I floated to another unit, the cardiac medical ICU. I had the easiest patient on earth and I thought it would be a loooooooong day. But no, I got an admission! Yikes, I thought, here we go again. However, this admission was pleasant and not stressful, in fact I actually learned a ton from the nurses there and kinda had fun (as far as work goes).

So yeh, 2 very different days. It makes all the difference when you feel "taken care of" as a float nurse vs ignored and made to deal with bad situations practially alone. Of course I have to do my job either way, but it's nice when you're not "dumped on" and if you are it's nice when you get a ton of help. Anyhoo, that was my floating weekend. I've been to every ICU now except for neuro, so I feel more comfortable floatin' around.

And that is that. Off I go to look for new clothes for Chris' new job! Bye!

Audrey's Stuff

Many of you have already bought something for Audrey! So, I thought I'd put them up here cuz they're cute...

Audrey's 1st stuffed animal from auntie Kelsey

All pink kitties from Grandma Jackie

Audrey's wardrobe, contributing stylists are Grandma Jackie, Great-Grandma H., Auntie Jodi, Auntie Susan, and Kellie!

Her baby book.

Blankie from Kelsey and 1st aid kit from Great-Grandma E.

Toys!

Scroll down to see my another new blog about Christopher...

Scottrade (and other new things for Chris)

Tomorrow, Friday, is Chris' last day at his internship.

He started at Scottrade last March and has been there since! It's an online discount stock trading company, I'm sure Chris could explain it better. But basically you can made trade online for a lot cheaper than at a brockerage company, but you don't get the personal advice from a broker.
I think he's had a pretty good time there, learned some things, and made a few buddies. There's only three of them at the Rochester branch, but there'll be 2 interns taking Chris' place, cuz he was so awesome, they need 2 people to do what he did, haha.

Today I went there and brought him and his boss man lunch from John Hardy's. I got to stay and eat with Chris. Troy is the manger and is very nice and Mike is another broker, but wasn't there today. We played office bocce ball and I won! Don't ask.....

I got to hang out for a bit, as business was a bit slow and I took some pictures to commerate this almost year of Chris' life at Scottrade. And here they are for your viewing pleasure.

Troy, the manger, on a very important phone call.

Scottrade!!!! On County Rd. 22 W, by Cinemagic.

Chris, hard at work (on Jamey's blog) haha.

My handsome business man.

The face of the company, he's the 1st you see when you walk in.

Sweet desk huh?

Now Chris'll have one whole week off before his IBM life starts, ahhh!

He'll be an official IBMer on Monday December 15th as a financial analyst.

Besides analyzing finances, we're not sure what exactly he'll be doing!

Chris is also DONE DONE DONE with his bachelor's degree (with a minor in MIS I might add) on December 9th!!!!!!!!! Yay!!!!!!!! So, I guess that leaves him from the 10th to the 15th with absolutely nothing to do!

So, lots of new fun things for my husband and can I say am I SOOOO proud of him!!!

Falling Asleep

I am sooo bored!

I had a 2 hour class this AM and then am scheduled to work the rest of my shift. However, when I can up to my unit they have nothing for me to do. And, I will either float to a different unit at 11:00 or go home....this is soooooo lame. If I find out I'm going home, I'll be glad, but annoyed, cuz here I sit waiting to find out what I'm doing at 11:00. I've been on this computer since 9:20 and probably won't know anything until like 10:30 or later.....a 1/2 hour away from now. Dah! I'm not hungry, otherwise I'd go eat, my car's too far away to bother walking to, and I have no book or anything to read. La de dah, I could be in bed! haha. My guess is that I'll float at 11:00, I wonder where...

Anyhoo. I have had a nice 4 day off stretch. I did many fun things. On Monday I was with Mom most of the day baking Christmas cookies! It was mucho fun. Yesterday I hung out with Chris and such and then when he went to work I finished some cookie stuff and had supper and watched House with Dad. We went to Beetles. This past weekend...hmm...I dunno what I did. I have gotten some Christmas shopping done, but have much more to do.

On Sunday, I felt Audrey move, I know it. And each day since it's been a few little movements per day, nothing much, but it's definetely her! I feel more heavy in the belly area, like I'm carrying something around, what a shock, I am. Also, if I have to pee, it's a really heavy feeling, like I must go now! I am showing much more and people I don't know notice now. It's still hard to tell in my scrubs I think, although a patient's family member noticed and told me I shouldn't be lifting anything, hahah. People are thoughtful, my co-workers have already done things like had me push light things and not the bed and such, funny, cuz I'm very capable of doing everything I always do. But oh well, if they wanna be sweet, I'll let them. I have like 6 shirts I can wear, sad day, I should buy more, anyone wanna loan me some clothing money? Just kiddin'. I keep looking at baby clothes, they're so cute, but I haven't boughten any. My mom is funny, she's always like, guess what I looked at or bought today??? And she's referring to baby girl clothes, heehee. I already have like 5 things for her to wear from different people. Audrey can hear now, or so my book says, so I told Chris he should talk to her, it's just funny and hard to believe she in there, just hangin' out. I'll be 20 weeks along, 1/2 way, tomorrow!

Welp, I better go before y'all stop reading this longness. I guess I'll just sit here and waste more time, blah!!!

Have a wonderful week!