A Glider Chair

Mom and Dad took Chris and I to a furniture store a while back to have us pick out a glider chair (yes, glides, not rocks) for the baby's room! Since I'm sure we'll be spending a lot of time in her room feeding her and waking up with her, they thought we should have a quality chair to sit in. We loved this chair at the store and thought it was cozy and would last, probably forever. So, we chose it and and last week Mom and Dad suprised us by bringing it over!

Mom and Dad putting in a few screws

Note the padded arms, very nice.

Chris likes it. Note, the sides are solid, so little kids can't pinch fingers or arms or legs inbetween anything.

So, now the chair sits there and I probably sit in it at least once a day just gliding and thinkng and imaginging her being here. I could sleep in that chair, it's so comfy. Chris said he also sat in there and pretending holding her, heehee. So, we're very grateful for this generous gift! Thanks Mom and Dad, I know we will enjoy it for all the years to come :)

Graveyard Shift

Good news, I only have to work Sat overnight and not Sunday! I worked last Wed to make up for this Sun, so someone else is working my Sun overnight, yes! Hey, she asked, so I said YES!

It still seems like the night will never end. It's hard when it's on ly 1am, cuz there's six hours left. Not shockingly, I am floating, wow, I don't think I've EVER worked a full weeked on my own unit, whatever, I don't even care anymore. I actually assumed I would be floating. And to my happiness, I am in the neuro ICU. I love floating here, I always have the best assignments and nothing usually too critical so mostly, I dont' have to worry too much.

In the place of a very critical patient however, is the trade-off for a very needy patient. Needy patients remind me of working on Ortho. I spent from 9:30pm until now, 1am, trying to make her comfy. I have now given enough drugs to zonk her out a bit. I shouldn't speak too soon though, she's only been quiet for like 20 mintues. Basically as long as she's awake, so will be the resident, because I will be having to call him repeatedly. He'll figure it out soon enought that he needs to give me more drugs if this doesn't work! I spose it's better to give "baby" doses of everything then give too much.... Anyhoo, I'm hoping for her sake and my sanity, that she sleeps at least some of the night. Shoot, she just turned her head. Sleeeeeep sleeeeeeepppppp.

I am going on break at 2am. I am glad to do it, but I always feel so gross after eating in the night. I forbid myself popcorn, it tastes so good, but it feels so bad in the tummy afterwards. It's so werid, they serve regular food in the middle of the night, so my choices will be like hambergers/chicken/pizza/fries/cheese curds/motzarella sticks and then like vegetables of all sorts. Nice huh...nothing like fried food at 2am. Maybe I'll have mashed potatoes.

Today was fun. Mom and Dad were due to pick Chris and I up at 12:30 so we could go to lunch at Erb's (they volunteered to pick us up). Insted they showed up at noon with our chair! They bought us a glider chair, a very lovely and nice quality one, for the baby's room, for rocking/feeding her and such! We picked it out a few weeks ago and I'm so excited it's here! It looks very nice in the bedroom next to the crib, I'll have to put the pictures up soon. It is so comfy. I feel like I'll fall asleep in it. Thanks Ma and Pa! Then we ate and Chris and I went to an open house for fun, it was cute and pretty. Then we went over to my parent's house for a while. I helped Mom put away Brice's "Christmas village" that has been up in his room for like 4 years. It's about 12 or so houses and little figurines that he collected and set up. It included tons of fake snow and about a million light cords to unravel and dust. Now you can see the shelves in there again!

Soon I had to leave for work, sad day, Chris drove me through the drive-thru at Wendy's and soon I was off to work. Chris and Dad went to the JM/Century b-ball game, so hopefully they had fun.

Well, she's officially awake and moaning again, I shal go see what I can do....poor lady.

Goodnight and I hope you are all sleeping!

Mayo won't let me look at Facebook :(

Well, tonight is weird, I'm working a night shift, which is 11pm to 7am. A girl asked me if she could work my upcoming Sunday 12 hour overnight if I'd work her 8hr overnight today, I said, YES! I'll give up a 12 hr shift anyday!

It was very very hard to leave home for this shift. Chris was in his jammies and I felt like I should have been too! No fair! Now that I'm here, I'm ok. I have a very pleasent patient who is doing well, pretty well. So, I get to just hang out and keep an eye on her.

I'm not sure how I'm going to fill my time inbetween doing things with her, because I can't get on Facebook, what is the deal? I wonder if they're blocking it, jeesh. So, I'll just write a blog insted. I don't appreciate them blocking it, if that's the case. I am a responsible adult and my job as a nurse comes first, over Facebook. I would like the ability to be on whatever website I want when I have downtime. It's not like I'm going to be sitting on Facebook while my patient is in need of me. Whatev. They monitor us like we're prisoners. They're probably watching me write this right now! Hello!

This week has been lazy-ish so far. I worked Mon evening, did not much on Tues, and did not much today. Chris and I did go to Applebees for supper tonight for fun and then visited Mom and Dad and watched Idol.

I'm at a standstill with baby things. I guess the registries are mostly done. We just need to pick stroller, swing, and highchair, the stoller being the most important. I think I've done all the research I can do, I just need to pick :) The lil' baby is becomming quite the kicker. I just felt a strong kick. She's probably wondering why I'm awake and moving around at this time of day! I finally bought Pepsid today, well technically, the offbrand, due to my reflux. Tums don't really work, plus if I chew up another one I think I'll barf, yuck. I was told I coudl do Pepsid, so I'm trying it. I hope it works, my esophagus burns man!

FYI, when you're buying drugs/vitamins whatever from the store, you should look to see what the active ingredient is and then compare the fancy brand with the generic and most likely they are exactly the same drug, so pick the cheaper one! This also goes for soap/acne stuff, it's all the same, if you can get over the uglier bottle, you'll save lots of $$$. For example, my off brand famotidine was $7, vs the brand Pepsid, which was $15 for the same amount and they're identical drugs. Neato, I'm such a genius, heehee.

Chris and I had our 4th of 6 prenatal classes last night. The topic was drugs, ya know, like epidurals, which I plan on having. We also did some breathing exercises again. We were encouraged to try different things, sitting on the ball, backwards in the chair, lying on the floor, and all the while I got a backrub from Chris. What a good lil' supporter he is!!! I'm so glad to have him!

Tomorrow (later today) I think I'll try not to sleep the whole day away....but I don't work again until Friday evening and Sat 12 hr overnight. Then I think I get 3 days off, whoop! I'm so excited to go down to 0.6 FTE (24 hrs/wk) after the baby is born! I'm very lucky that Chris is supportive in this! It will hopefully allow no daycare and me being very very glad! The sacrifice is less income, obviously, but we're planning for the future around this.

I'm trying to think of more to say so I can take up more time, but I guess I'm out! I'm gonna take a break at 3-4am, then I'll have 3 hours left! This 8hr overnight goes pretty quick!

Talk to ya later!
~Brie

More Birthday Fun

Mom and Dad came over yesterday to watch the Superbowl with Chris and I! My dear mother made me a very wonderful chocolate cake. She also brought icecream and pizza too! And of course, some presents for little ol' me. My parents are so sweet, they never forget about my birfday, heehee. Thanks for hanging out with us, we love you!

Here Dad and Chris are acting out how the football game is making them feel. I made them do this :)

Chris is so upset, he's falling over

Chris, me, and my yum yum cake.

Mom and Dad got me rechargable batteries for my new camera! I'm so excited, no more double A's. Also a pretty pretty frame for Audrey's room and Dots (my fav)!

My 25yr old self with the cake! Yep, they even sang to me and I blew out candles.

My sweet mama and me.

Well, there you have it, my fun weekend is over and now it's on to work....

Scroll down for more new blogs :)

Magna Cum Laude

Look what Chris got in the mail! His diploma. It's official....he's a Bachelor of Arts! His official major is Business Administration (Management) with a minor in Management Information Systems! Not only did he graduate, but with honors! He's Magna Cum Laude, whoo hoo! I am very proud of my husband. I saw him start and finish college, working very very hard the whole time and never giving up! He's going to walk in the graduation ceremony in June. I can't wait to see him in his robe and get a picture of him with Audrey!
I love you Chris and I am so proud of you! Yay!!!!!!!!

PS: Scroll down, I was a blogging maniac and did 2 more :)

A Quarter Century Old

My birthday was yesterday and I turned 25! It was so much fun! First, we woke up and got to go to Perkins. This was very exciting for me because I love their french toast and hashbrowns. Chris isn't much of a "hot" breakfast person, so this isn't something we normally do! Then we drove up to the Mall of America. I was supposed to pick out a present, this was a deal, but I couldn't do it! I felt very bad, but there was just nothing I wanted! I had lots of fun just walking around and lookin' at stuff. I think Chris' highlight was the amazing Best Buy there with drums you could play and such, it was fancier than the Rochester Best Buy. We had a small Burger King lunch and were there for about 5 hours. That's about 5 hours of walking, I got a foot rub later! Then we drove to our hotel. I got a nice discount (for being a Mayo employee) at a hotel in Oakdale (around 10 mins East of the mall) that my parents have stayed at and liked. It was very pretty! The room was nice and it had an extended continental breakfast, yes! It was hard not to eat and eat and eat. I thought it would be fun to do something like this before we have the baby and don't have to arrange a babysitter, although I'm sure someone wouldn't mind :) Around supper time we drove to Woodbury, like 5 mins away. There are a ton of stores there and we ate at Champps (yes there are 2 p's). It was so yummy and I took 1/2 my meal home, so big! We later played rummy and watched a movie! It was sooooooo awesome to just spend the whole day with Chris, it made me very glad. To me, the whole day was one big present, especially since Chris told me I wasn't allowed to feel guilty about all the eating out and the hotel :) He also got me seasons 1 and 2 of House, which I have wanted for a long time. We got them on Amazon cuz I REFUSE to own them for $50 each (from the store, that's just sick and wrong). It was a wonderful birthday just taking out time and being together :) I also got calls and texts and facebook messages and emails from all my dear friends and family, thanks guys!
PS: The pic of Chris on the bed is when we got back from the Mall of America, haha, he fell into a deep sleep!

The Baby Room

So, we finally got a crib, or should I say the worst decision maker alive (me) fianlly picked one! We chose a crib from Pennys (free shipping!) and a mattress from Walmart as a gift from my Hemmer grandparents (spoiled). Okay enough parenthesis usage. It came in 3 days and Mom and I picked it up! Chris and I put it together in 40 mins, it was easy! And, we love it! Now the baby bedding has a home.

Me allen-wrenching a screw in.

Chris putting up a side.

Yay!

Us with our baby's bed, haha.

I bought wooden letters and decorated them to match her room. Her initials, Audrey Joanne Lewis.