The Birthday Hat

Ok, so today Kayleigh came out of the 2nd bedroom with a large piece of brown thick cardstock that I didn't know where it came from. Then about 30min later she came out with the wrapping paper that was originally on the brown paper... The wrapping paper was pretty crinkled and I was going to just fold it up and save it, but then Kayleigh said she wanted a birthday hat... so I said hmmmm... lets try! First I tried to make a cone like hat that looked like a princess hat. No good. It ended up in a ball. So I went with tube like thing that fit her head and a circular covering. Here's some pictures of her wearing the hat :-)

Life

Ok, it hasn't been too too long since I blogged so here I go again...

So there's this guy... and he's pretty darn awesome if I do say so myself. Tonight he brought me my dvd player, my flight suit, and my work shoes because I forgot them at home and I couldn't do my shift without them. He grumbled about it, but he brought them anyways. He loves on me and Kayleigh all the time, and I love it when she says... "DADDY!!!!" and runs to him. I think he loves it too.

So, Cory bought a house in Meridian and we're all settled in now. We painted some walls a green that I affectionately call facial spa mask or fake guacamole :-) I love it though. It looks really good on my walls. And we hung the tiles I bought for the bathroom yesterday. That looks awesome too. I love our house. We just have so many projects because it's an older house. We want to put in flooring in the kitchen, dining room, bathrooms and laundry room. We need to get the carpets cleaned. We need window coverings for the big windows in front.

Life is great! Kayleigh's getting big big and bigger. Today she peed in my mom's potty chair. It was great. She passed gas in the potty yesterday and it was good then too. Maybe we're getting close to potty training. I've got all the panties and I'm ready for her to be potty trained. Every day she says something new too. It is cool.

At work though life sucks. I'm stuck in an office for 12 hours waiting for a transport call. YUCK! It will be ok though, it will work itself out and all will be good again. I am the queen of over reaction and then reflection and getting over it. I hope Cory can live with that.

MySpace

It has been a long time again... I myspace more than I blog. www.myspace.com/cmerrellrn It's private so if you don't have myspace you can't see any of my pictures. So get my space :-) Ok... so kayleigh and I moved to Nampa, I joined eHarmony, met a great guy and now we're living in Meridian. All is well!!! See you at MySpace... Or look at 2idmerrells.shutterfly.com for pictures.

Vacation!

Hi to the minimal people that read this :-) I'm on vaca in Rio Rancho and loving it! So far my favorite part was getting to sleep in this morning while my mom took care of Kayleigh. It was awesome. No real other news to write except that I'm on vaca and I already did that. Oh and I swear the whole world is pregnant. One of my friends here in RR is due the middle of August and another is due the beginning of December. And I'll miss them :-( I miss being here. Someone asked me today if it was a happy thing when I went home to Idaho or if it was sad and it is definetly sad every time. I'm always in tears and go home depressed. I miss my mom there and my friends. I'm working on the new friends thing. I have made one really good friend and she is awesome. Her kids love to play with Kayleigh and vise versa. It's so nice to have a friend to just hang with.

Well that's about all, I don't have any new pics of Kayleigh to add. We're going to go get pictures together on Sunday for Mother's Day. Oh I cut my hair short. That's really it.

Been a long time

Wow, it's been a LONG time since I have written in this blog. So much has happened. Jeannine had her baby...boy...Rowan. He's like almost 7 mo old now. Jeannine and Eric have more animals - and less animals. Eric killed all of the geese because they were loud and replaced them with goats... which are also loud in their own way, but not in the middle of the night for no reason. Kayleigh is BIG! 13 mo old and going strong. 22lbs 4 oz at her last visit and still a bobble head. She's in the 10th percentile for height, 25th for weight and 90th for head circumference. She's walking and it's hard to believe with that size head :-). I love her dearly, especially now when she's sleeping.

No real other news... getting tired of living far away from everything and needing to plan 1 1/2 hrs of driving time round trip to each day going to work and needing to be gone all day to run errands into Boise. Hmmmmm.

That's all. Gotta go to bed. No one reads this anyways, but me occasionally, but you can see how often I look at it by my last post :-)

I can't wait!

I can't wait until May 18th! My mom and grandma are coming to visit me here in Idaho. I'm so excited. My grandma, which is Kayleigh's great grandma will get to meet Kayleigh and my friends here, and see where I live. It'll be fun. We'll probably go to the zoo, but I'm not sure what else we can do while they are here. I"m sure I'll think of something.

In other news... Kayleigh's over 10lbs now! She's thriving and making up for low birth weight I guess :-) If you want to see more and newer pictures of her go to http://photos.yahoo.com/carina_2026. There are two albums of pictures there. Also bookmark/favorite the site because I upload new pictures there about once a month or so.

Also, my friend Jeannine's pregnant too and due the end of August so that will be fun. Her big ultrasound is next Thursday, but she doesn't want to find out the gender of the baby so it'll just be making sure the baby's growing well and stuff.

Well, that's about all. Will update my blog when there's more news!

No Sleep Sucks

So, everyone says that when you have a new baby it is great because you have a new baby, but it sucks because you get no sleep. Now I know what they mean. I don't really mind not getting any sleep at night, if only I could get sleep during the day, then I'd make up for the loss at night because Kayleigh seems to sleep fine during the day - go figure. Physically i can sleep during the day because I do it quite well after a night shift, but I feel so bad sleeping all day while Eric is working on the house or something like that. We just moved into the new house and it's slowly coming together, with not much help from me. If I'm not sleeping I'm nursing Kayleigh. It's an endless process. And she's a black hole, sometimes she nurses for like an hour! I worry about my milk supply not being enough, but if I was to pump I'm sure there'd be enough.

THE NEW HOUSE... the new house... it's in New Plymouth. Far Far Far away from Boise. Closer to Oregon than Boise. In fact, I've been to Ontario, Oregon almost every day this past week. Ok that's an exaggeration, but still. Oregon's just around the corner. But the house is nice. I don't think I've moved up in bedroom size, but that's ok. Kayleigh and I'll survive. The room is cool because it has a little alcove next to the closet that I think will fit a crib exactly. Right now Kayleigh's sleeping in a bassinet during the day and with me at night. Sometimes she sleeps in the bassinet at night, but mostly with me. She seems to sleep better with me. I'm not sure why, but all of the research I've done about "co-sleeping" says that it is ok. I'm looking into getting a co-sleeper so she can just be within arms reach to nurse at night. Then I've gotta learn how to nurse while laying down. That'll be cool. Maybe we'll practice tonight. Gotta go to bed... Will update more soon.

Kayleigh Marie

So, this is Kayleigh Marie. She was born February 9th, 2006 at 1:02pm. She weighed in at 5lbs and was 18 inches long. She was 6 1/2 weeks early so she's still in the hospital, but doing well. She's doing everything on her own except she can't stay awake for long enough to eat enough to keep her weight up so they're supplementing with fortified breastmilk from me. Isn't she beautiful! I think so :) The first picture is her right after birth. The second is 2 days ago when I was giving her a bath. The little tube stuck to her face is what they use to give her extra feedings. She just has to grow a little more. She's the light of my life. Who knew that she was a girl! My whole pregnancy I thought she was a boy. I'd been calling her a him all this time. I already apologized to her and I'm sure she'll understand. She's such a good baby. Very easy going. See her face in the bath. That the "ok mommy, I'm not too sure about this, but do what you want" face. She also has lots of other faces. She's so fun to watch both while she's sleeping and awake. She's never going to sleep in her crib though because if I'm there Kayleigh's either eating or sleeping on mommy. I've even fallen asleep holding her in the rocking chair. She's so precious. I love her so much. Well, there are more pictures online at www.christinesbaby.com. Email me if you want more info!

Wow, that seems like forever ago

So... I haven't written in awhile. Hmmm. Still pregnant. Now I actually look pregnant though. My website is www.christinesbaby.com. It doesn't have anything on it yet except for "coming soon" or something like that. Ultrasound pictures and Christine pictures coming soon. In the process of scanning things. Life's going ok. Nothing more to report as of now. More info coming soon.

Wow, life's busy when you're a working girl

So, I haven't written on here since I was still on orientation at work. Now I've been off orientation about 5 months plus. I love my job. I can do it ok, I like my patients and I get to practice on other ppl's babies for when I get my own.

***SPEAKING OF MY OWN BABIES***
I am pregnant and past the scary time of the 1st trimester. I'm due March 27th next year and not looking forward to labor (cause I know everything that can go wrong which is the curse of the L&D nurse) but looking forward to having my own little one to love. I'll be writing on this more so look for updates on things. I'm not "showing" yet, but I haven't gained any weight either. I'm hanging out at a respectable number under 150. (that's all the info you get about weight he he) I know I won't be this weight for long. N-E-Ways... weight's not important except to make a healthy baby. :-) Anyone who is reading this should, in the comments section, give me suggestions about baby names. I have some ones that I like, but I love suggestions. Right now I just read that my little peanut is 3-4 inches long and his little bladder is working to make urine. You only are excited about bio things like this if you're a nurse maybe. :-P

On to other things. I had a wonderful weekend these last 3 and 1/2 days. I learned a lot about myself and other things. For others who are reading this, the comments section can be seen by all that access it hint hint. You never know who's online.

Well, that's probably all for now. I'll update you on baby info and other things in my life more frequently. Hugs and kisses...

Ahhhh!

That explains it all (the ahhhh! title). That's how I feel about being in my resource week at work. I'm supposed to be on my own with my preceptor there just to ask questions. What a scary thing. Like after 12 weeks I'm supposed to know everything about Labor and Delivery and be able to do it on my own. Well, not technically on my own because there'll be a midwife/md in the room and hopefully a baby nurse to help with baby. Ohmigosh! I don't even know what I would do if my baby crashed. I get pushed out of the way if that happens now, so what would I do if I was all alone? I don't know. I know the theory, but once it was a semi emergent time and the NICU nurse asked me to give Narcan to the baby and my hands were shaking so bad that the little vile was moving too much for me to draw it up, I had to put it down on the table :-). And that wasn't even emergent! I think I can do it though. There's always the charge nurse looking after everyone. N-E-ways...

Last night was so fun! I went out dancing with my friend Jeannine and a couple other people. It was so fun! It was ladies night at a club in ABQ so we didn't have to pay cover, plus it was wet t-shirt and thong night where local ladies strut their stuff in wet t-shirts and thongs for a $300 prize. I'd never look good in that combo, but it's fun to watch. The ladies come and dance in these cages... and the guys (and girls of course) scream for the one they want to win. Aside from that fun, we danced all night! It didn't matter that we didn't have guys ask us. Us four went out on the packed dance floor of the South Beach club (Hip Hop music) and danced for like 3 hours. Our club is 4 clubs in one so we'd go dance for awhile on the dance floor in South Beach, then go chill in the country club. The kareoke club is normally fun, but we wanted to dance! My girl Jeannine has no rhythm, but it was soooo much fun teaching her to move her booty right :-). The guys from Playgirl is coming next thursday and having a show and one of the cute shot girls took Jeannine's number so she could call us later and give us tickets. It'll be fun, hope we don't have to work. All of the dancing would've been better for my diet if I didn't drink as much as I danced. Oh well, I had sooooo much fun! We have to go at least once a month, maybe once a week!

That's all for now. Oh, and I went au natural to my massage appt, but it didn't matter. The spa was great, but the massage hurt more than it felt good. Oh well. :-) Have a good week all!

Not too Deep

That last post was way too deep for me. I can tell the difference between a rested me and a really tired me by the blog I wrote. Today's my day off and I've had two full nights of sleep so I'm definetly rested :-) I'm going to go get a massage today! I'm excited, but kind of nervous as well. I always wonder, should I get totally undressed, or should I wear my underwear? I read the brochure and it says you can do it either way, but that their massagists(? massuses?) know how to drape their clients to preserve their privacy, or something like that. Basically it means that their employees have learned to drape their clients just skimpy enough to do the massage, but enough so that nothing vital is showing. I think I'm going to go au natural. We'll see. On to other topics.

I'm in week 11 of my orientation as a Labor and Delivery nurse. I have 12 weeks and then a resource week where I'm kind of on my own but with my preceptor as a resource. And then I'm totally on my own (with other nurses and the charge nurse as backup if needed of course). I don't know how people feel ready to be on their own. I certainly don't. But I guess it doesn't matter what I think. Oh well. L&D here I come (in 3 weeks counting this one we're in now) :-)!

Weird Weather

Wow the weather around here is weird. Yesterday it was nice and sunny, almost getting up to 70 degrees. Now today I wake up to grey skies and snow on the ground. Then the snow starts melting so it starts hailing. After the hail, the skies clear up and the wind starts. A crazy wind, one that blows so hard you think it'll blow you away. The wind's still here, a never ending, annoying wind.

Life's like that sometimes. You go through days where everything's sunny, there's no wind or rain. The babies breathe fine and the mom has no complications. Then everything turns on a dime and the hail starts. And you just hope that all of your preparation and learning kicks in and you make it through. I like the sunny days of life, but it takes a day full of hail to remind you why you can't stop learning. I thought all of the classes and tests were over when I graduated. Now I know that the tests that matter in life are just beginning.

The first day of my blog

So, this is weird, knowing that anyone can read my words. But kinda cool at the same time. My soap box today is about learning something new. At first I thought that never getting any positive feedback about stuff you do right and always getting negative feedback on stuff you did wrong was horrendously awful. Now I've seen the light. When all you get is negative, the one time you get positive it makes you feel like it was all worth it. Maybe I'm getting somewhere! And then I have the confidence to go on...

So, nursing is fun, but a little scary. When I was a student, someone was always watching, a teacher or another nurse. Now I just do what I do and it feels like something's missing. Like last night I had to get some pain meds out of the med room and I felt like, shouldn't someone be watching? But I'm the nurse now. The good thing about that feeling is that I check everything like 10 times before I move on :-)

I hope someone reads this and comments, but I'll be ok if no one does. Maybe it's just for me to think out loud to. Sounds like a good back up plan.