Cousins

Landan and I spent the last weekend down in Houston doing wedding stuff. Unfortunately Kevin couldn't come because he was supposed to work. We got to spend some quality time with Landan's cousins while we were there. They were so cute with their new cousin Avery. She's the only girl so far. Landan kept asking to hold her. He was so gentle it was amazing. The boys all hovered over her. It was really cute. And Avery was so calm the whole time these little boys were holding her. Nathan didn't quite get the concept. He just wanted to look at her but when he held her he just patted her on his lap. He didn't understand the holding part. It was still cute.

Ah...the threes.

We have officially hit the THREES, about three weeks early. We have also entered the wonderful "World of Why". Why do we need to eat? Why don't I want him to play with knives? Why do we need to put on pajamas? etc.etc.

As I said before, we decided to see if we can get away with not using daycare. So Kevin stays home in the morning, feeds him lunch, and puts him down for a nap while I sleep. The idea is that when he wakes up from his nap he wakes me up and it's been enough time for me to have slept. Well, this afternoon, this is what I woke up to.....(minus the underwear)

You know when you see the kid on TV that got into the markers and colors himself and it's soooo funny? Well I've got news for you, it ain't funny when it's your kid. Especially when you're exhausted from working all night and your child is wiping marker all over your face with his hand. Although, it was awfully cute that he was so proud of himself that he had found a way to color.

Update.

Wow, it's been a long time. We've been really busy lately. Kevin was having trouble with his job, we've been having some financial difficulties and I started my new job. We're still unsure about Kevin's job, but so far he's getting paid at the moment so he's going to continue to work at Landscape Horizons.

I started my new job. After a boring week of doing orientation I started Monday night on the unit. Unfortunately I have to do all nights. It's not too bad, the skills are all still there and the charting isn't that much different. It is a little frustrating though. In my old unit, all of the neonatologists and nurse practitioners agreed on everything. Anything that became policy was agreed upon by all so that there were specific rules about what we did and why we did it. In this unit, it all depends on which neo or NNP you talk to. they all have their own ideas about how the babies should be taken care of and they all disagree. How frustrating for a nurse. I keep asking my preceptor why we do things so I can understand what they're thinking when they do things. Most of the time, she doesn't know. It's so much easier to remember to do things if you know why you do them. How do you know what to do if every NNP or neo changes the rules? I just need some time to learn the ropes. I know I'll figure it out eventually but it's just frustrating for now.

That's all for now. We've been trying out a new system so that we don't have to pay for daycare. Kevin stays home 2 mornings a week while I sleep and the third morning a week I plan to sleep out on the couch while Landan is awake. Not sure if that's going to work yet or not. So far Kevin staying home in the morning is working fine. Fri is the first day I'll be home with Landan so we'll have to see how it goes.

Success!!

I"m sorry all I have to talk about is Landan's potty training but it's the only thing that's exciting around here. And it's very exciting to us. He has gone all day today and stayed dry. All day! If I can keep him dry while we're out tomorrow and he's wearing underwear not pull ups I think we can declare him fully potty trained. I"m so excited. Something just clicked with him. Yay!

P.S. My new niece was born today. That's great news too. She's very cute. See Mike and Ashlyn's blog for pictures.

Almost there...

We're almost there. Landan is now completely consistent as long he is wearing nothing but underwear and he is at home. We got him trained while he was naked and then we put underwear on him (thanks for the tip Chiara). Now we just have to get him trained with pants on while at home and then with clothes on while out. We'll worry about nighttime later. This is actually going a lot faster than I thought. I thought it would take months after we started really pushing hard. So far it's only taking a few weeks. We're almost there.

Latest potty news.

I just want to catalog this so that i can tell my kids later what they did to me as children. And so I can embarrass them royally when they start dating. If you really don't want to know about Landan's potty training, exit now. We're working really hard on recognizing when he needs to go. I take him a lot during the day but he's already gone in his pull-up so there's nothing left to go in the potty. Today he's been doing a lot better. We've only been working really hard on it for about a week. What seems to work for him: blue food coloring in the toilet. That way when he goes, it turns green. He gets a big kick out of that. I'll let you know when he's fully trained.

New Job!

Well folks, I got a new job. Once again I'll be working in the NICU. It's a small hospital called North Austin Medical Center. They're looking to expand in the next year and a half. Right now it's only a small unit with about 12 beds in it, much different from the 60 bed unit I'm used to but that's okay. I'm so excited to be in the NICU again. I love the patients, they're so much sweeter than any other ones in the hospital as far as I'm concerned. I'll be working full time for awhile and then i hope to go to part time eventually. That's all the news with us.

P.S. This picture is not a patient. It's a picture I got off the internet from a news story. No confidentiality was breeched here.