Don't Yell At Me Rosie

My precious little baby has become a screamer! What have I done? When I tell her no and put my hand in front of her to stop her from touching, picking up, going too far, she yells ...EH! And then... she swings at me! She attempts to push my hand away and yell! :o( Oh my sweet sweet baby girl, where have you gone? She has also shortened Mama for yelling purposes to just MA! No lie as I typed it she was yelling it at me so I could put her sock on. Sock is another word that I wish that I could tell you she says however it is not one that I can type you would just have to hear the clicks and sounds she makes when she is trying to say sock. Anyway I am happy/sad to say that there is some serious discipline action going on here today. As well as spending more time paying attention to her so that she doesn't feel the need to yell at me all the time and encouragement for obeying. We will see how it goes over, so far its a little better.

A Little Bit Grinchy

My Christmas mood is directly related to the weather. I have just realized this, plus, is it just me or does it seem like everything is late this year? I feel like we JUST celebrated Halloween, wasn't it just yesterday that we played in the tractors during harvest (sorry U. Joe that one is true)? I feel like I missed Thanksgiving and I am being force fed Christmas and I am just not ready yet! My Christmas feelings are directly related to cold wintery weather and I'm sorry but its still just wet and gross and I have yet to wear my coat! I bought myself some Chai two weeks ago and it just sits in my pantry unopened because I simply can't get in the mood (plus sadly hot drinks repulse me right now). I am TRYING to get in the mood, I keep having little pre Christmas feelings, I went shopping and I thought that worked, but it only lasted a moment as it was 70 degrees the next day! Then we put up Joes moms christmas lights and I thought that would work... but I played in her yard in my tshirt with Annie and Carter in the 70 degree weather and that didn't work either. Joes mom put up all of her decorations and it feels fake, like christmas in july or florida (admit it Melissa christmas in ky is so much better than vegas :o)
So I am doing what I can, I borrowed good christmas music from the library, I bought Annie a stocking, I have my pine scented tart warming in the dining room and I am cleaning my house one last time before decorating, because I have to be dust free with mopped floors before I can decorate so I can at least do that much.
But I will admit it is beginning to depress me a little. I am usually right there with Kate and Margie counting down the days and decorating my still fresh pumpkins with santa hats! Oh woa is meeee!

Ultrasounds and Coupons

I had an ultrasound today just to make sure everything looked alright. I considered not doing it because of the cost and if I can put things off until the beginning of the year it would be cheaper because the bulk of my medical expenses would be in the same year which is better on the old deductible. But who can say no to an early ultrasound? Certainly not me, especially after the 5 I had with Annie :o) I also HATE the US tech at my OB office. She is soooo impersonal! Personally, as someone who frequently gets "close" to pregnant patients I think that the person should
1. Introduce oneself
2. Give adequate warning that the object is coming
3. Turn the FREAKING ultrasound screen towards the patient!!!!!
This woman (same as last time) says "I will look at everything I need to see (for the next 5 min) then I will turn the screen towards you and show you what I see"! NO! That is ridiculous, there is no reason why you cant do what you need to do with the screen turned so I can see it also.
Needless to say I will, like last time, schedule my 20 week formal scan in the Seton Center and NOT in my OB office. But little .5cm piece of rice baby is doing just fine and I have an official due date of July 8th however June 25th sounds nice to me (I had Annie at 37weeks 5days :o) Annie came to the appointment with Joe and I and Joe introduced her to the picture on the US as her worst nightmare. hehe. He also cracked jokes about her eating a pb sandwich while mommy was in stirrups. Why do I ask this guy along for these things?

So I came home and started making a grocery list and doing some serious coupon searching. I had a goal to save some serious cash today. My total before coupons was $145 my total after coupons was $88! However I stood in line for 30 min+ while the incredible slow older than the earth checkout lady caused the computer to crash trying to scan all my coupons! After a fit from Annie, 2 baggers, 2 managers, and 30 min I was on my way still in a good mood because of my awesome savings!

As an end to a decent day I made Lasagna which makes me very happy! If only I had a husband instead of a live-in basketball coach :o(

Thoughts In My Head

I have many thoughts swirling around in my head that I feel the need to lasso and rope down. So I will share them with you.
I always feel like wednesdays are recovery days from working a 12 hour shift on tuesdays. I never used to need recovery days before I was a mom but that's probably because I wasn't up twice in the night with a teething child and up early with morning sickness (just nausea, no vomiting for this gal!) So I sit here on the couch with a dirty house all around me thinking of what is the bare minimum that I can get away with doing today to feel like I am not a total lazy head.

Work was Crazy busy yesterday I worked in Triage and I don't like the revolving door feeling of get 'em in & get 'em out. But that is truly what you are doing all day. There is an emotional part of me that I give to each patient when I see them for the first time. Its a mix of genuine concern for those who don't feel good, mixed with excitement for those who think they are in labor (most of whom aren't) with a bunch of brain power that it takes to triage them and decide what it is that they need clinically and then exasperation when they yell at you because they aren't happy with
1.waiting on the overworked resident to come discharge them
2. Me wanting to poke them to draw blood or get urine with a catheter (well I am sorry but you come in complaining of infection symptoms you are getting a catheter)
3. me telling them they are not in labor when they have been up all night contracting (and they don't like to hear that they are not the only ones in the world who are 39 weeks pregnant and not having a baby today).
Then you have all the paperwork and routine stuff that has to happen to each and every patient that I see. I think I admitted and discharged 6 patients yesterday as well as helping see many others.
My last patient of the day was a dear soul who I will never forget. I had the privilege of encouraging her in her decision to make an adoption plan after deciding not to abort and coming in for prenatal care when she was over halfway through her pregnancy. She was a sweet girl and I appreciated taking care of her at the end of a long day.

I am tired of waiting for my crabby baby's teeth to come in if that is truly what is making her a snotty crabby mess of a child.

I am SUPER excited about being the nurse when my good old pal Laura has her baby in a few weeks! It is a joy and an honor to be able to be a part of every birth and I always thank my patients for allowing me to be a part of their special day. However taking care of families that I know is unexplainable. Its like I get to utilize my talent and help them by doing something that I truly enjoy doing. And this is a birthday that I am looking forward to immensely.

Do you ever feel like when you crave something that your body needs it? I always tell myself that I am not sure if its scientific or not but I will go with it. Sometimes I crave protein, whole grains, fruit and dairy all at once and when that happens I make myself a big PB&J on whole wheat with a mug of milk (I must have my milk in a mug I don't know why) I am not sure that its the healthiest meal but man is it good!

I suppose those are all my thoughts for now so i will leave you with this picture of my sweet baby in a handmade sweater and hat that her Great Aunt Alice made for her. Who I don't know at all, she is Joe's step dad Georges sister.

My Brain Is Doing Overtime

I know that two posts in one day is a little over zealous however I had to share some thoughts. Oh! Ill use bullets!

• I have already cleaned the whole downstairs and finished the laundry, I have my fall scented candle burning and I have been laying on the couch with a stuffy head for the past 2 hours except when I have had to get up to pee which is annoyingly often, I didn't think that was supposed to happen this early!
• While creating my baby due date ticker they had one for breastfeeding and it wasn't a countdown to when you would be free from doing so! AND you had the option to add a picture...no thanks!
• While looking around on Babycenter.com (because why not) I found the term "Elimination Communication" which was defined as "natural infant hygiene" aka infant potty training... silly people.
  

Gerber Shmerber

I found these nasty little meals on sale at Kroger and thought that they would be nice in a pinch when I need to find something for Annie quickly. Well laziness set in quickly and I gave one to her and she LOVED it! She begs for them, she gets in the pantry and brings them to me 5 times a day. She wants them for every meal and I can barely get her to to eat anything else. I hate it! They seem so processed and smelly. So I decided to try to replicate them. Her favorite two are chicken and vegetables with stars and turkey with vegetables and rice. So I bought some stars (there is something very fun about tiny star shaped pasta) and some frozen peas and diced carrots. I boiled a chicken breast and added some cream of chicken soup. Diced the chicken and mixed it all together and it made about 7 servings of soup! It was cheaper although only slightly however it smells AMAZING! I told Joe that if she wouldn't eat them that I would, however she did eat one today at lunch and I was SOO happy!

A Great Weekend

This past weekend was full of fun and surprises for our family. Friday we had a small version of the Harvest/Costume party at my parents house. There were supposed to be about 100 people in attendance however with rain in the forecast Mom and Dad cut it down to just us kids and their small group. We all had fun dressing up and competing in the costume contest. Although I voted for my adorable little fire breathing dragon JP, my favorite costume ensemble was Jen and her sister who dressed their 5 children up as fruit and the ladies wore t-shirts saying "Fruit of the Womb"! Very creative and VERY adorable!
Saturday morning I felt the sudden need to take Annie shopping while her daddy had basketball practice and got new wheels put on his big manly truck! Annie and I joined Joe in the afternoon and she sported her new t-shirt that I bought her that morning.


Thats right friends Zuerner baby #2 is within :o) Joe and I are SUPER excited! We have been wanting to add on to our family for what seems like a really long time. However I just stopped nursing Annie in July. I actually got pregnant in August and miscarried in September. I didn't know that I was pregnant until I started miscarrying and so it wasn't a difficult loss for me, more of a sad disappointment that I missed the opportunity to be pregnant. I knew that the Lord had a plan for our family and was VERY grateful to Him that I was able to get pregnant again right away. So Annie is due to be a big sister sometime around the 4th of July!