My Pregnancy So Far

I just wanted to document some highlights of my pregnancy so far!! We found out that I was pregnant on August 12th.  We had just returned from a fun week in Utah for my brother in laws wedding.  I couldn't wait to get home and take a pregnancy test.  I had to refrain from testing while at my in-laws.  We ended up getting home at 2 in the morning. Our shuttle never arrived to pick us up from the airport.  An expensive cab ride later we made it to our car and home.  John was under the impression that a certain visitor had come and that I was not pregnant.  I took the test and was super excited to see it come back positive.  I had imagined that this moment would happen on a day that John was at work and I would have the day to plan how I was going to tell him.  Well it was 2 in the morning and he had to leave for work in the morning.  I was just going to come out and tell him.  I emerged from the bathroom only to find that he had decided to hop in the shower.  So I had a few minutes to scramble something together.  I gathered some baby items we had collected over the last 2 years and placed them on his pillow.  When he came in the bedroom I revealed them saying "Ready or not we are going to have a baby!!!"  He was so excited and surprised.  He didn't think that was our month since I hadn't said anything.

In September we made a trip to Baltimore to visit Jessica and Ty.  Amber and Kempton were able to join us!! At 7 weeks we announced to them by putting my cute nephews in onsies that said they were getting a new cousin. It was so fun to be able to tell people in person that we were expecting.  All other families and friends were told via Skype or phone.  Thanks goodness for technology.

The first trimester was filled with nausea.  The nausea would typically go away with eating.  So there was lots of snacking throughout the first trimester.  I had to take a huge bag of food to work and continuously snack.  All in all I feel blessed and know that the first trimester could have been much worse.  At 11 weeks baby gave mom her first of probably many heart attacks.  We rushed in for an ultrasound only to see a wiggly healthy baby. That was John's first time seeing the baby and a really cool experience.  That tripped earned us ultrasounds every couple weeks to monitor the baby. 

Since we were having more frequent ultrasounds we were able to find out the gender at 16 weeks.  John came with me to the ultrasound.  The baby was not being super cooperative.  It was staying in one spot and hard to see the gender.  After the tech had me move side to side, cough and empty my bladder we finally got a look at the gender.  The tech said with certainty that she did not see any plumbing and we were having a girl.  We were super excited.  Over the next few weeks I started envisioning a purple and aqua nursery, and lots of pretty pink things for out Little Miss G.

At 20 weeks I went in for another ultrasound.  As we were getting started the tech asked if I already knew what we were having.  I said that we were having a girl.  Right then she started the ultrasound and this was the first image that we saw.....

 

The tech quickly took the wand off my belly and asked if she was the one that told me it was a girl.  I said yes you did.  She went to look at the chart and confirm what she had said.  I laughed and said "That sure doesn't look like a girl does it?"  She was so embarrassed and said that she is never wrong.  My OB was shocked as well.  She said the tech was never wrong.  So its a good thing I didn't go crazy shopping for a girl!! John could not be more excited for a little boy to play with! Now at 23 weeks I cannot believe that we are more then half way through the pregnancy.  The first trimester went by so slowly.  It was so hard waiting to announce our happy news to everyone.  Now the weeks are flying by and I am painfully aware of all the things that need to be done before the arrival of Baby G.  Its time to turn our spare junk room into a nursery.  I have enjoyed watching my belly grow.  Around 19 weeks I started feeling flutters and now love feeling baby kicks.  I still think watching movement from the outside is a little alien like;)  I love the reassurance the little kicks give that he is doing alright.  Here is a picture of me at 22 weeks.  I love our Christmas tree this year.  I might just leave it up until February:)

For Christmas my sister gave me this awesome pregnancy pillow.  At first I think John felt a little threatened by it.  Now I may need to hide it on the nights that I am at work;)

So excited to be expanding our family!!

Recent Happenings

       Just taking a break from my super fun chemistry homework and wanting to do some blogging.  I have 6 months of school left until I will have my Bachelors.  That is if I don't let procrastination get the best of me.  For anyone thinking about going into nursing its time to go straight through to get your Bachelors.  It used to not really matter but my latest job search proved that its becoming a requirement.  Speaking of nursing I started a new job in January! I have been working in pediatrics for the last 5 years.  Wait that can't be right.... There is no way it has been that long.... I'm still 23 right? I don't really want to talk about what birthday is coming up.  Anyways, I have loved working in pediatrics.  I have always either been a traveler or in the float pool.  The variety has been fun and kept me on my toes.  I decided I didn't want to float anymore.  I was ready for a home unit.  Problem was, I could not pick a specialty.  I tried to narrow it down and choose a place I thought I would enjoy.  I couldn't do it.  I got to thinking about NICU.  I always enjoyed floating to the NICU.  I couldn't see myself doing that full time though.  While I was in nursing school I had my mind set on being a labor and delivery nurse.  However, after clinicals it didn't feel like the right place for me.  I have always had a love for babies and an interest for the whole birthing experience.  I could watch A Birth Story all day long.  I started applying for mom/baby, nursery, and postpartum (taking care of mom after birth) positions.  I accepted a position at Texas Health Dallas on the postpartum unit.  I was kind of nervous about switching to adults.  It has been such a good situation.  I love the staff and the patient population.  It is so refreshing to take care of hospitalized patients that for the most part planned to be there, and are happy to be there.  It's fun helping these new moms feel better and assist them into adjusting to their new life with a newborn.  The unit will be switching to mom/baby in the next year which will mean both the mom and the baby will be my patients.  So basically it has been an awesome and exciting change. 
     Next week it will have been two years since this handsome man proposed !!!

I am one lucky girl.  We love living our adventure together.  It is starting to warm up here so we are taking advantage and spending our evenings playing tennis or riding our bikes. We are excited for summer! Time to do some more exploring!!
      A couple weeks ago we went to AZ for a wedding.  Jessica and Ty were able to come from Maryland.  It was the first time our whole family has been together since their wedding Dec 2012!! We had such a blast.  I got to spend lots of time playing with and cuddling my adorable nephew Kempton.  We ate good food and enjoyed the AZ sun!  I love seeing our family expand!

 

 

 

So grateful for this amazing forever family! 

 

 

 

Being Married to a Night Shift Nurse

       Lately I have seen a lot of articles about nurses.  They highlight the sacrifice and hard things about the profession.  Nursing does require long hours, caring for difficult patients and families, multi-tasking and great time management.  That being said, nursing is such a rewarding career.  More often then not, I care for sweet appreciative children and families.  I have great co workers that pitch in and make the shift go as smoothly as possible.  There are many perks including only working 3 days a week and helping patients and families adjust and deal with a stressful situation.
     Over Christmas I was able to be off for 5 days without taking any time off.  Upon returning I went to work 3 in a row while my husband went out of town for business.  The first few days weren't bad because I was at work or sleeping all day.  He was only supposed to be gone one more night when his trip was extended.  I ended up having 2 nights in a row without seeing him (that's on top of the 3 I didn't see him while at work).  Anyways, it got me thinking.  Everyone talks about the sacrifice nurses make for their jobs.  I started thinking about the sacrifice the husband, wives and families of a nurse make.  As I sat eating cookie dough and missing my husband, I experienced what he has 3 nights a week for the last 2 years.  I stayed up almost until the sun came up because the empty bed did not look very inviting.
     I am a night shift nurse through and through.  I am a night owl by nature.  I love not ever having to wake up early.  I sleep so well during the day.  I love my co workers on the night shift.  I enjoy the fact that night shift (not always) tends to be less chaotic.  While I still keep busy, I am not bombarded with admits, discharges, doctors, procedures, visitors, meals and so much more.  I have worked day shift but found that I do not enjoy my job as much.  This leaves my poor husband alone and feeling what I have been feeling the last few nights without him.  Sure he enjoys having his alone time and finds things to keep him busy, but 3 nights a week he goes to sleep without me by his side.  Working nights means starting every vacation right after a night shift to maximize time.  My husband has experienced a wife falling asleep at sporting events, in the car, on subways, and even during a Broadway play.  Walking around big cities all day can be exhausting on a normal amount of sleep.  When done on little or no sleep in can make for a cranky tired girl. Vacation can be tough on someone who is used to being most productive at night.  Vacation is often the only time I have to wake up early and to an alarm. 
     Then there are the lovely holidays.  Unfortunately people don't stop getting sick around the holidays.  As a nurse it does stink to be expected to work holidays.  However, when I picked my career I knew what I was getting myself into.  The families and spouses are affected too.  My husband gets most holidays off.  He finally gets 3 day weekends and breaks from his 5 day work weeks.  This Thanksgiving was spent with a wife that slept the day away.  We may get New Years Day off but I am going to need to sleep in to prep for work and leave him alone at 6.  Weekends are frequently interrupted by my working or sleeping.  The time he is guaranteed off, I am often working, preparing, or recovering from a shift.
     During the week its a battle of getting too much sleep or not enough.  After my last shift I have to try to balance how much sleep I get.  If I sleep too long I am not ready to go to sleep when John is.  If I sleep too little, I am falling asleep on one of the few nights we get together. 
    Then there is the dreaded, "Hey babe, my work is having a Christmas party in two weeks are you off?"  This is a frequent occurrence.  There is a party, event or game that my husband wants to attend.  If he doesn't ask 2-3 months in advance (because that is how far my schedule is set for) its probably not going to happen.  Statistics will tell you there is a 57% chance that I will have that night off.  Experience will tell you 100% I work that night.  It will be near impossible to get off.  Many social events are passed up on because of my schedule.  Often the invitations to do things stop all together because you are known as the couple that never comes anyways.
    I don't know what the purpose of this post is.  Really it is just a result of me missing my husband.  The last few nights have given me a glimpse of the sacrifices that he makes with me being a night shift nurse.  I appreciate his patience with his narcoleptic wife.  I appreciate how he is so kind.  It can't be easy waiting all day on a Saturday for me to wake up so we can play.  Then while he has been awake for hours, have to  wait for me to perk up and being ready for human interaction. I appreciate how he doesn't complain when he frequently has to fend for himself.  I have not mastered  how to make dinner between shifts or before I go to work. 
    Every job has its pros and cons.  Each individual, regardless of where they work, experience different stressors and must make sacrifices of some sort.  Many of these articles say that you should hug a nurse.  I want to take it a step further.  Hug the families of a nurse.  They sacrifice so much as well.  I love my job.  I love my husband.  Life is so good. Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!! I am excited for a new year.  This last year has been filled with adventure and love.  Can't wait to see what 2014 brings.

Howdy from Dallas!

        I'm sure most of you now know that we moved to Texas! We knew we were not always going to live in Los Angeles. We loved living in Los Angeles. The weather was the best! There was always something to do and places to explore.  We had planned on living in LA for another year or two.  Turns out it was time to leave sooner rather then later.  John and I have had a list of cities that we thought it would be fun to live in.  We ended up with jobs in Dallas.  So before we knew it we were packing up our first apartment. It was kind of hard to do.  We loved our first place. We were excited about the prospect of more space in Texas though. We made a stop in AZ on our way to Dallas. My cousin and I (mostly my cousin) threw Amber a baby shower while we were there.  It was so fun to be able to be there for that. I am so excited to be an Aunt.... again.  After spending some time with the family we drove the next 2 days to Texas.  Amber joined us in our drive. Thank goodness!! Poor John had to drive by himself, but I had great company.  We had loaded our cars to the max so loading and unloading them a few times was a treat. I love that the help I brought was 29 weeks pregnant and not allowed to help:)

        Texas is so much better than I imagined. I didn't know what to expect.  I imagined horrible heat and humidity.  Now I realize we came at the end of summer but its not nearly as humid as I imagined.  It is so green. Gas is cheaper, traffic is nothing compared to LA, housing is cheaper and the people are so friendly.  We have been busy enjoying finger licking BBQ and college football. We stayed a week at an extended stay hotel while looking for a place to live. We ended up finding an area where there were a couple apartment complexes on man made lakes.  We lucked out and seriously got the best view. Its a third floor apartment (to keep us fit). This is the view we get to enjoy.

          Our last Saturday in LA we went to the beach.  It only made perfect sense.  We have spent a lot of time at the beach over the last 2 years.  We met at the beach.  We had gone with the same group of friends to play volleyball. I remember walking along the boardwalk with some friends and John was waiting by this very light pole for us.

I was excited about meeting this new guy.  We actually met 2 years ago this month. What an amazing 2 years.  When we were dating and I lived in Westwood (just 4 miles from the beach) we would go to Santa Monica all the time.  There were so many evenings that we would be find ourselves at the beach.  Love the beach at night. Love the ocean breeze! There were bike rides, hikes, frisbee, sand angels and so many of my favorite memories. So anyways our last Saturday we picked up some donuts and spent a couple hours soaking it all in.  We talked about all of our fun memories and what we were looking forward to in Texas.

      I have been jumping all over the place in this post!! Sorry!  John is enjoying his job very much. He loves his short commute  and working more manageable hours.  I am in a travel contract at Children's Medical Center in Dallas. Hopefully I will be able to turn it into a permanent position.  We feel so blessed with the opportunities we have had and look forward to a bright future. If ya'll are ever in Texas we have an extra room!

Summertime

This summer has been a lot of fun. One of the great things about living in California (besides the weather) is that it is a typical vacation spot for most people! That means friends and family stopping by. We love having people come and visit. John's sister Molly and her hubby Jacob and their adorable baby Jackson came a couple of weeks ago. They stayed for almost a whole week. It was so much fun. One night we went down to Venice to watch the sunset and explore the shops.

I took them to the popular hiking trails at Runyon Park. There weren't any celebrity sitings but everyone loved seeing a baby on the trails. Here is a picture of the Dixon family with Los Angeles in the background.

On Saturday we took them to Paradise Cove. That is a beautiful beach and where John proposed to me. We just love it there for so many reasons:)

Is that baby not the cutest:) Being an Aunt is so much fun! Can't wait for Amber to have me another nephew:) John looks pretty cute holding a baby too don't you think?

This is a picture of us outside the Walt Disney Concert Hall. It is such a cool looking building, We went to a symphony concert. It was a cool building on the inside as well. There was a cool looking organ and the seats went around the entire stage.
One of my best friends Erin and my favorite little girls were in town the following week. They were staying right on the beach in Newport. I went down to spend the afternoon with them. Erin started a game where we would write math problems in the sand for Issy. She had to solve them before the water came and washed it away. I love this picture of her concentrating!

Cute Ellie would write letters and numbers in the sand. When did they grow up?

Erin's mom watched the girls so Erin and I could go get some lunch and catch up. I just love this girl! We have been besties since the 8th grade!

The fun is going to just keep on going. We are heading up to Utah this weekend for my brother-in-laws wedding followed by a visit from my sister-in-law and family!

Where Does the Time Go??

    Seriously where does it go?? I can't believe it is the middle of April! I meant to post this last weekend but it just didn't happen. So last weekend marked one year from when John proposed. It has been the best year. We can't really remember life without each other so I guess it feels like it's been even longer. I love waking up to my best friend. Wish I could say every morning but the life of a night nurse doesn't allow that. It just makes me appreciate our time together that much more. So a couple of weeks ago John's brother and girlfriend came out to LA. We absolutely love having visitors. Especially since we don't live near any family:( We did a lot of fun things. I don't know if you know this but LA is so fun:) We went to Santa Monica beach and did some tandem biking. I can check that off my bucket list. I actually didn't really like it. Riding on the back I felt like I had no control, not to mention couldn't see where I was going. It was a fun thing to do with this handsome guy though!

I went to my first ever soccer game while they were here. It was fun. Talk about a low scoring sport. The fans kept things lively. Here is our soccer team photo.

Since we were coming up on our year engagement anniversary we were telling them about Paradise Cove where John proposed. It is up in Malibu and so pretty. You actually go on a little hike and then walk down some stairs into the cove. They wanted to see it so we went. That place will always have a special place in my heart.

Here is us a year ago:)

Here is us a year later:) Just love love this boy:) He will tell you I love to annoy him...which is also very true!!

Later that evening we checked out the LACMA, a museum with a super cool light display. 

Thought you might enjoy some kissing. Too much? Too bad. So that is life as of late. With me working nights and being gone a lot during the week and John working lovely busy season hours we make the most out of every weekend! I sure do miss being closer to family but I sure am grateful for my own little family here in Los Angeles.

Procrastination at it's Finest

So this week was the start of my online Bachelors program. I made my study plan at the beginning of the week. Things have not gone as planned. I have actually been really productive. My house has been kept clean. I made a meal plan for the week and even prepped some meals to freeze and cook later. Grocery shopping done.  My legs are shaven, not just half way (yes my poor husband, this isn't as frequent of an occurrence as it should be). I have also done a few other miscellaneous tasks that are usually neglected. I am writing a blog which doesn't happen that frequently. Hmmmm this could be a problem. Now that I am out of things to do it's time to start studying:) Wish me luck.