Robbie is ticking away at his residency one shift at a time. The first month after Annabelle was born, Rob was working in the ER. He loves working there (which is a really good thing since he will be doing it the rest of his working years!) and there are both good and bad things to the schedule so I don't mind it either. His hours are all over the board when he is on an ER month, sometimes working 11am-7pm, 9am-5pm, or 5pm-1am. It changes from day to day so it can be a challenge when he has to work back to back shifts. Also, during most months there is lecture on Thursday mornings starting at 7 a.m. It is about a 30 minute drive from our home and ER residents are required to go even if it is their day off or if they worked until 2 a.m. the night before. It can be pretty challenging for a tired intern to wake up at 5:45 when he finally drags himself home around 2:30 in the morning. I kind of like the random schedule since there are good and bad things to each shift. If I get tired of the one he is working, it will change in a few days. It's nice to have him home sometimes in the middle of the day and it's also nice when he's home at night for dinner. We get a good mix of everything when he works ER so I really don't mind the unpredictable schedule. It keeps me on my toes since being a stay at home mom can get a little monotonous. Still, even with the crazy hours, Rob loves being in the Emergency department and always has some unique stories when he comes home.
The month of December he is working in the ICU. This is supposed to be one of the more difficult assignments for the interns but it's going well so far. A few drawbacks are the early mornings, long shifts, and the 6 days on, 1 day off schedule but there are advantages too...he is almost always off when his shift ends which is a change from ER. In the ER he stops taking patients at the end of his shift but can have 1-2 hours of clean up to do (test results, discharging, paperwork, etc.) before he gets to leave for home. In general, in the ICU he works either 6:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. or 6:30 a.m. - 2 p.m. (every other day mostly). He is home within 30 minutes of the end time so it is much more predictable! One day out of seven he is off entirely. The senior resident, Brian, Rob is working with this month is a really nice guy and that helps make things more bearable too. He got a pretty lucky break there! Rob is also off Christmas day since Brian wanted to take New Year's Eve off. We invited all the interns over for a Christmas dinner at our house since many of us won't be able to spend the holidays with family this year. Several people have accepted the invitation so I'm getting ready to throw a turkey in the oven and break out the Christmas centerpieces. Some of our best med school memories were throwing parties for the other students and I absolutely love hosting...I can't wait!!
I have been getting out of the house quite a bit, even with a newborn. The most difficult part is lugging around the ridiculously awkward carseat. It's definitely a workout but I'm not so sure it's good for your back...I feel really fortunate that I have made quite a few new friends already - a few resident wives and a new friend who lives right across the street. Just in the past week or two we have been able to socialize quite a bit.
We went out to dinner with the Lanzer family at Texas Roadhouse. We had an unpleasant surprise when just 2 minutes down the road Bella decided to empty the entire contents of her stomach all over her car seat and outfit but Sara and I ran into a gas station rest room and got her cleaned up while Rob cleaned up the carseat as best he could. Determined to go ahead as planned, things went pretty smoothly the rest of the night and all three kids did really well. We were able to have some adult conversation (which was especially nice for me!) during dinner.
My friend Joslyn also came over last week for a girls' day with me and Bella. We made snickerdoodles, drank apple cider and coffee, burned a cinnamon candle, and watched The Holiday (a girlie Christmas movie). It was so fun to have some relaxing girl time. There's some times you just need a girlfriend (no offense to our husbands but three out of those four things I mentioned Robbie wouldn't endure for my sake, at least not quietly!).
Just a few days ago we were able to head out to Westlake to see our friends Chris and Jenay. In honor of Chris's upcoming birthday Jenay made a yummy cookie cake. Can't believe how close Jenay is getting to her due date - seems like it goes faster when it's someone other than you! Their little girl could be arriving any day now (due early January).
We love to cook for people so we also had our resident friend, Dan, over for lunch before his shift one day. Somehow our meal turned out to be Thanksgiving themed with roast chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, dinner rolls, and broccoli salad...I guess subconsciously we felt we had missed out. He brought over some great brownies and we had a mid-week belated Thanksgiving feast.
A few days later another resident, Jess, stopped over to see Bella after work. I was already making dinner for Robbie so I threw some extra in for Jess and she stayed for dinner. Jess is such a little girl, Bella looked huge in her arms! Our social calendar has been filling up and I'm guessing it's more due to a cute little baby than us...although, if we keep feeding everyone they may come back anyway :)
Awhile back Sara told me about the church they attend that is about 15 minutes from where we live so we decided to try it out two Sundays ago. It is a HUGE church but people were really friendly. We liked the service and I picked up some information on their women's ministry. Thursday I headed to their MUMs (Moms Uplifting Moms) group and had a good time. It's hard with Bella but it lasts several hours so I only had to miss a little bit of the speaker when she wanted to eat (she has terrible timing). There were about 200 moms there and I met a really nice mom my age afterwards who invited me to a Christmas party this upcoming week. We'll see how it goes! I also have incredible luck with raffles and managed to win one of the four prizes they were giving away. I don't know what it is but ever since I was little, whenever there is a raffle I tend to win something. Crazy! I got this hair clip holder for Bella.
Funny thing is, the day before I was thinking I should make something to hold all her clips. They are taking over her drawer space. Guess I can take that off the project list...
Robbie showed up the other night with some flowers for me just because. Aren't they cute? I decked them out to look holiday-esque! I married the right man :)
I had my six week check up this week and was totally released from restrictions. Of course, I couldn't wait to get out for a run so I started again this week. Trying to take it easy since it has been 10 months since my last run. I went 1 1/2 miles and the worst part was the freezing cold winter air burning my lungs...The run felt good at the time but I definitely felt it the next day. Weather is warming up later this week so I hope I can get out a few more times. Have to be able to keep up with my sister (who decided to take up running during my pregnancy - the one time in my life I can't run with her!) when my family visits after Christmas! I'm hoping to get a few races in this spring/summer. It will give me motivation to tone up a bit and lose those last few pounds of chocolate, ummm...I mean, baby, weight (along with any pounds I'm sure to add over the holiday season - totally worth it!).
Speaking of holidays, we are getting pretty excited for Christmas! Robbie said it makes him sad when he drives down the street and the houses don't have lights so we picked up a little outdoor tree and one string of lights to decorate the house which Robbie put up today. We are going to try to buy more after the holidays so next year we can be a little more festive and prepared. We are kind of late in putting them up this year. There wasn't much selection at the stores but we figured one strand is better than nothing!
We plugged in the tree in our living room and ended up liking it so much it is staying. We don't really have enough space for a big tree so this feels Christmas-y enough for this year.
I decorated with a few things around the house although I'm sad that I can't find a spot for my nativity set. Seriously, this upsets me. Sigh...hopefully next year. Or at least in a few years when we have a little more table space.
Can't wait to see our family members who are able to come out in December/January. We are especially excited since we weren't able to travel this Thanksgiving. Happy holidays everyone - we miss you :(
Speaking of holidays, we are getting pretty excited for Christmas! Robbie said it makes him sad when he drives down the street and the houses don't have lights so we picked up a little outdoor tree and one string of lights to decorate the house which Robbie put up today. We are going to try to buy more after the holidays so next year we can be a little more festive and prepared. We are kind of late in putting them up this year. There wasn't much selection at the stores but we figured one strand is better than nothing!
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| Our one strand of Christmas lights! :) |
I decorated with a few things around the house although I'm sad that I can't find a spot for my nativity set. Seriously, this upsets me. Sigh...hopefully next year. Or at least in a few years when we have a little more table space.
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| Perfect spot - there was already a nail here! |
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