save the drama for your mama

it's all in how you look at it, but i do find my job hysterical at times. i don't often get to act as a "real" nurse because i am a charge nurse. when i do get the chance to take patients i always have an interesting night and somehow my friend, we will call her l for the sake of privacy, is always involved.

so i got a patient by transport and they were reporting that the mom was full of drama. they were just going on and on about how she freaked about about each little thing and they were so happy to be rid of her. well, i walk into the room and meet a very sweet little baby, mother and grandma. all parties seem to be very likable in my opinion, so i just assume that transport was being hateful.

i get orders to take the baby to the tx room to do a straight cath urine and some blood work. mom and grandma want to come with. fine i say, it doesn't ever bother me to have parents breathing down my neck. i had a little bit of a hard time getting the catheter to slip in the right spot. it happens.

after a little trouble, in it went and out came my pretty yellow urine. mom is sobbing by this point which is fair i guess it is hard to watch a stranger poke things in your baby's hoo haw.

grandma says to mom here, hold her for a minute. ok, she picks up her baby and i stand back and wait for mom and baby to calm down a minute before i get started on my blood draw.

im still not 100% sure why, but mom started screaming and threw the baby at grandma, who according to my friend "l" threw her coffee down just in time to take baby. she flips her upsidedown and they are both hollerin about the baby not breathing and oh my goodness she is blue, she is limp, she is blue, she isnt breathing.

my friend l and i just stand there watching it all play out. i mean, we are in a pediatric hospital, and i am a nurse so we could step in and save this baby's life at any point.

i decide to just let grandma have at it for a little while longer. mom is just crying and hollering and grandma is doing everything but stand the baby on its head. my friend l gets this look on her face like she is about to stop the drama if i dont, so i ask what seems to be the problem.

now i will tell you this baby was pink as a petunia and breathing the whole time.

i take the baby and tell mom to go take a breather in the hallway and perhaps grandma could go check on her. im not kidding folks i have never seen somebody throw a baby so fast before, it was like a perfectly executed football move.

next thing i know my other friends are busting in thinking something exciting is going on because apparently grandma and mom are having a moment in the hallway about their blue baby.
i am guessing the cause of all the drama was a little reflux and spit up. we finished up with the baby and sent the poor crying mom back to her room with grandma.

my lesson learned here is that those transport people are pretty clever, so if they say there is drama they are probably right on point.

ashton

i have had my days with this child. people told me long before he ever made it out of my belly that third kids were handfuls. i will admit that from the ages of 4 months to 2 1/2 years i held a dark secret in my own head. is he autistic or is there something else wrong? from the time he was a newborn this boy would not cuddle. he would turn and twist his little body away from me, refusing to nurse, refusing to smoosh up against me like my others. i felt as if i was forcing my love on him sometimes. he would sit by himself and roll his hot wheels around for hours, just watching them roll along the floor. if disturbed or removed from his comfort zone he would lash out and scream this high pitched shrill that would test the patience of even the kindest mothers.
i even lost him in our subdivision once. he just walked off by himself and went inside a model home and sat, all alone. i was frantic, running through the yards, screaming for him, my neighbor was on her bike riding up and down the roads searching for him in all the construction.
there he was, just sitting in the house next to ours, playing all alone. what the heck? i didn't know whether to kiss him or beat him, and i think i did a little of both.
but he had his moments. his glimpses of sweetness. short, but hope. he was always darling, and even though the most challenging, his cute moments were all the cuter for it.




his pediatrician told me i was not validated in my fears. he was fine. while this made me feel better, i wasn't convinced. my husband said, look at his life jen. he was born, we had two other babies we were busy with already. we had another baby, we moved. it is a lot of stress for a little guy. so then i tried my own "therapy". i smothered him in love, all day, every day. if this was somehow my fault, i was going to reverse it. he got constant kisses (which he fought) constant hugs (which he pulled away from) and constant i love you's (which were not returned).
i think it started to work. he is slowly turning into a loving well behaved little boy. he has his moments, dont get me wrong, but they are less frequent as the days go on. i am getting hugs during the day, and i have this sweet little boy who wants to crawl up on my lap and let me smoosh on him a little.

in fact when i woke up today i got his version of an i love you. "i just like you now mommy." and accompanied it with a little hug. it really means he is crazy in love with me, because i am his one and only mommy, and while i have a lot of children, he is my only youngest son.



ashton and his beloved "lammers"

the food pantry

i was thinking about making a poll for how much people spend on groceries a month. It is scary the amount of money i spend at hy-vee, costco and target per month. i am sort of ashamed of the portion of my income that goes right back out for food. i mean, is it just my family? are we a bunch of piglets? i guess i am a little pudgy and my kids are all in the 95% for weight, so perhaps we are over-indulgent. but for the most part i try to shop smart and buy what is on sale, or buy in bulk. there are certain things i can't help though, such as:
7 gallons of milk per week (hormone free, which is fairly cheap at costco)
2 loaves of bread per week
3 lbs of deli meat per week
3 bags of shredded cheese per week
2 jars all natural peanut butter per week
2 boxes all bran per week
2 boxes other cereal per week
2 bunches bananas per week
1 bag peaches per week
1 bag nectarines per week
2 boxes waffles per week
2 lbs hamburger per week
2-3 lbs chicken hormone free per week
and i guess that is where the necessary items stop. then we get to
fruit snacks, gerber poofs, lunchables, string cheese, crackers, coffee, creamer, spaghettios, pop-tarts, and the list goes on and on and on.
then we have diapers, wipes, toilet paper, paper towels, sls free kids shampoo, yada yada yada.
i would guess that i spend somewhere in the neighborhood of 150-200 dollars a week on groceries alone. we do not eat out very often, we do occasionally break down and allow some happy meals to cross our paths.
i mean, we are all american consumers. the fact that i don't use plastic bags anymore is enough to make a dent in the quest to save the environment.
so, i guess i am curious, are you reading this saying, oh my gracious day you spend a fortune in food you silly girl, or are you saying, oh we spend close to that also? just wondering.

if i didn't feel guilty enough already i stumbled across these ultra cool people who are surviving on a dollar a day for a month and living to write about it. go see their blog at
http://onedollardietproject.wordpress.com/

pee water

so do you see this darling little picture of my baby here? so stinkin cute, so sweet, girly and lovely.






well do you know what her favorite pastime is? i will give you a hint. it involves this little thing









and this little thing you see here.





she takes the potty out of the diego chair, which i guess could resemble a bowl to some uneducated 15 month olds. she then goes to the big white potty and scoops up pee water and proceeds to either a) dump it on the floor or if she is feeling parched b)take gulps of it.
she does this until one of us think to go stop her.
and yes, it is truly pee water. my boys don't always flush the toilet, or wipe the rim.
so yes, my precious little pink petunia gulps down pee water whenever she can. yummy yummy in her tummy.

oops...caught in the disgusting act.

ants

so, im desperate for anything new to put on the blog. don't get me wrong, i do love a good political debate and im pumped for sept 26, but back to the norm here in the blogging world.
we got an ant farm. its ultra fascinating, even for me. those darn little ants work harder in one day than i think i have my whole life. dig, dig, dig, work, work, work, poor little tiny ants.

so here is a little clip of when we got it, not really exciting or entertaining, just anything to move the politics down the line a little. the funny part of the clip is that ashton is screaming his head off in the end, and it is because of an outlaw ant who busted loose and was crawling up his sleeve.





oh, and ashton started school this week, here is a pic of him totally lovin his first day.

warning: this post is rated R for its political views

So it has been on my mind a lot this week, politics. There, i said it, taboo and all, i said it.
Which way am i voting? Republican. Straight ticket, no, not usually.
I realized that there is a lot of passion regarding this subject, and it comes around once every four years. I have been asked twice at work now if I will be voting for Obama. Once by a physician, once by a fellow nurse. When I said no, they wanted to know why. I will say it here, on my board, in my safety, so that those who want to know can read further, those who do not have to listen to me ramble.
I am not voting for Obama because I am middle class. I work hard for my money and I do not support new tax increases.
I am not voting for Obama because I am a Christian, and his beliefs and mine do not match up on several levels. My God says that all races can be saved, can enter heaven. My church doesn't teach me to sing "God damn America" instead of God Bless America. Rev. White has been Obama's pastor for over 20 years, and these are his beliefs, no joke, you can find him quoted all over the tv and internet.
I am not voting for Obama because I value life.

Obama and his wife fought against the passinge of the "Born Alive Infant Protection Act", which would protect and save babies born alive in an attempted abortion. meaning, without this bill in place, the babies are just placed in a holding room at the hospital/clinic until they passed. so this bill was an attempt to stop infanticide. he went to extremes to defeat it, as did michelle obama through fundraising efforts. not one person in the senate voted against this bill, he was the main person working to stop it. there comes a time when the right to choose goes too far.

so does that really happen? more than you think

• 1% of abortions occur after the 20th week of pregnancy (that represents 16,450 babies every year)

mccain's prior uniform..... obama's.

I am not voting for Obama because I 100% whole heartedly believe that he was chosen by the liberal media four years ago, has been molded and created for americans to fall in love with his charm. Does anyone remember the election four years ago, how he was shown more on the TV than the president? creepy.
Lots more reasons, but Ashton is currently playing in the bathroom sink, so I had better hurry this up.
I am voting republican this year. I have hope for the future because of Palin, i love her conservative views, her life experience. I pray that our country starts to head in a more moral direction.

There. It is out there.

I got into a pretty serious fight with a dear friend this week over this topic. Since then, I have had lots of questions, lots of probing, lots of wanting to debate it. I will not ever discuss this topic at work again, you have my word on that.

So no more questions why, what or who. that is how i see it, totally my own opinion, based on lots of reading, lots of watching, and lots of thought. I am excited that so many people are really getting into the race this year, its good for us to stretch ourselves a little. I am open to other viewpoints, if you have something good, convince me, prove to me that your guy is better than mine, just don't do it at work. :)

not for the weak

raising four children successfully is not for the weak or the weary. im at work tonight, so that leaves jeff at home to take the crew to football practice for two hours in the rain. he said it went ok, he entertained the three in the van for an hour and a half while carson practiced. he said carson did awesome, for the first time he was just going crazy out there, really playing hard and doing everything right. jeff decides to reward him with a trip to target and let him pick out a pack of pokeman cards. i don't think carson really knows what they are, just wanted some because someone at school had some. so they all get into target and ashton has to poop. then carson has to poop. well poop. he has molly wait outside the bathroom and he takes maggie in with him. the scene in front of him would of made me go running, but that is hard to do with your three and five year olds who need to go, now.
there are three stalls. two of the stalls have diarrhea blown out all over them, so bad its on the stall doors, floor, lid, everywhere. there are little footprints all over in it. one stall is ok, so he is going to let them use it. he can't put maggie down on the nasty bathroom floor and he has to have both hands free to untie carson's pants and maneuver all his football pads. so, he takes her back out and straps her in the cart, pushes the whole cart into the gross bathroom and starts helping carson. good idea, right?
wrong. the manager comes flying in there and starts telling jeff how he can't have the cart in the bathroom, and how ---- then he looks around. the football player sitting on the toilet, the three year old holding his belly, needing to go, but can't because the rest of the pots are too filthy to get close to, the baby strapped in the cart, and the dad, trying to keep everyone's fingers off of everything. that's right buddy, back it right on out the door.
i guess at that point several workers came in and cleaned up the place, both boys were able to go, and all ended well.
not for the weak.