planner

Rhonda has the best ideas, and this one I just had to copy - so here is the planner I made. I have a notebook I really like with elastic on the open end to hold it closed, so I did the same thing to the planner. I left the first few pages blank so I could add pictures later - some of Brad, the baby, and of course Mattie and Cheif! I have only been using it for a few days but I love being able to make a list for each day and have it all in the same place. Each page is half of a normal sheet of paper and they are all double sided, but there is still lots of room for a good list. So to all you who love lists like I do you need to make yourself one of these. Thanks for the great idea Rhonda!

happy heart day

Happy Valentines Day. I just thought I would brag for a minute. Lins and I work in one of the coolest places - pediatric cardiology in one of the leading children's heart transplant centers in North America. This was a story on the CBC national news today. So to all of you out there that think we are crazy to be nurses, it isn't all that bad.
"Xander Dolski's heart problems were discovered by ultrasound 20 weeks into the pregnancy... His mother was brought from their home in Winnipeg to Edmonton's Stollery Children's Hospital...Once an organ was found, Xander was delivered by caesarian section five weeks prematurely on Dec. 19, 2005 weighing about five pounds. He was immediately taken to surgery to get the new heart... Had this baby been born elsewhere, he wouldn't have survived more than three hours outside the womb even with the best of medical care... An organ needed to be found before Xander was born but after his lungs were developed enough to accept the strawberry-sized transplant." Here is the Link to the CBC website if anyone is interested.
I got to have this little guys and his parents as my patients in January after the transplant. We do get heart transplants, but more often we care for kids who have major heart surgery, some of them two or three surgeries. There are some kids and familys that you get to know really well, seeing as they are often there for months at a time or come in and out of the hospital so much. It is easy to get attatched to these families and is sometimes hard to deal with when something goes wrong or the kids pass away. It is also hard to know that in order for a kid like Xander to get his heart a little baby somewhere else had to die. But for all that is bad, the job is very rewarding - especially when you see one of your patients and your hospital on the national news in such a happy story! So thanks Lins for talking me into working on 4C and teaching me so much. And might I add that 4C has the best staff ever and I really miss seeing everyone now that I am off on maternity leave - I emphasize I miss the people and some of the patients, not necessarily "working"!

getting set up

So now that I'm not working I have been getting stuff ready for the baby. Here are some pics of what I have been up to.
I am having trouble getting everything on the same post so I am putting it in as 4 different posts - Rhonda you can expect a call one of these days to help my computer challenged self!

1. I got this dresser/armoire at the salvation army. I LOVE it, and it is the perfect size for kids. Brad and I sanded it, repainted it, put new knobs on, and lined the closet with cedar. Brad also added a second closet bar. I love the bar on the inside of the door, not quite sure what to hang on it, maybe a blanket...

getting set up #2

2. We repainted this dresser and put new knobs on. Brad is going to stain the top dark brown. I guess it will be used as a changing table/dresser. Between the two dressers all the baby's stuff has a place - leaving the whole closet in our room for Brad and the closet in the baby's room for me!

getting set up #3

3. I made a cover for some old bumper pads my aunt Shannon gave me (thanks for the crib mattress too). I used brown corduroy, which by the way was a pain in the butt to sew with. It frays sooooo bad - and not in strings but in teeny tiny pieces that were all over the whole house and myself. My own fault, I wanted brown and cord was the only way to get it. This is my crib which I also LOVE so much - a present from my mom and dad. Never could have got this nice of a crib on our own. Thanks guys.

getting set up #4

4. I also used the brown cord to cover the cushions for the glider and foot rest. Not the best glider, but again it was free. Some people in my parents ward were getting rid of it. Needed a few nails and some bolts tightened - nothing Brad and Stew couldn't handle.

So bit by bit things are coming together and we are getting more and more excited, yet still enjoying the last quiet nights to ourselves.

baby quilt

Here are some pics of the baby quilt my mom made for me. I feel bad because I gave here this material for her birthday last year and then she gave the quilt back to me! I love the colors because they aren't the classic baby colors - I am so sick of seeing only baby blue or pastel yellow for baby boys. The quilt goes well in his room - which has lots of red and brown in it with white furniture. I love the free motion quilting she did too. (as you can see in the first pic)
Thanks mom!