Merry Christmas

Everyone has their own Christmas Eve traditions, at this point in time, ours have not been set in stone. What we do on Christmas Eve varies from year to year because of circumstances, work or whatever. As a nurse, holidays are not able to be "sacred" for me. I worked Christmas Day the year Possum was born and I have worked most Thanksgivings since I became a nurse. This year, since I have been on leave, has been different. I have managed to "get" all the winter holidays off, which could only happen if I was on leave.

This year, we are having a nice, quiet Christmas Eve. We have a fire in the fire place (a real fire, a wood fire,) we are going to watch Its A Wonderful Life, and make some hot chocolate. Olivia will wear her red flannel nightgown and Possum will wear his red flannel jammies after they get their bath. Sofia got a Babies First Christmas sleeper from a friend of ours and she will sleep in that. Drew will sleep in whatever he chooses :o) Nice and quiet, but wonderful in every way.

I hope everyone gets to spend Christmas Eve they way they wish. I hope Santa is good to everyone. Merry Christmas!

Christmas This Year

Christmas this year has not taken the big role that it normally plays in our family. We didn't buy our tree until yesterday and we didn't decorate the tree, or the house, until today. We normally decorate the house right after Thanksgiving and the tree on my birthday (the 14th.) We love the holidays and we love decorating as a rule. Our decorating this year, though done today, is still limited from the norm. We only decorated inside the house, normally we decorate outside with lights as well.

It is funny in a way, the weekend after I got out of the hospital, I was looking at msnbc.com and saw an article about the holiday shopping season, and was taken aback. Holiday shopping season? What? What is this about the holidays? I had COMPLETELY forgotten about Christmas and shopping and decorating. Never mind I had gone shopping with my mom the DAY BEFORE I went into the hospital to have Sofia.

It is amazing how much Christmas has been de-prioritized this year. Our house is beautiful, it looks really nice, but it pales in comparison to my beautiful new baby girl. I am glad we finally got around to decorating though, as Possum and Olivia are enthralled by the lights, stockings, ornaments, etc.

I finished picking up the few things I needed today for Christmas. I got Drew's stocking stuffers, candy for everyone's stockings, and Sofia's gift. Yes, Sofia's gift, she only gets one gift this year, but I don't think she will mind. Actually, she gets one gift under the tree and one in her stocking, so I guess she technically gets two gifts. I can't say how relieved I am that I had 95% of my shopping done before Thanksgiving and 99% finished before Sofia came along. I finished the other 1% today, so that means no Christmas Eve shopping for me.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas.

Harry Potter

Thomas, Possum, Olivia, Sofia, and I went to see Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire today. Possum and I had already gone to see it with Drew on Thanksgiving, but Thomas had not managed to see it yet. So, today we all bundled up and went to the movies. This blog, however, isn't about this movie, or any of the movies really. I am going to write about the books.

The Harry Potter books are the best in modern literature, in my humble opinion. I don't say this because of the massive popularity, as that is not important to me. However, I do think the level of popularity is very indicative of the quality of these novels. The books are well written, have interesting characters, and fascinating plots. The characterization is one of my favorite aspects in the books, no one is two dimensional. The characters are multi-faceted and have many layers. There are so many sides to everyone. For example, Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts, is presented as this quirky Headmaster who is a brilliant wizard. As we get further in the series, we learn that Dumbledore is the only one Voldemort ever feared, and then, in The Order of The Phoenix, we got to see why.

J.K. Rowling has created an entire world full of interesting characters. J.K. Rowling has also managed to get kids who won't do anything but play video games to read 800 page novels, for this reason alone I think she has more than earned every penny of her wealth.

I am looking forward to the seventh, and final, installment of the Harry Potter series. I can't wait to find out how it ends, yet I am sad of the prospect of this coming to an end, yet I know everything comes to an end eventually.

Happy Birthday To Me

Today is my 32nd birthday and 32 doesn't feel any different than 31 did yesterday. I guess that is one thing I have come to understand, age is just a number and it only means what you allow it to mean. Of course, I still can't run for Senate since I am not 35 (if I remember my social studies correctly) but since I have no desire to run for public office, this really isn't a huge issue for me.

Today was a nice quiet day. I had two friends bake me birthday cakes, so if anyone wants to come over for cake, feel welcome as I have a ton of cake here.

Well, I meant to write more, but Sofia just woke up and feels the need to nurse, so I am going to head out for tonight. I will blog again soon.

Sofia Rhiannon

Sofia Rhiannon came into this world on Monday, December 5, 2005, at 2:11 PM. She weighed 8 lbs. 9 oz. and was 20.5 inches long.

The morning of her birth turned into a frustrating experience. My c-section was scheduled for noon. At 11:45 we found out my doctor was running late and wouldn't be at the hospital till 12:30. Hormonal me broke down into massive tears, but I finally calmed down just in time to find out that there was an emergency c-section and we wouldn't go back until 1:30, which of course caused me to break down once again. My poor OB walked in to find his patient bawling her eyes out. I love my OB though and he is great, he walked around and gave me a big hug and assured me that we would go back soon and everything would be fine. Well we did head back around 1:30 and, after some trial and error to get my epidural to work right, my beautiful baby girl was born.

My baby girl is lying on the couch next to me while I type this and as I look over at her I know she was worth every second of the wait for her. She is the most calm, serene baby I have ever seen. She barely cries at all. She squawks now and then, and at first we said she sounded like an ostrich, but now she has earned the nickname of "Chicken." She really is the most peaceful little baby and she brings a peace that I can't even describe. I don't know if this calmness, this sweetness will permeate her personality throughout her life or not, as it doesn't really matter as I can't wait to get to know her more as she grows.

Children are such a miracle, such a blessing. They are each unique and they each bring something special. It will be fascinating to watch Sofia carve her own place, in both our family and in the world.

The picture above shows her with her big brother Drew and her big sister Olivia. Olivia is enamored with Sofia, she just is blown away by her baby sister. As for Drew, Sofia already has him wrapped around her little finger. He so much loves holding her, more than he liked holding the others from what I can tell. As for Possum, he seems less affected by her presence, but he definitely knows she is here. Both he and Olivia have wanted to hold her and kiss her, I am very glad that her coming home has been best case scenario, which is what I hoped would happen, though we prepared ourselves for the worst case as well.

Well, I think this is all for tonight. I am going to go change Sofia's diaper and put a sleeper on her, then she can nurse till her heart's content and maybe we can get a few hours sleep.

Salvation Army Bell Ringers

I heard recently that Target stores have banned the Salvation Army bell ringers. Ten years ago, this would have bothered me. Now, however, I will probably frequent Target more often because of this ban.

In the past few years, my experiences with the bell ringers has not been a positive experience for me. The are standing closer and closer to the door and the attitude given if you "don't" drop any money in the pot is not a good thing. I don't know what has happened, but I have felt less and less comfortable going through any door that has a bell ringer. I do not feel this way for other charities who stand by the doors. The Knights of Columbus wander through the parking lot and I have never seen them come up to anyone uninvited.

As for the Salvation Army, I always try to put money in the pots during the Christmas season, however, they are outside EVERY store and if I go to ten different stores, I can't put money in ten different pots. If you don't put money in the pot, the bell ringers treat you like you are a terrible person. I would be more apt to contribute if there were less bell ringers around town as the "pressure" would not be so persistent. Sometimes I see a pot without a bell ringer and I wish there were more of those around as my problem isn't with the pots or the Salvation Army, just the bell ringers.

Oh well, just my opinion.

Update on Baby Coming Soon...

Sofia Rhiannon Wilson was born on Monday, December 5, 2005 at 2:11 PM. At birth she weighed 8lbs. 9oz. and was 20.5 inches long. For whatever reason, I cannot access the pictures on the other computer, so when I can, I will blog about my new baby girl.

Having My Baby

So, today is the big day. Thomas and I have to be at the hospital at 10:00 this morning for the c-section at noon. I should be home in two or three days based on how I am feeling, and barring anything unforeseen. I am not sure when I will get to blog again, or reply to any responses, so I don't want anyone to worry or think I am ignoring them. I will update my blog as soon as I can. I will ask for everyone to keep us in their prayers today.

Being a Nurse

One of the biggest challenges in my life was nursing school. I swore that if I made it through, I would never do something so insanely difficult in my life again. LOL, what did I know? Being a nurse is an even bigger challenge than nursing school EVER could have been. I love the challenge of my job, I love interacting with people (most of the time,) and I love my kids. I spent five and a half years as an adult surgical nurse, short of cardiac surgery I worked on most any type of surgery floor you can imagine. I have now spent one year as a pedicatric nurse and I have never been happier, professionally speaking.

I work in what is know as a float pool, which means I am pretty much assigned to a different floor every night (yes, I work twelve hour night shifts.) I work on every floor except the Cardiac ICU, though I do work in the Cardiac Step-Down Unit. The Cardiac Step-Down Unit and the Neonatal ICU are my favorite floors to work on currently. Why? The reason is simple, I love the babies. In the NICU, I only care for babies. On the cardiac floor, a good majority of the kids I care for are babies as well. Not that there is anything wrong with the older kids, I have great fun with them as well. I am not so hip on the teenagers, but then teenagers are a species in and of themselves. I can, and do, care for them, but I don't think I understand them very well (and I am only 31, not like it has been TOO long since my teen years!)

Okay, as for being a nurse; I am a good nurse, no strike that, I am a DAMNED good nurse. I am a better pediatric nurse than I ever was an adult nurse, but I love my patient population much more, and that makes all the difference in the world. I may sound like I am bragging or that I am prideful, and maybe I am, but I would want a nurse like me caring for my kids should they be sick. I know what my strengths and weaknesses are, and I do have weaknesses, but I actively try to work on those, and I have even conquered some. That being said, I do still feel like I am a fabulous nurse and I know that EVERY child I care for is getting the best care he/she possibly could get.

There was a time, earlier in my career, where I would have encouraged people to run as fast as they could from this profession as it is thankless most of the time. I would encourage everybody who receives good nursing care to thank their nurse. We aren't there for the thank yous, but they sure do mean a lot, especially when given sincerely. Would I still encourage young people to avoid this profession, well, that is a mixed answer. I would encourage them to work as an aide or a tech and see what they are getting into. Nursing is a demanding profession and is not for everyone. However, anyone who truly wants to be a nurse would have my encouragement every step of the way.

Demanding, challenging, thankless? Yes, those all describe nursing. But the adjective that comes most readily to my mind is rewarding.