What a Day

Yesterday was one of those days that is tough to juggle our careers and our kiddo even though we are lucky and it all worked out!

Matt was on child duty since he has had the better hours this month. We knew there was a risk with this because he is on reserve (meaning that he can be called in at any time for someone). And as lucky as Matt is (he has BAD reserve luck) he got called into the emergency room to work a shift. The problem: Matt's shift was until 7pm, my shift until 6:30pm, and the daycare closes at 6pm. Luckily we are in the daycare right across the street which is such a life saver!

So I planned to run across the street quickly around 6pm and grab Lucas and bring him back to work with me. Of course yesterday was the day that I got the call at around 4pm that Lucas (being our little monkey) had tripped and fallen once again and had a big cut on his eyelid. The teachers were having trouble stopping the bleeding and wanted one of us to come check him out and make sure that he didn't need stitches. Matt was actually in clinic at the time with three patients waiting on him before returning to the ED, so I walked to the daycare after I checked in with a colleague and told her that I'd be gone for 15-20 minutes but would be right back. I went to check on Lucas who was doing a bit better. The cut was long and bled easily but was not very deep. Of course as soon as I took my first look at Lucas, my pager went off with the message "Pt X having respiratory distress, not looking good, please come now." My attention was immediately off Lucas (since he was only bleeding but still breathing). I called my colleague to ask her to check on the child and ran back with heels and all. I got back in time, treated the child (he's fine) and had an hour before heading back across the street once more hoping to get no more "we need you now" pages.

Lucas was luckily a sweetheart during my last 45 minutes of work. He likes our resident "library" and spent the time crawling around the floor and entertaining everyone while I worked. If he gets a staph infection we'll know where he got it from. Yucky carpet.

After I got off work, the eye started to bleed again so we stopped by the ER to see Matt. Lucas drew quite some attention in our ED since I carried him in with blood dripping from his eye. The perks to being a resident, one of the attending docs quickly took a look at him, offered to glue it but thought it would heal on its own... so we ended up doing nothing. No we just have a kid where one of my friend's first reaction to seeing him was "who beat him up?"

So ended our day. Kid asleep finally at 8pm.

Our New Nephew!

Mike and Beverly's beautiful son Graham Turner Israel was born on May 13th. He's a healthy, happy little boy and he and his mom are doing well. Matt and I are so proud to be an aunt and an uncle and Lucas is going to LOVE having a cousin close to his age. Right now it seems like they are ages apart but someday soon when they're getting in trouble together I'm sure that year and a half will feel like nothing.

Here are some of the first pictures that Mike sent us from the hospital:

Here Graham is getting settled in at home. Looks like Reese is going to be taking good care of her new little friend.

And my favorite! How adorable is he?! (Mike, Bev, I stole this off of facebook. I hope that's ok. Just couldn't help myself. Love the face.)

Welcome to the world little Graham. Your parents are going to have so much fun with you and I can't wait to meet you.

My Life as the "Mole"

The "Mole" is our nightfloat person --6:30pm to 6:30 am -- and me for the week. I have to say I've actually rather enjoyed it (compared to a call night for sure). Most of the day hecticness is done by the time I show up and I get to focus on talking to families, admitting new patients, and hanging out with co-residents as compared to the endless rounding and note writing that the days usually bring. It might be a May fluke but I've actually been getting some sleep at night meaning that I've had some time during the day to get things done at home (always a plus!). Of course my body is a little confused because I've been sleeping 3 hours here and then 3 hours there and am never really getting a good chunk of sleep all at once. Makes for a hazy brain.

My favorite part is that my sweet family has been sticking around in the mornings to see me before I head off to work. I get a big grin and hug from my little man and then he always wants to dance. His new favorite: "Horchata" by Vampire Weekend. I'm sure if the neighbors ever look through our window at 7:30 am they are wondering why we're (half in pajamas and half in scurbs) spinning and dancing all around our living room and singing:

In December drinking horchata

I'd look psychotic in a balaclava

Winter's cold is too much to handle

Pincher crabs that pinch at your sandals

My least favorite part is the tears that come when I have to leave for work before the Birdy's bedtime. Matt's response to Lucas: "What am I? Chopped liver?" But I hear it doesn't last long and Lucas is all better with all forgotten. Not a lot of things that Morris can't fix.

5 minutes after I left... "All better"

Here's to only four more night before I rejoin the daytime living.

Happy Mother's Day

First I want to wish my mom a very happy mother's day! I can appreciate more and more every day what all it means to be a mom: the time, the love, the sacrifices. I love you and thank you for everything you have done for me and still do for me every day. I have a wonderful role model and hope I will be a mother as wonderful as you are. Love you always!

I also want to wish my mother-in-law a very happy mother's day. Karen, you are greatly appreciated for all you do for us. I'm sure if Matt was anything like Lucas you had a hand full with your three boys. Thank you for raising Matt to be such a wonderful husband and dad.

As for my little boy, he made his mother VERY happy this year. Look below for the present he brought home for daycare. Makes my mommy heart melt! So sweet. Matt calls it "a weed" but I love it!

And here is one of the cards I got from my boys. Love it! Check out the added drawings and of course Lucas' signature. We're at 1st grade level. I'm impressed!

Thank you Matt and Lucas! You are the sweetest boys anyone could ask for!

Little Thief

Nothing makes my day like getting a picture email like this from my boys when I'm working a long day. This one was entitled "Little Thief." I think I'm counting three pacifiers (and yes, those are supposed to stay in bed). Love it.

Class Picture

Miss Debbie and Miss Angie with all their little friends:

Front row: Ryan, Ellie, Emma, Miller, and Audrey

Back row: Evelyn (on Miss Debbie's lap), Finley, and Lucas

We absolute love Lucas' teachers. They have been the best. They take such good care of our little man. Lucas loves going to daycare and gives his parents a big wave bye-bye when we get there. No tears shed. Emma, Lucas, and Finley are the three oldest, the best of friends, and little trouble makers together from what I hear. What patience Miss Debbie and Miss Angie must have.

The Flood of 2010

Nashville is underwater today. Supposedly the worst rain storm in a long, long time. Supposedly we've had 15"+ of rain (verdict for total number is still out). The pictures online and on the TV are horrible. People are being evacuated from their homes in boats, cars are submerged in water, and there have been several drownings. Bellevue has been hit especially hard with a large part of that part of the city being completely underwater. One of our friends had to leave his house due to the flooding and is still unsure of the total damage since he cannot return yet. His wife who is one of our collegues hasn't even been able to make it home today. The Bellevue Publix is completely underwater it seems. As for our work place, the Children's Hospital has had some water in the main lobby and has the basement flooded. There was also trouble with the parking garage with the main floor being underwater. Cots were set up in the conference room for those that couldn't make it home. What a mess! Who would expect to see all that in Nashville.

Given all of that, I guess we are lucky. We are only battling the flooding in our basement. We've had to rip up the carpet in our TV area and have been sopping up water all day. Matt bought 16 new towels at Target today and we're using those along with all other towels to try to keep the water from spreading to the rest of our basement. So far our furniture is still dry. Our storage area has also had quite some seeping of water. We've had to tear up some of the tiles to sop up the water. The water was seeping through the seems. We've moved most things out of storage and a lot of things upstairs so now our living room is quite a spectacle.

In the middle of us discovering our basement flooding, I was called in to work in the PICU (pediatric intensive care unit) due to the person who's supposed to be on call today having had his basement flood. He lives out in Bellevue so i think he had some serious damage. They weren't in dire need at the moment and our chief said it'd be okay for me to take some time to figure out the damage in our basement, which of course turned into ripping up carpet, moving furniture, and trying to keep ahead of the water. Matt would have had quite some trouble keeping up with the water with our little 1 yo. Lucas was honestly quite a mess even with the two of us. I think he was out of sorts from everything going on. Well, a wonderful colleague of ours who is in the PICU this month, Clint Carroll, offered to stay overnight instead of calling in reserve (me) to brave the storms. West End was flooding at the time which would have made my trip in quite an adventure. I am very thankful to him for allowing me to stay home and do damage control in our home and keeping me out of the mess described above. What great co-workers we have!

Tomorrow will be interesting as well. We're all to show up in scrubs and expect to stay the night since quite a few of the residents will not be able to get to work or have been stranded out of town. Our great friends, Christy and Mike and their twins, for example are stranded in Denver tonight. I'm so glad they're not braving this weather with their sweet 5 month olds in the car. Not the time to get stuck at the airport!

After the rain finally subsided after 2 days we took a quick walk to assess the damage in our neighborhood. Here are some pictures: