A New-ish Beginning

This week marks the end of my travels to Pueblo for weekends fiilled with work for me and randomly wandering the big city for Jason and Dominic. While I really enjoyed the opportunity to work at Parkview Medical Center, and loved the people I worked with, I am thankful for the end. 5AM is really early and to follow a 5AM wake-up with a 2 hour drive for work is hard! I did get to work with a level of patients and diagnoses that I probably will never get at my hour of work at Prowers Medical Center in Lamar. It has been awesome.

I am choosing this time to stop going because I'm far enough along in my pregnancy (30 weeks hooray! 9 more weeks!!!) that it is getting difficult for me. But, also this week marks my first week taking care of baby Olivia! A coworker of Jason just had a sweet little girl and she wanted someone a bit more personal to watch her so my husband suggested me and I'm so excited! Hopefully this will prepare our household a bit for a second baby.

Well, speaking of Olivia, she's here now! Time to get on the job! :)

New Blog Name! Come on It's Interesting!!

So, I decided to update our blog name to something that gives us a bit more room when it comes to adding kiddos. After all, it would get somewhat tedious to just add the newest nickname ofthe baby. I contemplated doing something about the Spano "Fruit Tree" since we nicknamed Dominic the "kumquat" but then reason took me and I realized that would probably make us sound "fruitier" and "nuttier" than we wanted.

The new name is courtesy of my awesome husband, Jason Spano, I just added the ellipses...what I like them?

Speaking of this pregnancy, it seems to be going well, I'm about 8 1/2 weeks pregnant (we think, we'll have a better estimate of that after Monday and the ultrasound). I'm much more nauseous than I was with Dominic, but if I can keep from getting those itchy rashes I'll take it! Even if the nausea means that my dreams are about getting sick. OK, well, last night was the first one, but it was super weird and left me wondering if I actually DID get sick. Like that saying about the man who dreamed he was eating his pillow, and woke up chewing on it...or something? With this pregnancy, we'll be planning a repeat c-section as our hospital does not allow VBACs. I'm coming to terms with it, but it is difficult. We don't want our family size limited by what my scar tissue can handle, but we're going to pray that it is all in God's will. We would gladly accept your prayers as well. :)

Small Successes

Well, this week has been pretty crazy with orientation for me at PMC and Jason having the baby, along with phone interviews for me for other "side jobs". So, it's nice to take a break and think about what I've done good this week.

1) I cleaned the kitchen and the dining room and living room. The dining room and living room are our "catch-all" rooms. We come in and throw things on the table, on coffee tables, on the floor...you name it. But right now the little bit of clutter left on the table looks organized and I even dusted!!! :-o

2) By tomorrow I will have worked for part of 4 days this week. This was tough for me as it's surprising how used to being at home one can get. I didn't realize sitting in a room for orientation could be so tiring, but I think it's because I didn't have the option to take a nap if I wanted to! ;-)

3) I made the bed. Seems really small, but after having picked up the house, this is the hardest thing for me...just staying on top of things. So, making the bed is a big deal as it keeps me a little closer to our clean house!

What successes do you have this week?

All Parents Are "Working" Parents

So although I consider myself a stay-at-home wife and mom, I actually have a job outside of the home too. It's just part time, per diem, and scheduled for when Jason can be home with Dominic. Regardless of which one of us is working outside the home, we want one of us to be with the kumquat. Both of our jobs are at PMC, and this week I have orientation. Jason has an awesome boss who said he could either take the day off or take Dominic to work with him. Well, since his coworker has a web-class to "attend" this week, he decided he could watch Dominic at work.

I dressed him warm since Jason has a FREEZING office, his poor coworker is always freezing. All 56 pounds of her. ;-) So, back to Dominic. He was in this adorable little outfit all warm and cozy. What do you think he did a couple of hours into Jason's day with him? Yep, a blow out diaper. Well, it's a good thing we'd already learned our lesson about how to pack a diaper bag properly (don't ask how we learned that lesson, suffice it to say, it was the hard way!). Jason handled it well. In fact, he handled being a dad and working really well. He took Dominic all over the hospital with him, held him while working on computers. Pretty much he's a rock star.

And I struggle to get laundry done while caring for him when I'm home. What exactly am I doing wrong?!

Well, I'm going to chalk it up to beginner's luck; not that he's a anymore of a beginner than I am except that he doesn't spend all day on work days with him. But, thinking of him as a beginner makes me feel better about my ineptitude. :)

It doesn't really matter if you're working outside the home or not, being a parent is super hard. It's really hard to do things while you're caring for a child. And today I got a look at what it's like for Jason on a regular day. How much you want to hold, and hug, and kiss that little one that you had to be away from. Even if we were in the same building and I took my breaks with him.

Working (outside the home) moms, how do you do it?

Answered Prayers--On God's Terms

I have a lot of debt right now; student loans and a ridiculous car loan that total about $30,000. Jason knew this, and married me anyway, now that's love! ;-) But we've found out what many parents find out after the baby is born. Having a baby is expensive! We were really blessed that many of our family and friends have bought us lots of clothes and even diapers to get us through this time until we will be able to do cloth diapering. But, it was the actual birth that was expensive. Plus, the other 3 day stay in the hospital for Dominic. :( Add these together along and subtract from our one income family, and things are pretty tight. I have been praying really hard for something to come along to ease this. I will be working per diem for PMC, but it will only be 3 evenings a week and every other weekend. This is not going to get us out of debt by any means. We don't want to put Dominic in any daycare so that limits our options.

My prayers have leaned towards looking for things I can do from home. Yes, I've checked out all of those work at home things and nothing has panned out. I did get a response to one application for an accounting job at home, but it sounds really shady, and besides the company's based out of the UK. Don't think it will work. So, yesterday I decided I ought to look into a graveyard shift, either at Walmart or our one truck stop. Turns out the truck stop was hiring and I'll start tomorrow night. So, I'm up tonight trying to acclimate myself to working at night.

Thankfully, Dominic likes to sleep in and and take long naps in the morning, so I should get a lot of sleep in the mornings and can nap throughout the day when he does.

God answered my prayer, but He chose to do so in a way that will be difficult for me. I am NOT a night person as anyone who has known me for longer than a day knows...especially if they met me at about 9PM! ;-) So, this will be a struggle. However, it is perfect because Jason will be home at night with Dominic and I will be home with him during the day. It gives us time to spend together as a family in the evening too, so despite the challenges this is really a good thing for us.

Please pray for us, and for me especially, and anybody that happens to order hot coffee from me when my first bout of sleepiness kicks in! ;-)

Finally, a Decent Answer...

...so, I woke up this morning with cramping/contractions again. I decided that I was going to call PMC and see if I came in to L&D there if they'd check me and if I'd be able to leave. But, of course, the contractions stopped. I haven't had any since I went back to sleep this morning when Jason left. But, I decided calling them would still be a good idea because then if I'm having contractions, I don't have to worry about anything and can just go in and get checked. Well, I finally got a response that was worth hearing!!! Thanks to Lynn at PMC's New Beginnings, I feel comfortable. She did tell me that I'm probably having braxton hicks and that you CAN have them like I've been having them (read: CONSTANTLY), and that they're working on preparing you for delivery. She said if they seem to increase or stay consistent, that I could come in and they'd put me on the monitors and check me. She also said that depending on where I am in labor (if I were in labor) I could still leave. Of course, she also said "are you sure you don't want to deliver here? We'd love to have you!" ;-) I think they'd love to have Jason's baby in there! :) I told her that while our plan is to deliver in Garden City, if my water breaks, I'm not making the drive to KS, we'll head to PMC. That made her happy! ;-) So it was a win/win conversation....I feel IMMENSELY better about everything now!

Birthday Blessings and Insurance Injuries

Well, the weekend was so great, I couldn't have asked for a better birthday weekend! It was super nice to get to spend time with my parents on Saturday and then Jason's parents and sister on Sunday. :-D As Jason said in his post, the blanket my mom made for the baby is really cute and it definitely helped increase our excitement! I really enjoyed going to the Mother Cabrini shrine, but am really sad I didn't have the gumption to make it all the way to the top! :( As I told Jason though, we'll come back in the fall and HE can carry the baby! ;-) It was definitely the best thing to stop though, I wouldn't want to put the kumquat at risk! I did get to get my picture taken with one of the nuns...in full habit no less!

Jason was sweet enough to fold laundry last night while I showered and got ready for bed, and got up at 4:30AM with me so he could load all of my things. Even warmed up my breakfast for me and hung out while I ate! He is really the best husband! :-D It was sad to have to leave this morning, but what keeps me going is knowing that I only have 2 more Mondays to say good bye!!!

Trying to figure out insurance for when I'm done working is such a drag! I found out today that for individual insurance plans they are allowed to use pregnancy as a "pre-existing condition" and no insurance company will pick me up right now. Even if by some miracle, one of them would pick me up, no individual plans have prenatal care. :( You can pay extra for that, which we might look into later, but for now we're in a sticky situation. This leaves us with one hopeful option and two back-ups. I'm going to apply for Medicaid when I'm no longer working, I'm hopeful I'll qualify because I'll be pregnant and the coverage will be great. It would only cover me through the pregnancy, but that will work out well because then when I'm not pregnant I can get the individual plan if that's the best option. Our two back-ups are staying with my insurance via COBRA for a few months, which is incredibly expensive; or putting me on Jason's plan which is only minorly expensive. Either way I know we'll figure something out and that in all things God will provide us with what we need, but in the meantime it's stressful. I have to remind myself to put it in Our Lord's hands because He can handle those things that we can't.

Meanwhile, I've found a potential part time or PRN job. PMC is looking for a PTA, so I'm going to put in an application. I have some hard feelings towards the rehab department and PMC because of how I wasn't allowed to work there right after graduating despite my contract with them (there was no position at the time), but I'm trying very hard to let that go and be thankful for the opportunity. Since I'm not looking to continue working after the baby's born, it will be understandable if they have someone else who meets their needs. But please pray that they can use me some as this will take some financial strain off of us for a while, but still give me the opportunity to take it pretty easy and rest when needed.

I am so blessed that I have a loving husband and family (both of our families I should say! :)) that love and do things for me. I'm so thankful to be married to Jason, my best friend in the whole world, and that we are going to be bringing a little one into this loving family that we are a part of. Both of our parents' do things for us often, as does our Jonnie ;-), and I have a feeling the baby is going to be quite spoiled! :-D

The Princess and the Frog

Jeanine and I volunteered at PMC (Prowers Medical Center) for the "Breakfast With Santa" function that the H.E.A.R.T. Committee put on.  As a result of all our hard work, the H.E.A.R.T. Committee rewarded us with two tickets to the local movie theater.  We have decided to go tonight and watch The Princess and the Frog.

The previews looked good, and I'm excited to see it!  In just a few short hours we will head over to watch it.  Assuming Jeanine wakes up from her nap... ;-)