29.

On August 1st I turned 29! Even though I rang in my birthday on Nights, I had the following weekend off and planned to celebrate the last year of my twenties appropriately. I am overwhelmed by the love shown by my friends and family, and feel so blessed that so many people took the time to think of me all week long. 

I am so happy I am turning 29 too, Little Nate :-) 

Before leaving for work on my Birthday Eve, we celebrated at home with a delicious carryout Italian dinner and ice cream cake!

At work, my team for the evening surprised me with cake from the caf AND I got treats from our sweet L&D nurses. Later in the week, my daytime team brought even more delicious cake...

In addition to the birthday festivities, this was also a much-anticipated week for our household, because Nate's family was visiting from Michigan. Our house was full of children (7!), laughter, and chaos - it was wonderful. There is nothing better than being around family...

On Saturday, the plan was to put the kiddos to bed and hit the streets of Raleigh. My gifts were not finished yet, though, because in the afternoon my little brother Carey, who lives in DC, casually walked in our house and surprised me! I was so happy I cried! Shout out to the hubby for pulling it all together seamlessly...




And then we met up with some of my friends from work and we partied! So much fun!!

I know I say it all the time, but the years are going by so fast. I'm so thankful for everyone and everything in my life right now. 

It can be hard to stay focused on what is important when life gets hectic, but this birthday was a much needed reminder that no matter the distance in miles, I don't have to travel far to feel the love of those I care about. Everyone isn't blessed to see another year, and I don't want to ever take it for granted. 

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. xoxo

Izzy-Bee Is Three!

Hey guys!

Hope you had a great weekend. The summer is flying by and I can't believe we are already almost into August. Work has my free time extremely limited, but I wanted to share some photos from Isabelle's third birthday last weekend. She was so happy all day and did everything we asked of her - like putting on her party dress without a fight, "I love this dress!" she said LOL

She seems so big now! When she opened each gift, she paused and said, "it's just what I wanted" :swoon: She is such a little doll :-) 

The party was a great time with family and friends - my parents were able to make the trip down and spend time with the kids all week so they were in heaven. They even went to DC with them overnight to visit my brother.  

I felt so good about her party, I almost lost all the mommy guilt left over from two years ago during intern year when I didn't do anything big for her first birthday :sigh:

Here are some photo's from Isabelle's day :-D 

You're OBGYNs ladies and gentlemen...

My sweet co-residents

My parents made the trip too and were a HUGE help with getting the house ready for guests

Post-party nap, still our baby!

We love you Isabelle!

Dear Natey...

Hey Natey!

I can still see this little baby face when you sleep ;-) 

Can you believe that you're seven?! Seven years ago, before medical school, before obstetrics and gynecology, Mommy was just a college senior having a baby. It is fun to reflect back on your birth story with my OBGYN knowledge now. So, in honor of your birthday, here is more than you probably care to know about the day you were born...

Your birth story starts a few weeks before January 29th, when Mommy got a medical school interview invitation to Indiana University. The date of the interview was a week after your due date. After freaking out about this, my sweet OBGYN doctor advised that it was totally safe to have an elective induction at 39 weeks. So it was settled. Mommy would have you a week earlier so I had two weeks post-partum before I had to do anything for which my future hinged on. 

On January 28th, a Thursday night, Mommy and Daddy went to Sinai Grace Hospital with movies, snacks, and more baby clothes than anyone would need. Lita and Grammy were there too!

Detroooooit!

When we got to the labor room, we got settled in, and Daddy took tons of pictures.

Then it was time to get my induction started! Of course, as a nullip (first time mom) at 39 weeks, I was not dilated at all. So this means that they had to give me medicine to help start my labor. 

There are many ways to induce labor - at my program (UNC) we use a lot of foley balloons. For my labor with you, a medicine called Cervidil was used. To spare you the details, it is a "local" ripening agent. Most of the time *cough* Isabelle *cough* it doesn't put you into labor, but it helps to get things more receptive to the medicine used later called Pitocin. 

So, that night, as the Cervidil worked it's magic, Daddy and I watched a ton of movies, and I remember texting all the people patiently awaiting your arrival - your uncles, Mommy and Daddy's besties, and Mommy's line sisters (who lovingly called you "Ja'Nathan" LOL). Even before you were born, you were so loved! As time went on, Lita and Grammy went back home with the plan to come back in the morning. 

Then it hit me...the contractions. And man, they were intense. So intense that it was time for some medicine. I don't remember what the name of the medicine was, but it was just what I needed to get some sleep. Mommy was feeling niiiiice...Daddy may or may not have blackmail pictures of Mommy in her analgesic euphoria ;-) 

In the morning the Cervidil was removed. Lita, Grammy, Maimeo, and Auntie Jenny all camped out for Baby Watch '09. I was about 1-2 centimeters after the night - definitely disappointed because I expected more given how uncomfortable I was, but we powered on. The pitocin was started and then things got real o_O.  I have no idea how long it took, but it felt forever, and by 4 centimeters I was tapping out and ready for my epidural. This was around 8:30AM. 

Mommy's nurse asked if I wanted to try and hold out a little longer so that I had a great story to tell you about how much pain labor was. I quickly said, "no" and Anesthesia was called. She came quickly and even today, after having seen many patients get epidurals, I feel like she was one of the fastest. 

The epidural was sweet relief. Mommy hadn't been that comfortable since the night before, so it was time to take a nap. 

After what seemed like a few hours of sleep, I was awoken by my doctor who had a concerned look on her face. She told me that your heart rate was down and she needed to place a monitor on your head so that we could know your heart rate at all times. It sounded scary, but she broke my water and placed the monitor quickly - that monitor what I now know is a Fetal Scalp Electrode. Then the nurse put an oxygen mask on me.  Now, I know that putting an oxygen mask on the Mommy helps to increase oxygen flow to the baby. We do this when we see decelerations - or drops - in the baby's heart rate with contractions. 

It was almost noon, and I was still four centimeters dilated. So we were back to waiting... 

Since not much was going on, Mom and Grammy ran downstairs to get lunch. 

Soon after everyone had cleared the room, my doctor rushed in again. She checked me and said it was time to push. 4cm-10cm in thirty minutes. Your dad was in shock. He hurriedly called Lita to get back upstairs, because it was go time.  Then the room was PACKED - there were nurses, nursing students, medical students...and they told me to put the oxygen back on. 

I pushed three times and at 12:28PM all 6 pounds, 10 ounces of you were here! 

It. Was. Awesome. 

Hey There August...

My beach babes :-) 

Is it just me or is summer flying by?!

I still cannot believe intern year is over....talk about a whirlwind of a year.

Second year of residency for us at UNC means that you switch gears completely and spend the majority of your time on the gynecological services - Family Planning, Gynecologic Oncology, Benign Gynecology, Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgery (MIGS), and Urogynecology. Needless to say I went from really feeling like I was getting into the swing of the obstetrics thing, to now, back down to square one... That's right med students, it still happens...

I spent my first 4 weeks of second year on Family Planning, and now I am in the middle of my Nights rotation. On nights, we primarily manage the inpatient Benign and Gyn Oncology service, and any patients who come into the emergency department with a GYN complaint. 

One of the well-known residency-ism, is talking about a resident and the "cloud" that they bring in when they are working - i.e. a "white cloud" being an easy shift and a "black cloud" being not so fortunate. I must say, after my first two weeks I think I am falling into the "black cloud" group. The positive to that is that it has been good learning...Now, as I start week three, I am feeling more confident than ever that I can handle juggling lots of things and many different clinical scenarios. 

Things on the home-front have been good...

We had lots of family in town in July, which was awesome. The kids had a great time with their grandparents and cousins. We even snuck in a quick trip to Wilmington! 

Isabelle and Grampy (my dad) 

One of my dear friends from Michigan and his beautiful girlfriend and daughter 

Cousins!

On July 17th, Baby "Belle", as she calls herself, turned 2! I have been mommy-guilting myself over the past year, because I did not have a big party when she turned one. So this year, in normal Jasmine fashion, I threw together a *very* last-minute birthday party for the little lady.  And, of course, she was so uncooperative pretty much the entire day. 

Isabelle welcoming her guests... :side eye: 

This face means she is so excited for her party... 

But it was a great day!

August 1st was my 28th birthday, and despite working overnight on the 31st, my sweet resident friends put together a celebration on L&D. It was awesome!

And then when I got home, I was able to relax all day with my littles and Big Nate :-) Later, we got together with friends for dinner. I feel so blessed...

Partay!! 

I have the sweetest co-residents and team...

As an intern, everyone says, "just hold out until second year and things will be so much better".  I have to say, everyone was right.  Only seven weeks into second-year, and I have had so much more time with my family and for myself. Not kidding. I've read books for LEISURE and started working out again. It's been great for my mental health. 

Hopefully this means I will be blogging more regularly again too ;-)

Nate the Great is FIVE!!!

Today my baby boy turns FIVE!!!

I cannot believe that he is five years old or that I have been his mom for five years.  I fell in love with him the moment I saw those big brown eyes look up at me.

I always get emotional around this time thinking about how my life was then, the highs and lows, and the constant uncertainty. But God was merciful and gave me more than what I could ever ask for in a son. Nathan is my own little piece of heaven. He is a constant reminder of God's love for me.

He continues to push me and inspire me to be the best that I can be. He keeps me grounded. He drives me crazy, but keeps me sane all at the same time. He is one of my life's greatest accomplishments.

    

Every day he makes me so proud to be his mom. 

Happy Birthday Nate the Great!