Free Infant Massage Class!

Next weekend, August 12-14th, I'm taking a Certified Infant Massage Teacher course. I'm super excited to learn this skill! During the conference families with infants ages 3 weeks - Walking, have the opportunity to learn infant massage for free! If you're interested, or know someone who might be, please share the following information:

MN Infant Massage Flyer[1]

Transition Time

Last December I vented in 7 Quick Takes (Vol 2) about the trouble I was having completing a project to graduate. I am pleased to announce that as of March 10th, I am officially a BSN graduate of Bethel University!!!

Last December I couldn't imagine going back to school again. I was entirely ready for a nice, long break from the mentally, and emotionally draining task of studying, writing, and deadlines. Now, just a month and a half after completion of my college work, I find myself antsy for another challenge. Working the overnight shift on the psych ward provides neither the mental stimulation, nor personal satisfaction experienced on medical units. It's frustrating when the patients you seek to help view you more as warden than caregiver. While I'm not ready for further formal education I am looking for a new project, something to focus this excess energy on.

I've had a passion for maternity care since nursing school. Unfortunately it is incredibly difficult to break into labor and delivery (L & D) nursing. Pretty much every opening requires you to have L & D experience, but you need to have an L & D job in order to get experience! So what's a girl to do?

My employer recently had 3 openings in the family birth center (without the L & D requirement). Finally, a foot in the door! Unfortunately, union run as we are, seniority trumps passion and I found myself 4th in line. No new position at work for this nurse.

Thankfully my wonderful employer also offers workshop money every year. As long as the workshop is related to ANY other job within the company, we can get approval. So I attended a DONA doula birth workshop at the end of March! Boy did that get my juices flowing and reignite my passion for working with pregnant women and their newborns.

So now I'm fully focused on obtaining DONA doula certification. It's a bit of a challenge given my nearly full-time RN job, 7 month old baby, and husband at school. I've already begun delving into the necessary education (wonderful birth books we need to read). The reading is the easy part. The bigger challenge is finding doula clients with due dates between mid-May and mid-August (Josh's summer school break).

I set up another website for this doula project HonorYourBirth.com. If you know anybody who might be interested in having a doula attend their birth, please pass this website on to them. Or if you feel like taking a peek at the site yourself, please let me know if there's anything in particular you think I should add or change. The site is certainly a work in progress and will need tweaking and sprucing up.

I've also begun looking for other volunteer opportunities to become more involved in the birth community. I recently contacted Pregnancy and Postpartum Support Minnesota to become a volunteer with their Warm Line phone support for pregnant and postpartum women. Could there possibly be a better match for my mental health RN experience and maternity care passions?

I'm looking forward to seeing what the next few months have in store for me. I'm ready for a bit of a change around here. As always, I'd appreciate any and all prayers that I manage to balance home life with work and these new endeavors!

7 Quick Takes (Vol 9)

Here we go again with another week's worth of 7 Quick Takes, a blog carnival hosted by Jen of Conversion Diary.
- 1 -
I'm about to start referring to my blog as, "All quick takes, all the time." Thankfully a quick scan back reveals that I am managing one real post for about every 3 quick takes. So, I shall proceed today, guilt free.

- 2 -
Jacek went swimming for the first time when we visited Papa and Gami in Florida a couple of weeks ago. Gami was kind enough to capture the event with my camera. I love the following sequence of photos.
Pre-dunking

Dunking

Initial reaction

And two seconds later!

The tears didn't last long before he was ready to play with Daddy again.

- 3 -
Thank goodness for this blog, because I haven't written a thing in J's baby book yet. Latest developments: He began using a pincer grasp last week (he's ahead of the game on that one); Mastered the art of rolling over from back to front AND front to back (surprisingly he learned the former first); Two days ago pulled himself up to standing from sitting on my calf and grabbing the bar of his play gym; Also, his eyes are still surprisingly blue.

- 4 -
Weight Watchers is going pretty well for me. I lost 6.6 pounds in the first 4 weeks. I'm pretty pleased with those results. I finally have my very own scale now too so I'll be able to be more consistent with tracking changes.

- 5 -
I think I should quit the gym. I've wasted a ridiculous amount of money on a gym membership that I haven't been using. I keep thinking that I'll make time to get in, but I hate being away from Jace any more than I already am. Plus, the best time to go is first thing in the morning after work. Unfortunately that means that Josh would have to give up the few uninterrupted hours of sleep he has when I get home and take over with our little one. I've thought that maybe I'd start using the pool at the gym with Jacek, but family hours are only in the evening, and then I end up giving up sleep I need before working the overnight shift. So right now I am far more likely to get exercise going for walks while wearing Jacek (at 40 degrees it's almost warm enough to go without a coat :P). Pool season is also not so far off, and our local community pool is within walking distance and open all day.

- 6 -
I'm thinking about becoming a doula. I've joined DONA. I also had the most amazing weekend, with wonderful women, attending a DONA Birth Doula workshop and breastfeeding class. I'm not sure that I can manage doula work without putting additional strain on my family (Josh really steps up already being an amazing daddy, husband, and student). I really feel a calling to work with women and so far I've been unable to use my RN license to move into labor and delivery nursing. I'll be praying about this a lot going forward. I think right now the best option is to see if I can manage to attend the necessary certification births during Josh's summer break from school. Thankfully I don't need to make any decisions right this second. I welcome any additional prayers for guidance, and opening of doors for me.

- 7 -
It's so easy to keep smiling around here with such a happy baby oozing smiles all over the place!

7 Quick Takes (Vol 8)

- 1 -
This past week Jacek has decided that his lower lip is the TASTIEST thing ever! More often than not it has vanished from site as he suck, suck, sucks on it. This is an interesting change from the non-stop finger biting of the past month or so. He still enjoys his fingers on occasion, but mmmmmmm that lower lip is divine!

- 2 -
We've also added a new challenge to diaper changes. As Jacek has also discovered that his toes fit in his mouth. His favorite time to display this incredible act of flexibility is the moment his butt is bare, and he is not too quick to allow a new diaper on as it involves straightening his legs out in order to fasten the darn things.

- 3 -
Work is running a "Be Fit" promotion in an effort to curb rising insurance costs. Employees earn money by way of gift cards for performing certain healthy tasks like taking a wellness assessment, having a physical, having our teeth cleaned. This year they included a $200 gift card (which I will be using for Amazon) if we went to Life Time Fitness gym for a "My Health Check" assessment. The results were SO not good for me! On the plus side, my cholesterol and blood sugar are great. On the negative: I've lost zero pounds since my 6 week postpartum check, my body composition is 51% body fat (***GASP***), I have poor flexibility, and my body's ability to use oxygen while exercising is virtually non-existent. What a wake-up call!

- 4 -
And in light of that wake-up call I've joined Weight Watchers Online. Woot! Yet another diet to try. It did take quite a bit of site navigation to get the hang of things, but I think I've got the basics down. I can see that with the prompts for water, dairy, and fruit/vegetable consumption the health level of the foods I eat will dramatically improve if nothing else. This whole endeavor is bound to end up as a blog post of its own.

- 5 -
I think I do a pretty good job of staying positive about the ridiculously long, cold, snowy, gray, traffic-clogged, stuck-in-the-house, cabin fever-inducing, nastiness that is the Minnesota winter. Then March hits and I am DONE! We're expecting ANOTHER "snow event" on Monday. It will likely be very beautiful, and I am happy we have been having warmer weather (it's been over 32F, can you believe it!?!), but I am so extremely ready for spring to begin. It's time. The chickadees have started singing, "Spring's coming." I hope they're right!

- 6 -
Since we finally have "warm" weather again I took Jace out shopping yesterday. I love watching him check out all the new sights from his perch on my hip (thank you Maya Wrap). I love my wraps and slings. It's so nice to be able to abandon the grocery cart without worrying about someone snatching my baby. Plus I get a little extra workout walking with the extra weight.

- 7 -
Here's our smiley man enjoying his perch on Daddy's knees.


Have a blessed week readers!



The above has been a part of "7 Quick Takes", a blog carnival hosted by Jen of Conversion Diary.

Bumbo Love

We scored a cheap Bumbo at Kid's Rack this past week. Jacek LOVES it!


It's like all of his toys are brand new from this perspective.




I have no idea how he does that with his tongue!




I'm not nomming my toys...


MMMmmmm toys!

I'm so in love with this child! How can you not smile looking at that adoreable little face?

7 Quick Takes (Vol 7)

Here we go again with another week's worth of 7 Quick Takes, a blog carnival hosted by Jen of Conversion Diary.
- 1 - Gryffyn, our mope-y mutt extraordinare, is still not entirely thrilled about Jacek's arrival.
Thankfully he no longer runs from the room to paw frantically at the back or bedroom doors when Jacek cries. Now he just quietly skulks away to another room. Poor puppy.

- 2 - I applied for tuition reimbursement from my employer for a doula workshop this week. I still really want to get into labor and delivery nursing, but breaking in is very hard to do without experience. It's one of those bizarre situations where you need experience to get the job, but you need the job to get experience. I'm hoping to pad my resume, show that I'm really motivated to do this, and make a case for cross-training in the future. I may even become a DONA certified doula along the way!

- 3 - Jace is sleeping through the night! Unfortunately his night starts at 6pm. So around 2 or 3am he is pretty much ready to be up for the day. Any suggestions to get him to stay awake later so he'll sleep later too?

- 4 - My school project is finally moving forward. I mentioned in Vol 2 that there were some hang-ups for my graduation. I am pleased to announce that things are going well and I think I'll be done by the end of February. Then I can go tack "BSN" (Bachelor of Science in Nursing) onto my name badge!

- 5 - Jace is really getting the hang of his hands. I love watching him grow, change and learn. When we first put him down on the play mat he mostly stared at the toys. Then he learned to flail his arms in their general direction to get them to move. Now he's reaching out and grasping, as well as wiggling like crazy. I don't think it will be much longer before he's rolling over from back to front!

- 6 - Speaking of the play mat, I love that he is enjoying a little independent play each day. He still wants lots of snuggle time, but for a little while in the morning, and after naps, when he's wide awake, he's pretty content to coo and play on his own. Which means I finally have the opportunity to *gasp* do dishes, or clean, or fix food! It's amazing!

- 7 -
Baby in a box! Ready for shipping. Supplies are limited, 9 months required for production! =D

7 Quick Takes (Vol 6)

Here we go again with another week's worth of 7 Quick Takes, a blog carnival hosted by Jen of Conversion Diary.

- 1 -
Well, I did end up posting that vaccine blog,which I mentioned last week. No comments yet on the blog website, but it has facilitated some interesting discussion where it cross-posted to facebook. A former co-worker did comment that the current vaccines utilize more refined proteins, which I had never heard of. I'll be looking into that a bit more.

- 2 -
I appreciate differing viewpoints. I certainly don't write to this oh-so-public forum expecting other people to always agree with me. I also have a lot of respect for individuals who can present an opposing viewpoint both intelligently and without resorting to name-calling. I know not everyone is capable of that. I still hold individuals in higher regard if they have enough conviction in their beliefs to address me directly, and not by posting status updates like the following to their own facebook pages instead:


- 3 -
I probably should have taken the high road and not posted my own facebook update after reading the above note.

Passive aggressive behavior drives me batty. Then again, I tend to utilize the preferred mode of communication chosen by others, so let the PA wars begin! Muahahaha!!! Seriously, I find the whole situation comical.

- 4 -
Speaking of comments, conflict and conviction: I find anonymous dissention disgusting. I heard Dr. Laura on the radio criticizing the school's use of anonymous feedback forms at the end of coursework. I believe she mentioned how it allowed ugly venting beyond reasonable criticism which students wouldn't post if they were accountable for their words (this was many years ago so forgive me if I butchered the paraphrasing). Pastor Eric Dykstra also commented in one of his services that his crew checks comment cards before they reach him. If the commenter hasn't provided a name they are thrown away without consideration. I have a rather similar viewpoint. I think that if you have enough conviction in your beliefs, comments, and/or criticisms to present them, then you should have the courage/conviction/accountability to provide your name with those words. Anonymous comments end up in moderation here at "Don't Eat That Cookie!" If it's positive feedback from someone who just didn't want to fill out a form, no problem, I'll post them. If they're anonymous and snarky, without so much as a pseudonym, into the trash it goes.

- 5 -
Enough of the heavy stuff. My totally awesome sister, Mindi, provided the following T-Shirt wisdom via a facebook status update, "After Monday and Tuesday, even the calendar says W-T-F." One-liners keep my giggling long after I've heard/read them. Like a friend at pub night who said, "I don't have a man cave. I have a geek grotto!" Or my hubby telling our baby, "Ewww your breath smells like sneaker cheese!"
I love having funny people in my life!

- 6 -
This is my sixth week taking part in 7 Quick Takes. It amazes me how much faster the weeks seems to disappear now. I couldn't believe it when I got to work last night and realized I'd need to finish a post up again already! I'm also quite proud of myself for not skipping a week yet.

- 7 -
And of course, our weekly photo. If you could peek out of my computer screen, this is what you’d see right now.


Jace is quietly snoozing away in his Sleepy Wrap.