A Post a Day in May – Page 6

Isabel’s First Days

Today is nurse appreciation day. I figured this would be a great time to talk a little bit about everything that has gone on with Isabel because we have gotten to know so many nurses over the last few months.

Isabel was born on December 27th at Gunnison Valley Hospital. We got to the hospital around 2:30 pm and she was born at 7:21 pm. She weighed 8 lbs 1 oz, was 19 3/4s inches long and had almost a full head of blond hair. She had some fluid in her lungs that was suctioned out but the nurses said that was normal and was no reason to be alarmed.

Isabel was acting just like any other day old baby. Early in the morning we were able to give Isabel her first bath and our nurse mentioned that she was very red and made a note to check her color before the end of the shift later that morning. When she came back she noticed that her lips and hands were looking blue and she had the local pediatrician look at her. His suggestion was to put her on a small amount of oxygen to see if that would help. Then slowly ween her off once her stats (pulse rate, oxygen levels, ect…) were back to normal. He mentioned that sometimes when there is fluid in the lungs at birth they need a little bit of help to regulate their oxygen level.

The next day we spent time cuddling and getting to know Isabel. She met her big sister and MaMaw. Her color was getting better but she didn’t seem to like being weened off the oxygen. The nurse that found the issue came back for the night shift and was worried that we were still unable to get her off the oxygen. By midnight the second night we were having to give Isabel more oxygen then they started with that morning in order to keep her stats up. At that point the Doctor said that they were not equipped to test for other issues that might be going on and we would need to be transferred to either Grand Junction or The Children’s Hospital in Denver in order to make sure that we have the best care possible. The Children’s Hospital could get to Gunnison the fastest and was the one the doctor told us he would send his kids to in this situation.

I am going to stop the story there for this post and pick it back up tomorrow. The main thing I wanted to share with this was that we had multiple nurses look at Isabel when she was born and even had a few tell us we should be heading home that second day. There was one nurse that walked back in for her shift on the second night and immediately started getting the doctors involved. If it wasn’t for the level of knowledge and care of the nurses Isabel might have been overlooked and we could have been sent home. We were later told that there was no telling what might have happened if we would have been sent home but it wouldn’t have been good.

My family and I will forever be thankful for all the nurses we have gotten to know over the last few months. They have been some of the most amazing people I have ever met.

Smile, It’s Monday!

I don’t understand why people say that they hate Monday’s so much. Looking at Facebook this morning I notice that there are two or three of my friends that post every Monday that they hate Monday’s. It is kind of silly to me.

I don’t understand why some people hate Monday’s so much. Looking at Facebook this morning I notice that there are two or three of my friends that post every Monday that they hate Monday’s. It is kind of silly to me. You would think these 20 or 30 somethings would have figured out that no matter what they do Monday is coming and they should prepare themselves for it. Today I am going to list out a few things I do so that I don’t hate Monday’s. Maybe you can use them to help out your Monday’s.

Don’t Quit Early on Friday

If you have stuff to do on Friday get it done. Don’t leave early because it is a Friday and leave a bunch of work that will have to get done first thing when you walk into the office on Monday. If you have a stack of paper work waiting on you Monday morning, how can you possibly have a good attitude about heading into the office.

Plan Your Monday in Advance

I set aside 20 minutes before I head home every friday to list out my To Do’s for the following Monday. This gives me the opportunity to see if I need to send out any last minute emails and have an organized starting point when I walk into the office Monday.

No Monday Morning Meetings

I try to never schedule meetings or phone calls on Monday mornings. This gives me the opportunity to put out any fires that might have happened over the weekend without having to worry about making it to that 8:30 conference call.

Be Early

One of the guys that used to work in the office with me when we were living in Tulsa used to always come in 45 minutes late each Monday. He would always blame it on the weekend and it being a Monday. He would spend the next hour apologizing for being late and rushing around trying finish up everything that should have been finished up on Friday.

Be a Nice Person

Say good morning to the people you meet. I suggest doing everyday but if you don’t start on a Monday. When you see somebody smile and say good morning. Smiling is contagious and puts everybody in a better mood. Plus being a nice person is just the right thing to do. You never know what the other person is going through and you might have just made their day by saying hi. I know I have had some days where another person smiling at me and saying good morning helped me have a better day.

Getting Back into Shape

During the summers Jen and I play town league softball. It is a lot of fun but it takes me about half the season to get back into any kind of shape. It is tough when you get a hit that should have been a double but you are breathing too hard once you round first to even think about going for second. When I played college football I was in the best shape of my life. It was easy then. Not showing up for a workout wasn’t an option. I am not in horrible shape right now and Jen does an great job of making sure there isn’t a bunch of junk food in the house and always making well balanced dinners. The main problem I have is that it is way to easy to listen to the 10 different excuses for not exercising and just sit down, drink my coffee and head to work in the morning.

I enjoy exercising and miss doing it. I remember how much more energy it would give me for the day and how much I enjoyed using the time to think about different things going on in my life. Now every time I try to start a new workout I feel like I end up setting the bar too high. I tend to overdo it the first day and then never get back out after that.

This time is going to be different. I have announced to everybody on here that I am going to do it and that should keep me pretty motivated. Also, I am going to start off very simple and easy so I don’t hurt myself. This way I will not be killing myself and I should be able to keep increasing my workout each week. I think tomorrow I will do a short walk/run and will plan on doing the same thing Wednesday and Friday too. I will let you know how it goes tomorrow.

Hospitals are Expensive

I have always been a firm believer in the fact that government programs don't work. When we were living in Tulsa, it seemed like anytime I was in a grocery store or corner store there was somebody buying something with food stamps.

I have always been a firm believer in the fact that government programs don’t work. When we were living in Tulsa, it seemed like anytime I was in a grocery store or corner store there was somebody buying something with food stamps. Then I would watch them get into their brand new car and stop into a Starbucks for a 5 dollar cup of coffee before heading home. I know that everybody has their own situations but when I would see that kind of thing it would bother me.

Since Isabel’s birth by opinion has changed slightly. When we were in the hospital we were told that she will rack up over a million dollars in medical bills before she is a year old. It was a blessing that we have very good insurance however, we quickly learned that insurance isn’t going to cover everything. Once she had been in the hospital for over 30 days we learned that she was eligible for Medicaid. My first reaction was that we don’t need government help, those programs are for people that don’t have jobs and can’t work. Then I saw the first bill and realized that if we didn’t have medicaid for her we would be filling for bankruptcy before the end of the year. I still think that there are too many people take advantage of government programs but I thank god that the program is there for us and others in the same situation to use.

One of the things that helped prepare us financially for everything that has been going on with Isabel was doing a monthly family budget. Right after Addison was born I read “The Total Money Makeover” by Dave Ramsey and we started following his plan. In the last 3 years have been able to get a lot of our student loads and other debt under control. If we hadn’t started working the plan as we did we would still be having a very difficult time paying for everything even with Medicaid.

My Jobs…

First of all I have to give photo credit to my wife and daughter! Pretty fitting for today.

I have 2 jobs right now. My day job is as a software developer at a software company that makes point of sale software. I also run my own web consulting business called Kindred Web Consulting. I love both my jobs because they both allow me to show people what technology can do to help them.

My Day Job

My day job has its ups and downs. I have always loved the fact that I have a ton of freedom and that we have been able to put together a fix for a customer in a matter of a few hours. One of the joys of working for a small company is that there is not near the amount of hoops to jump through when something needs to be fixed.

My Night Job

I love running my own business. I am able to make some of the decisions that I have suggested in my day job and not been able to do. My real passion is helping people use the Internet to better there lives and business and this is exactly what I do. I design and develop websites, audit social media and help educate my customers on how to create a consistent brand experience across all the different platforms they may be using. I am also going to start offering online classes that will teach people how to do different things with technology. These are going to range from how to schedule a post in Facebook to setting up your email on your mobile device. If you would be interested in something like that let me know about it. Fill out this form and let me know about the topic you would be interested in learning about.

I have been lucky to have a few friends and family give me the opportunity to have them be some of my first customers. It has been great how things have started to grow and I love that I am starting to get referral customers. Thank you to everybody that has suggested my services to people and if you know of anybody looking for a website feel free to give them my info.