A patient's kind words

Medicine is a thankless field and difficult work much of the time. We doctors work long hours and miss birthdays, holiday celebrations, and other events, after (for most of us) already giving up our youth/twenties to rigorous schooling, residency, and sleep deprivation. Our days rarely go as planned or run on time (hard for type-A and schedule-oriented people, like many of us are).  We often have to do 30 minutes of work in 15-minute appointments, which is hard to do well, and frustrates the perfectionists in us. We have a never-ending inbox, because our patients always need us, and finish work from home after our kids are in bed.  Patients arrive late often, for reasons that are sometimes out of their control (or sometimes well within it), making our other patients late and making us late at picking up our own children or making it home for a meal.  They often don't like or follow our advice. They can be demanding and don't always see that sometimes "doing nothing" (i.e watch and wait) is the best, least harmful medicine, or that their procrastination (of paperwork or other) doesn't automatically become somehow our emergency.  Family practice physicians suffer a lot from burnout due to the emotional and administrative burden that our patients and the practice ask of us, when we entered this profession to prevent illness, help, and heal.

But sometimes an appreciative patient makes your day (and this is why the best part of my job is delivering babies, which is usually an incredibly joyful event with very thankful, happy patients). When I responded via MyChart (e-mail) about a medical question to one of my very educated, retired patients, who is also a sci-fi author in his spare time, he wrote back to me:

"BTW, you made a brief appearance in my soon-to-be-published book: "It was the insomnia that led me to seek help from my doctor, a woman who looked too young to be practicing medicine yet made up for her inexperience with an encyclopedic knowledge of medicine and an exceptional mind. Despite a busy schedule, she always gave me her full attention and never made me feel rushed." 


This patient really made my day-- a day which started with leaving home early to get to the hospital to manage two laboring patients and rush through clinic, and which ended with attending two deliveries of beautiful, healthy babies, but missing seeing my kids before their bedtime and then developing a splitting headache. A patient's quiet and kind words of appreciation really go a long way.

KonMari-ing my life

I have always been a pretty organized person (even as a child, when I loved cleaning and playing "Cinderella."). I love a neat room and house (and now, with very little free time, love even more if someone cleans it for me!). Like it does for many people, clutter makes me feel crowded and stressed. Having two busy, young children has made me have to relax a bit with regards to the state of my living room. However, I am a big fan of spring cleaning and get a lot of satisfaction from periodic de-cluttering closets, countertops, and drawers.

I read Marie Kondo's Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up a few years ago (and enjoyed watching her recent Netflix series). While I don't really feel that it's all that practical with the time I currently have to find/gather every single item (of a category) and place them in a pile in order to start the de-cluttering process, her KonMari method intuitively makes a lot of sense.

I definitely feel that we have so much that it seems very easy and very fair to whittle down your supply of items, especially if they do not "spark joy."  I've definitely been more on an anti-consumerist kick lately and vow not to only reduce what we have, but to buy less.  I've been very much on Kelvin's case to resist any temptation to hoard (or get rid of something for every new item purchased), and am trying to donate baby toys and clothes the minute Niall outgrows them.  I've also let go of my guilt of exchanging gifts for something I'll actually use/wear. The biggest reason to get rid of extra stuff, in my opinion, is so that you can actually easily and quickly find items you need/are looking for. I particularly hate when I can't find something because of clutter and may have to purchase its duplicate, which seems so incredibly wasteful.

I recently decided to KonMari my dresser drawers. It was extremely easy (and I located shirts I forgot I even had!) and makes it so much easier to find and decide on something to wear!

I have several oldies-but-goodies tees

I seriously already feel lighter, and that my mood is better, by having less and enjoying more what possessions I did decide to keep! I highly recommend that you KonMari your life-- you won't regret it!

Ice cream for breakfast?

This morning, Iver (who has been coughing/wheezing a bit but feeling and acting "fine") asked us if he could have a popsicle for breakfast.

K and me: "A popsicle? We don't eat popsicles for breakfast."

Iver (a fan of sweets): "Yes we do! If we're sick, we can eat a popsicle. Mama ate one last week [when I had acute gastroenteritis and couldn't keep down anything]!"

It was a fair point.

Iver: "Also, great grandma Georgine was allowed to eat ice cream when she was sick, before she died." (I couldn't believe he remembered this-- that the only thing for which she had an appetite, at the end, was chocolate ice cream).

Touché, my son. It was a good try, but he still didn't get a popsicle or ice cream for breakfast.

ONE!

 

 Our baby is out of infancy, now ONE! 

At 12 months, Niall:

-  Weighs 17#15 oz (5%) with length of 9% and head circumference of 85%! He is in mostly 9-12 month clothing, although 12-month pants are a bit long on him

-  Has fair skin, big eyes and a big (~85%) head, long eyelashes, two dimples, very little but more-than-before hair, and five (three upper, two lower) sharp teeth. He seems to like to self-feed preferably with his left hand (a budding southpaw?)

- drinks pumped breast milk at daycare, the quantity of which has been surpassing my current pumping supply at this point given a recent terrible GI illness with weight loss/dehydration and because his solids intake has also increased (but I thankfully had a back stash from hoarding days). He nurses when I'm home, 4-6x per day-- upon waking, before bed, and before and sometimes after naps (but has been night-weaned since about 9-10 months). He loves food and snacks, shouting "mum mum mum!" when hungry, and bangs on his high chair impatiently in the morning and at dinnertime. He likes raisin bread, breakfast bars, cereal, fruits (especially bananas, blueberries, and grapes), yogurt, string cheese, zucchini, mashed sweet potato, avocado, carrots, shrimp, noodles, baby pho and soups, and puffs and peanut snacks. We give him mostly soft/cut-up versions of what we're eating, but he's not a big fan of meat, and usually spits it out after trying a taste, so we have to sneak it in and have continued his iron drops (we may have a budding vegetarian on our hands!). He loves water in a sippy cup and we will be starting cow's milk any day now (Iver has been raring to share his morning toast, sometimes with honey, and milk, and is excited to now have a 12-month-old sibling with which he can share formerly forbidden foods/drinks!)

- is in cloth diapers during the day (with flushable liners) and size 3 overnight Huggies at night. He is very regular and, if we can get him there in time, usually poops on the potty first thing in the morning and then has at least 1-2 more BMs during the day, although (? after some berries) last week he had frequent looser stools and a nasty diaper rash (now gone)

 - is doing great at the infant room at daycare. He never cries at drop-off, and is loving, smiley, and cuddly with most adults and kids 

- he is generally always happy, except when in pain or sick, and then wants to be held. Thankfully, after now 6 months in daycare, the illnesses are rare. He also sucks down medicines via syringe with glee.

- is an extremely fast crawler. He isn't taking steps independently or walking yet but can free stand, and he cruises and pushes a walker toy or rolling suitcases. He climbs, backs down from furniture, and can get into cabinets like a champ and we have to be good about keeping them locked. 

- loves to play/mess with Iver's art supplies (uncapping and capping markers),  Pepper, and Pepper's water bowl, tupperware and lids, blocks, rattles, cups, and is very opinionated, protesting if you try to take something away or redirect him from something he wants to get his hands on. We're trying to read to him, but he mostly likes to eat the pages or throw the books. He loves walks in the front-facing carrier, playing peek-a-boo, and being tickled.  He used to love baths (with big brother), but has been on an anti-bath kick in the past week, crying for unclear reasons.

 - He smiles, laughs, giggles, squeals, says "mama," "da" and "dat." He purposefully signs  "all done," "more," "milk,"  "dog," and (one time, we think "poop."). He is a really happy and mellow guy, clingy only when in pain or sick.

- sleeps amazingly in a crib, sharing a room with Iver (going on two months now). After a bath and a nursing session, he goes to bed in his footie pajamas and sleep sack between 7 and 7:30 p.m. within a few minutes of being put in his crib drowsy. He usually rolls to his stomach to sleep, and sleeps until about 6 a.m., eleven hours later, when the Hatchbaby white noise/light alarm turns light, happy and cooing (Iver is almost always  already up, ready to go).  He naps twice, once in the morning around 9 a.m. or three hours after waking, and around 1:30 or 2 p.m., also putting himself to sleep. There are no signs of crib-escaping, and we are SO THANKFUL and blessed to have such a fabulous sleeper (THIS IS TRULY A GAME CHANGER)!!

We celebrated with a candle-topped Aussie bite for breakfast

(Iver made the birthday sign)

Big brother helped keep the fire hazard away and "blow" out the candle.

It's so hard to believe that it's been a full year since he made his sneakily fast entrance into the world, which you can read about here.  I am on call this weekend and helping other mamas birth their babies today, but I got to wake up with my babies and put them to bed, too!

Here are some of my favorite photos from Niall's first year:

the "Michael Jordan" face

 Here's what big brother Iver was doing at 12 months. 

Our #2 is an incredibly sweet (and rested!) little man, and I can't believe we're out of the infancy phase! Onto toddlerhood we go!

Frozen!

We've had some pretty strange weather within the week (even within the day-- last Monday had quite the wintry/sunny mix!), including rain, hail, sleet, sun, and this morning.... snow (and the biggest storm in this area in 29 years)!  While many of you deal with cold and snow on a regular basis (I'm thankful to no longer live in an area that could be a polar vortex, but I've definitely shoveled my share of snow in my life), it's extremely rare for it to get cold enough here at sea level on the North Coast of California to snow ("For the first time in forever....").

This morning, Iver (who, a couple of weeks ago, discovered and adores the movie Frozen) was thrilled to wake up to see 2-3 inches of real snow accumulated on our deck and backyard.  He couldn't wait to go out into it and build a snowman "just like Olaf"!

Niall's first glimpse of the powdery white stuff!

 

Front yard

Our alleyway

 

Pepper was not so thrilled at the prospect of going outside to do her business, although we've taken her snowshoeing before (in Mt. Shasta) and I recall she loved it!

We had bought this sled a couple of years ago with the intention of bringing it up to the hills in the chance it'd snow. We've mainly used it to drag kiddos around our garage, but today, we actually put it to snow use!

 

 

 

Big Brother took a turn at pulling

joy... or terror?

 

 

Snowball fight! 

Building snow creatures ("Do you want to build a snowman?")

Our very own Olaf!

    

 We finally caught our nearly one-year-old smiling

 

 

 

When the sun came out, Iver wanted to help "shovel" snow and build a second snowman.

  

While I suspect that the snow won't last very long ("Let it Gooooo!"), it was so nice to experience it!