I Think We're Getting The Hang Of This

OB/GYN coming to an end! This rotation really hasn't been bad at all! Our whole family is more used to the strange surgical hours. Mark was getting up anywhere between 3:45 and 4:45 am while on the surgical part of OB/GYN. When he was on call those days he wouldn't get home until after 7:30pm so there were a few stints where the kids would go almost 48 hours without seeing daddy. The first couple times were hard for them. I always tell them who daddy is helping at "work" and that he will give them a kiss when he gets home. I'm glad that they are so understanding about this because I know we'll experience a lot of these stretches in an ortho residency. The kids love asking Mark about what he does at the hospital. I'm proud to be able to tell them that daddy helping others is the reason he is missing time with them. The life of medicine really has to be a calling, esp when you have a family.

My son is almost fully potty trained during the day! Yes! Not only that but my 15 month old daughter tells me once or twice daily that she needs to go too...and she does! It makes me excited to know that possibly by the end of summer I could have two potty trained children, and NO MORE DIAPERS!!!!!! :)

Next week Mark starts a two week elective in ortho surgery. He's going to have a blast I already know. After that we dive into 12 weeks of surgery. 6 weeks of general surgery and 6 weeks of specialties. Now, I've got to find his passport so that he can go on a flight to pick up donor organs if there is extra room. I hope I can find that thing!

Beach

The last couple weeks we got to get out of town for a little bit. We drove 5 hours to visit Mark's grandparents. It was fun! We visited family and stayed in a hotel for 2 nights. It was our first trip that was more fun and relaxing than stressful and draining because of the kids. It's nice that my 2 babies can walk, communicate, eat real food and drink from sippy cups! Makes things so much more enjoyable.

This weekend we went to the beach! My sister lives a 1 minute walk from the beach and we stayed with her for a night. Ahhhh! We also got to see some good friends and my parents.

Mark has finished his first week on ob/gyn. He is doing well but it's just not his cup o' tea. Some of the cases are discouraging. He's looking forward to his surgery rotation next. We're still plowing away on his away rotation applications. Background checks, copies of BLS cards, immunization records, etc. Still trying to decide his second place he should rotate. Any suggestions? He's trying to do something that isn't on the west coast.

2010 & 3rd Years Downhill Slope

Thank you God! We're in the final half of year three and starting to actually fill out away rotation applications! The last couple months were BUSY. My husbands grandfather was diagnosed with cancer so we made the 5 hour drive to see him back in November. We spent the holidays with family and friends. We also celebrated our 6 year anniversary by spending a couple nights away while my parents watched the kids. (fun!) It was our first official nights away from them, can you believe that? That is what happens when you live far away from grandparents I guess. Our daughter also turned 1. I am officially a mom of a 2 and 1 year old! Exciting stuff let me tell you.

We spent most of December plowing through the endless list of orthopedic residency programs. For each one I googled the location city data as far as crime rates, education, weather, schools. I needed to be sure that I could survive and thrive in each location for 80 plus hours a week without my husband around. I looked at rental websites to make sure we could find a place to live that we could afford and checked which areas were most family friendly. I even made a note by each program that had an airport close by with a direct flight available to my parents location!
As far as for the programs themselves, there were some that made you do away rotations for months at a time in another state during your 5 years. Not okay with that! I mean how is that supposed to work for a family? I crossed those programs off the list. Others that didn't make the keeper list were programs that had only accepted residents from a certain location. I spent time going over the benefits each provided. Medical, dental, life and disability. Free meals on call days/nights, free parking. So, so, so many things to consider. My hubby wants to apply to 70 programs. yikes. So far, after months of this I have 46 on the keep list. Ugh!

We are now filling out applications for 4th year away rotations. We're shooting for two away rotations at 4 weeks each over this upcoming summer. Hopefully, if all goes well, we can get the dates that we want and the programs we want. Unfortunately neither of them participate in VSAS so we have a lot of printing out, filling out and mailing stuff going on.

I'm in the process of beginning potty training with my son. This has been harder than expected. (any advice out there is appreciated) I'm also trying to be a regular at my churches mom's group. It's for moms and their kids under 5. We get together once a week and let the kids play. We pray for each other and for the kids. Once a month is mom's night out which I have yet to go to. Hopefully this month! It's hard when M is gone weird hours to plan for that. Plus we've been getting sick a lot! Also, I'm in the process of starting to volunteer at our church nursery. It feels good to finally have the time and energy to do more than stay in my house and feed/change and entertain my kids. Honestly, for me the whole first year of my daughters life was just getting through each day making sure they were taken care of and that the house was in decent shape.

M is on ob/gyn next, and I'm looking forward to hearing about his first delivery. I wonder if its an advantage that he has already seen labor twice?