My job

Whenever someone asks me what I do for work, I never really know how to explain it without going into a long explanation. Here’s an attempt (in writing) that might help some of you that still wonder what the heck I do :)

This October, I will have worked for Advanced Health Care for 7 years! AHC is an in-home health care agency based out of Tacoma, WA, serving clients around the Puget Sound (go to www.advanced-healthcare.com for more info). It is an amazing company that has helped so many individuals be able to stay at home in some of the most difficult times of their lives. I began as a Scheduler, working in their Olympia office right after college. After a couple years, a few things in my personal life changed – I got married, and my husband and I decided to start growing our family. During this transition, I knew that I wanted to stay home with our soon to be daughter - But I also wanted to work. We brainstormed all types of different options…start an in-home daycare, start some sort of small website-based business – basically anything that would allow me to stay home and make an income. And then a lightbulb went off – why can’t I still work for Advanced, but work from home?! It was a long shot, but why not ask? I scheduled a meeting with my supervisor, and she went for it! But then I had to figure out what the heck I was going to do.

After  a lot of brainstorming, and working closely with my supervisor, we came up with a new position. I thought of all of the different things that I liked to do and could do without being in the office - and it became my job description - Help with online marketing efforts, create and update forms, create the monthly newsletter, chair the Quality Assurance Committee, update the website, help with on-call scheduling every morning before the office opens…The list goes on.

So since June 2011 (the month my daughter was born), I’ve been working from home as Advanced Health Care’s “Technical Support Specialist.” We’ve gone through 2 big moves (to North Dakota and then White Salmon, WA), and have had 3 beautiful children since beginning this new endeavor. It’s the  best job I could have ever imagined. I get to be a professional AT HOME (with a babysitter) about 15-20 hours a week doing what I love, and a mommy the rest of the time. It’s a perfect balance, and I have everyone at Advanced Health Care to thank for that!

So, that’s what I do. Pretty cool, huh?

7 Weeks and Counting!

Well it's 3am and I'm sitting in the recliner with a sleepy baby in my lap. Oh how I love this recliner in the wee hours of the night!! I should have headed back to bed once Brooke drifted back to sleep after her feeding, but now I'm wide awake. I thought I'd take this opportunity to update everyone on our life these last couple weeks.

First of all, I have to mention that we are so lucky to have such a beautiful baby girl! I look at her daily in complete awe of how perfect she is! She is already 7 weeks old and learning so much every day. I think my favorite thing so far is her constant smiles and giggles! Brooke is definitely a morning person which always starts out the day perfectly! She smiles and coos for what seems like forever in the mornings. We've got some really cute videos of it!

We really have been having a blast! Brooke and I enjoy our walks during the week while daddy is at work, and always look forward to him coming home. There really is nothing better than the huge smile she gets the second he walks in the door! I have to say that Chad is the best daddy in the whole world! My heart just  melts seeing him with her.

I had my 6 week post partum appointment last Friday and it went great! According to my midwife, I am completely healed! Yahoo! It really is amazing to me how much a woman's body can go through and how quicky it can heal! I started P90X last week too. P90X is a home exercise program that focuses primarily on muscle confusion. Chad and I did it last year and I got really good results, so I thought this would be a perfect program to get me back in shape. I'm doing the lean version of the program this time, so I'm excited to see how it goes! I'll keep you all updated on my progress as the 90 days pass.

Oh, we went on our first walk as a family yesterday along Goldsburough Creek. It was so nice to put Brooke in her front pack and just go! I did have to bundle her up like it was winter, though. You wouldn't think it was August if you saw her outfit! haha. Lilly loved it too. She is such a great dog! Here are a couple pictures of our walk.

Well I should head off to bed. Have a great week everyone!! Thanks for reading :)

5 Weeks!

This last week has gone by so fast! I used to think that I'd have so much more time to get things accomplished once I was home with Brooke during the day. What was I thinking?! haha.

Miss Brooke is doing greatl! She is now 5 weeks old and learning so much every day. It's amazing to see these little changes in her every time I blink. She's now smiling at us on a regular basis and even laughing sometimes if we're lucky. I can literally just sit and cuddle with her all day and watch her smile back at me. She is also finding her voice and experimenting with the new noises she can make. It's adorable!

 Brooke and I have a really good routine during the week. We typically wake up about two times a night to feed. It works out really well. We then wake up with daddy and get him off to work by 6:30 and then take our morning nap in the recliner. I look forward to that time with Brooke every morning! She's such a cuddler! Lilly always finds herself at my feet and naps with us as well. 

The last couple of weeks, I've been bringing Brooke on outings with me more and more. We've been to the grocery store, to Olympia and back, and even to my dentist appointment. Every single outing has been great! Brooke does so well in her carseat and in the car! I was so nervous bringing her to my dentist appointment by myself, but she was perfect! I never realized how much attention a baby brings, though. It's so great to see the joy that comes from a baby!

On another note, I just finished up being on call for just over a week. It went really well! I definitely wondered how it would go with having a 5 week baby at home, but it was great! I love being able to work from home so I can spend my time home with my beautiful family. On top of being on call, I've still been working a couple hours a week on the computer. I also hosted a baby shower for my soon to be sister-in-law Christina this afternoon! It was actually my first EVER time hosting a party of any sort and I loved it! I had so much fun baking and decorating her cake and getting everything ready for the party :) 

 Well I think that's it for now. Thanks for reading! Until next time...

Stay at home/work at home mom

Brooke is coming up on a month old now...can you believe it?! I look at her and can't believe how much she has changed already! As we get more and more settled at home with our beautiful daughter, I keep thinking that I need to get settled into some sort of routine. Of course, I know that every day will be different and exiciting, but I think that having a flexible routine will allow me to feel more accomplished and organized, especially during the week when Chad is at work.

As some of you may already know, I am now able to work exclusively from home. I have been promoted to Technical Support Specialist at Advanced  Health Care and can work any day or night, as many hours as I'd like. It's the perfect position! I've always wanted to be a mom, and always thought that it would be ideal to be able to stay at home while my children grew up, but still liked the idea of being able to work and utilize all of that schooling I paid for!! This is perfect! I am so lucky to work for an origanization that has given me an opportunity like this!

I am slowly starting to work a few hours a week right now, even though I still have a lot of paid time off (PTO) left. I guess I just don't know how to stay away ;). At this point, I'm grabbing the laptop and logging on when Brooke is taking a nap. It's working out really great! I'm also taking the on-call staffing responsibilites a few weekends here and there while our regular gal is on vacation, starting this weekend! The beauty of on call is that it is during nights and weekends when Chad is home and can help with Brooke :)

I cannot explain how wonderful of a feeling it is to be able to stay at home with Brooke and watch her grow! And I still get to get some work done...it's the best of both worlds!

Revealing Brooke's Name

As many of you may know, Chad and I kept Brooke's name a secret until the day she was born. We made this decision shortly after finding out she was a girl. We wanted to keep that element of surprise for everyone and also didn't want to second guess ourselves after hearing everyones opinions on different names. I'm so glad we made that decision!

A few weeks before Brooke was born, I came up with an idea to get some of our family involved. This came about after I decided that I wanted to decorate the letters to Brooke's name and hang them up in the nursery. I'm not too creative with that type of decorating, so I was going to ask for some help. I didn't want to reveal her name in the process, though. I ended up asking 6 different people (my mom Diana, Chad's mom Jan, my sister Erica, Chad's sisters Vanessa and Danielle, and Chad's niece Madison) to decorate one letter each. I went to the store and bought wooden letters (B R O O K E) and dispersed one to each person. I asked themto keep their letters a secret and to to be as creative as possible while trying to incorporate the colors of the nursery which are pink and brown.

Then end result turned out great! Just as we expected, every letter was so unique, and I can see each person's personality and creativity in each one.

After we collected all of the letters from everyone, Chad and I put them up on the wall. We then took a picture and text the picture with her name to everyone involved as soon as she was born!

As Brooke grows up, each of these people involved will play such a large role in her life. Just as creating these letters shows a little bit of their personality and uniqueness, Brooke's life will be influenced by them in similar ways. I am so grateful for everyone who was involved in creating these letters and couldn't be happier to have such a strong family base in Brooke's life.

Beginning Week 3 - Update!

Hi Everyone!! I can't believe Brooke is already 3 weeks old! She is growing so fast and changing by the minute! It's still just amazing to me that she was in my belly just 3 weeks ago!

Well we had Brooke's 2 week appointment last week. Everything went great - she is growing like a weed! She now weighs 9lbs 8 ozs and 22 inches long. We're going to Olympia Pediatrics - Dr. Dana Petersen. He is wonderful and shares a lot of the same ideals as us with raising Brooke. I'm excited for Brooke to grow up with him as her doctor! Because everything went so great at her check up, we scheduled her next appointment for 2 months.

We've slowly been introducing Brooke to the outside world. I take her on walks during the day which has been great! We also went to MCRA for Ty's All Star game this last weekend. Here are a few pictures that we took at the park:

Well that's all for now. Have a great week!!

My Labor & Delivery Experience

As I mentioned a little bit in my last post, I was 9 days overdue and still hadn't shown any signs of labor at my 42 week appt, so it was time to get things started on my own!! I was so against being induced because I wanted to labor at home as much as possible before heading to the hospital and do it all completely natural. I was dilated to 1 cm at my appt, so she stripped my membranes and suggested that I try the casor oil milkshake when I got home and start walking. Sunday was induction day, so I only had 2 days left to get the ball on the road!!

We got home around 11:30am and right off the bat, I drank that nasty castor oil milkshake. That didn't stay down for too long :(. I then started up my new Medela Breast Pump and started pumping for about a half hour. I did that a few times and tried to stay as active as possible.

By 3:00pm, I felt my first contraction! Wahoo! I wasn't about to let them fade away, so Chad and I started walking...and walking...and walking! I'm so glad it was a decent day outside! We walked around Calanan Park and through the neighborhood. I must have looked funny to the neighbors! haha. If the contractions slowed down at all, I'd walk through them. I downloaded an app on Chad's phone that timed our contractions, and by 4:00pm, they were a consistent 4 minutes apart for 1 minute each! I called my midwife Karen and told her that I was in active labor!! She told me to head in when I couldn't walk, talk or text during a contraction

After our walk, we headed back to the house and made sure everything was in order. I called our wonderful friend Janeen and had her come pick up Lilly to stay the weekend and packed the car. Contractions were definitely tough, but in between was great! I was able to talk to Chad just fine. I think I was even doing laundry. haha.

We headed to the hospital (St. Peter Hospital) around 8:30pm and got there at 9:00pm. My nurse Shannon immediately checked me and said I was dilated to 4 cm!! Yay! I was so nervous of being sent home, but they said I was going to be admitted and I would be having the baby soon! We got settled in the room soon after and I was so excited to get in the tub! I labored for awhile in the tub and then on the birthing ball and was dilated to a 7 by 11:00pm! Things were moving quickly. I think I was dilated to a 9 by 1:00am, but got stuck there for awhile. I started pushing around 3:30am and had Brooke at 4:51am!! I cannot explain the feeling of holding her in my arms for the first time! Time stood still!

I think the best part about this entire experience was the first couple hours after having her. After being checked out and stitched up (small 1st degree tear), both Shannon and Karen left us alone with Brooke for as long as we wanted! I was able to nurse her right away and study every feature. Chad and I quickly decided she had his length and hair and my chin! She was perfect! She was so alert and looked right at me and squeezed my finger! What an amazing experience!

It was just Chad and I in the room, which was the plan from the beginning. I wouldn't have done it any different! The only other people in the room were Nurse Shannon and my Midwife Karen. It was so calm and peaceful the entire time. And I was able to do it without any medication!!! It went exactly how I wanted it to and the result was a happy, healthy baby girl! 7 lbs 15 ozs, 21 inches of perfection!

 We stayed at the hospital that night and were released on Sunday (Father's Day!) What a perfect first Father's Day gift for Chad!