September

September has been a GOOD month for us. I've GOT to start posting more than once a month so it doesn't take ma an hour to go through the million photo memories of the month! :)

 

What sort of mischief have we been up to, you ask?

I was on nights for the first part of it, which is always rough. But, ironically I saw Adler more than I otherwise would have now that Julia is here. We got into a new routine where Adler was already up and out of the house at school by the time I got home from work around 8 AM. I would head straight to bed and Julia would pick her up and get her home by 4:30 ish so I could feed her and spend a few moments with her before heading out the door again by 5:30 PM.

Good morning for mamma, and nearly goodnight for Adler

Now I’m on a rotation called “swing” where I work most nights from 4 PM until 2 AM (and some days I start at noon). 

 This allows me to get home around 2:30 AM, crash for a few hours, get up for a little while with Addie to get her ready to go to school, then head back to bed for a nap. And I STILL get time to do some work around the house, or prepping for clinic, etc before I head in to work around 3:30 PM. It’s amazing how I feel like a 10 hour “day” is SO short! I do feel exhausted because of the interrupted, crazy sleep schedule, but I’m grateful to at least have some time during normal “wake hours” where I get to see Tom, Adler, and the light of day. 

In between the schedule changes of the month, we’ve had a lot of good times.

Truly, a lot of good times. 

We got to explore a new beach called Napatree Point in Westerly, RI. And only after the fact did I realize that I had made one of most negligent parenting mistakes of my short 8.5 months of motherhood…You see, we started out the day when it was gloomy, cloudy, even misting. 

Our intent was to walk out to the point of this beach for a picnic. 

 

Well, by the time we made it and got our sandwiches, the clouds were starting to break.

 

By the time we started our return back to the car, the sun was out in full force. 

It was LOVELY.

A hotel called the "ocean house" that we couldn't go in because we weren't in nice enough clothes to meet the dress code requirements!

However, Adler fell asleep in this position. With her cheek and arm fully exposed to the sun. 

I had left the sunscreen in the car, and COMPLETELY FORGOT to bring a hat.

White baby + direct sun exposure + time = really bad burn.

 

The poor thing had blisters on her face from the burn. I felt HORRIBLE. I nearly cried every time I looked at her, and you can imagine the guilt I felt when she was dropped at day care with prescription strength cream for her face that my pediatrician recommended for the blisters. ☹

Thankfully time heals wounds. And we got to go out to pick apples with Julia.

You can bet after the sunburn a week before I remembered both the hat AND the sunscreen

 And of course, we got to gaze at the pumpkins. 

 

We also celebrated the upcoming wedding of Meri and Jimmy with a lovely wedding shower at Leanne’s house.It was a lovely evening of family time.

 My co-resident, Jenny, who is just hitting the second trimester of her pregnancy, LOVED getting a trial run with all the babies (this is her and my former chief resident Meena with baby Jack and Adler). 

We took Adler to see her first volleyball match

 It was easy to picture Adler out on the court (hopefully) one day

We got more time with all the babies too, at Fei’s house for a dumpling making party. 

 

We also had a fun event this weekend, the Izzy Gala. It was hosted on the 17-18th floors of the Biltmore hotel in providence overlooking the WaterFire even in Providence.

 It is a fundraiser for the Izzy Foundation that Julia is interning for, and the foundation that was started by two of my attending physicians who lost their daughter izzy to cancer when she was just three years old. 

 

We’ve been to the gala before, but somehow this year it meant more to me than before, just thinking of little addie having to be exposed to chemotherapy or surgery or radiation, it made me finally understand and recognize the sort of pain they must have felt. May I never have to bear that burden!

We walked away from the evening the winners of a few items from the silent auction -both of which will be good events for us later in the year: a membership to RISD art museum, and a dinner and a play experience in Newport, RI. 

After the gala, we got together the next morning with the whole crew to help Fei spend her winnings--gift cards to Knead donuts!

 It was a wonderfully sunny fall morning.

All the babies interacted with each other, and with the puppy of the group: Link!

Adler loved link!

Tom celebrated his 34th birthday this year with Adler's help of course. 

 We got to spend the morning before his birthday together since he was working from home and I had gotten home at 2 AM and didn't have to work again until 4 pm :) . Nothing beats breakfast birthday cake!

Thanks to all the friends and family who sent gifts for Adler to open with Tom

Adler also got to see a horse for the first time while we walked around the park. 

 

We can't wait to take her to the zoo to see her smiling at all the creatures!

 

We've really enjoyed going on walks with Adler in the new hiking backpack that Auntie Kristi got for us. 

We're so grateful to live next to this amazing park!

It's full of fun new things to play on and explore

 I love how now that we have her, the smallest ltitle things can be the absolute best moments in life. I dont' care about going out and "doing something big" with my weekends. Just seeing her smile on the swing is enough for me. And I love it. 

Adler has learned a new skill this month: turning pages in a book! I'm sure it means nothing to all of you, but it's pretty spectacular to us.

She STILL doesn't like tummy time though. We are convinced it's because her head is so big she can't enjoy herself because she can't lift it off of the bed!

 

We try to condition her into liking it by kind of making it into a game, but so far it's not really working

 

We have LOTS to look forward to in October. Grantie Ann and Tim are coming to visit, as well as Nanna and Pappa. 

 

I finish out the swing rotation while they are visiting which will allow me more time with them all—and then I’m off to start my oncology rotation—arguably the most important rotation in all of my residency. I’m nervous, excited, and hopeful that it will help cement my plans for a future career and help me gain clarity in all of my training. 

I hope to post before the next month is up, but no guarantees!