catch up:

okay, i am finally posting the things i listed on this here.

finishing my clinicals.

via

yikes.. this past semester was quite the challenge. i can honestly say that capstone was the hardest thing i have ever done.. let me rephrase that, having to worry about and take care of a baby during capstone and not neglect my husband was the hardest thing i have ever done.
a few of the hurdles included:
- the hospital being in slc.. driving back and forth in rush hour / awful construction
- cal's ear infection
- cal refusing to take a bottle
- forgetting vital pieces to my pump (twice, and having sharsti/my mom save me)
- primary-ing a withdrawal baby (meaning i took care of her almost every time i was at work)
- the morning i went to leave, and our fridge/freezer was broken
- having enough milk to leave for cal
- night shifts in the nicu (try staying awake at 3:30 while rocking a baby, or spending all night with the most crazy fussy baby you can imagine)
- night shifts at home with calvin not sleeping more than 2 hours at night

not everything was horrible about my clinicals. in fact, i really loved the nicu. my preceptor was amazing and i learned so so much from her. i left feeling competent in my skills. i loved working with the little babies, and their sweet parents.  i really hope to return to the nicu one day.

thanksgiving.
we spent the night before thanksgiving up at my parents cabin. it was lots of fun. we played risk (and momma won), watched movies, and the next day ate some yummy thanksgiving grub.

we gave cal his first taste of rice cereal on thanksgiving day. he actually ate it quite well...
which leads us to

cal starting solids.

 at his 4 month appointment the dr gave us the ok to give him food. we waited until he was almost 5 months to start. cal was showing lots of signs of being ready to eat - sitting up, reaching for our food, pretending to chew, not sleeping through the night...  so when we gave him food, he did pretty well. of course there was lots of spitting, and him blowing bubbles with it, but the majority of it was swallowed.

he tried rice cereal with breastmilk, peas, carrots, and prunes.

if you couldn't tell by the prunes, c's digestion took a hit when he started eating. poor kid was grunting and squirming for days with no avail. after a few rounds of mashed prunes, and a bottle of prune juice and stopping the solids, we got everything back on track.

we waited a few weeks before trying again, and the same problem arouse. i was reading that babes can get constipated if their little bellies are not ready.. so after that, we put the baby food away, and will try again when he's six months.

christmas decor.

there it is in all it's glory.. our tiny little tree. maybe one year we will get a bigger one, but this will do for now. 

this isn't christmas decorations, but an early christmas present. we took advantage of black friday and got some new furniture to finish our guest room. no none, of it was on sale for a great deal.. but we just had an urge to shop. j found one the these bookshelves on ksl classifieds, found another of the exact same one at target. our books fit nicely on them, and it felt good to finally unpack the rest of our boxes. we also got a little desk to fit in a nook we have in that room. so the question now is.. who is going to come visit us? stay in our guest room? and read some of our books?