Max's year in review

Here is the video montage I made of Max's first year. Hopefully I haven't set myself up to do this every year. :)

What difference a year makes

One year ago I was just getting home from work after a meeting.  Randy Moss had just resigned with the Minnesota Vikings and they were playing Monday Night Football. My parents were 5 hours from returning home to MN from MT for Baby C's birth.  Huntz was still working at IGT.  The weather was very similar to this year, warm, crisp, sunny.  I had my Centering Pregnancy class/check up with Kira, my midwife and she said I was about 2 cm dilated.  Not much change from the previous week.  Life seemed normal as the day went on, but Max had a different plan.  Around 9:30pm, my water broke. I was in bed already because I was supposed to work on Tuesday.  I went to the bathroom and confirmed my suspicions and went downstairs to tell Huntz.  The next few hours were calm as we showered and headed to the hospital to meet Anna our midwife on call.  Now, being a nurse you would've thought I'd have known better, but to go to admitting at 11:00pm *change of shift, but I guess my nursey mind was elsewhere. :)  When we got to the hospital and got all checked in, I called my parents and told them where we were. (They had just gotten home around 9).  Huntz found the game on TV and we started 'our labor and delivery story'.
   Max decided not to join the rest of us until 5:19 the next day, but he was welcomed with open arms.  Pat got to deliver him and he was 6lb 14oz.  20.5 inches.  He had a big head (can't remember the size), but our midwife said if it had been 1/2cm bigger it would've been qualified to get a diamond out of the deal. Her rules not mine.
   This year has been so incredibly wonderful and hard all at the same time.  We took our first plane ride with Max when he was 2 1/2 months to Montana for Christmas.  We travelled to Iowa for an Amway conference with Max in tow. We travelled to WI several times to see the extended family. Max got to meet his great grandpa George and say good bye to him a few months later.
  Some skills I have acquired include breastfeeding and texting, napping while Max naps, diapering one handed, clipping fingernails without clipping the fingertips, photographing Max, and surviving on little sleep.
  I wouldn't trade all the hard moments for anything, but the precious moments are so treasured.  I already miss the middle of the night cuddle sessions after a feeding thinking about how he'll be as a young man.  The firsts he had already accomplished and the many yet to come.
  Thank God for digital cameras and flip video cameras. Life has been easy to capture Max with these two things alone.
   It really does take a village.  There have been so many phone calls to Katie, Kerry, Chrissy, Lisa, Sara, Kristi, Mom, Mom-in-law, Kira, Greta (my amazing lactation consultant, and Dr. Chen. We are so blessed to have so many people love Max and us because without that support it wouldn't have been as fun.
    Thanks for sharing this first year of Max's life. There will be many more posts of funny or momentous occasions in the future. Stay tuned....

Our video as we left for the hospital

Remembering to Remember

When I woke this morning, I didn't immediately think 'oh today is the 10th anniversary of 9-11,' but I think that many, many others did and it brought about painful, hard memories. What I did do after getting an extra 1/2 hour sleep (thanks to Huntz getting up with Max) was I walked downstairs to my baby boy and Huntz playing together. The TV was on and it was then that I remembered what day it was and I was saddened that I was so selfish to think about me being able to sleep in an extra half hour and get my morning caffeine, and not remembering those that were heroes on that momentous day 10 years ago.  

I remember very vividly where I was and who told me what had happened. It was the third month of my new career as an RN and we had just started morning med pass and routines.  One of my friends, Leslie, came and told us "a plane just hit the World Trade Center."  Now I don't know about you, but I didn't have much of a reaction because it didn't seem like something tragic and terroristic when said like that.  We continued on and in another 10 minutes she came and said another plane hit the other tower. It was at that moment I realized life wouldn't be the same. The United States was under attack and things could get worse.  Every one of my patients that day had the TV on and work was unremarkable. At least I don't remember much besides standing by my patient's bed hoping to catch a glimpse of some sort of reasoning to explain this. 

The rest of the evening was me and my three roommates huddled around the TV with pizza and pop trying to make sense of it all.  We didn't talk about much else.  

This brings me to today where I started to look at Max playing so innocently and not even knowing what today represented.  Not to his fault at all, but he will never understand what life was like before we had to remove our shoes at the airport and liquids were restricted on the plane. He won't know what life was like with Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden in positions of power.  How am I to explain this to my precious innocent boy without evoking fear and distrust in other people?  Will our history books devote 1 or 2 paragraphs to explain the events that happened 10 years ago and how many people were heroes to this country and continue to be heroes serving in our military?  I may not know these answers until Max comes home from school on September 10, 2016 and asks 'why does the teacher want us to wear red, white, and blue tomorrow?' 'Why is there a flag outside our house?'  It is then Huntz and I will have to explain 'where we were' when 9-11 hit and what happened that day.  I pray that I'll have the answers to suffice his inquiring little mind.  

Birthdays, anniversaries, and fun times

 We have had a busy, yet fun summer.  Huntz and I travelled to Madison, WI for a wedding of my dear college friend Laura. It was fun to have a weekend away. Max hung with Grandpa and Grandma Juergens and the dogs.  He had fun perfecting his crawling skills there. He also became enthralled with doors, opening and closing them. This has continued in fun at our house too.
  I celebrated my 32nd birthday on August 16, and was surprised at work with some flowers from Huntz. My awesome coworkers got me a cake and some ice cream. I started the day with my free Caribou!  It was a fun birthday even though I had to work.  We celebrated with the fam at Red Robin and celebrated Jeremy and Katie's 8 year wedding anniversary too, also on August 16.  I brought a cake my coworker Ana made called 'tres leches' cake. It was soooo good!  Here is a video from that evening.  Cousins Hannah and Max were entertaining themselves.

Max is getting bigger and stronger everyday. He is crawling up the stairs, loves the water and the beach, and just started walking with the push cart. Here is Max walking his first time with the cart.

We are looking towards the one year mark in less than two months, I can't believe it. Soon he'll be 1.  This year has flown by.  We'll keep ya posted.

9 month photo shoot

We were blessed with a beautiful day to have Max's 9 month photo shoot.  My good friend Julie Dukowitz was our photographer. She also did his newborn pictures.  We had the pictures done at Oak Grove Park in Brooklyn Park, MN.

Our cutie pie

Such a big boy!

We gave him some fruit to play with 

Peek a boo

9 months

10 days old

A mover and a shaker

Max is starting his moves to moving around by any means necessary.  He is scooting on his butt and walking along furniture. We have padded the coffee table edges with foam so he won't smack his head on the corner. That was the best investment we could've done so far for him.  Today he was in the kitchen with me and well this is what I came across. He has started a new sport called chair rowing....

Tomorrow my baby turns 9 months, the same amount of time he was in utero.  He is such an amazing baby, we are blessed to be his parents.  We look forward to many more days of Max making us laugh.

All in a day's work

Last week I had a very emotional experience with a patient.  He is 93 years old and speaks 99% Russian. What I knew from report was he has some dementia, but he is pleasant.  Hard to tell when you don't speak the same language so I gave him the benefit of the doubt.  We communicated as best as we could until the interpreter got there. He had breakfast, took his pills, and said "I listen to you."  When the interpreter got there I was waiting for the Physical Therapist to come and work with him.  They didn't come so I spent some time using the interpreter to talk to my patient and get to know who HE is without labels of dementia or confusion.  It is rare I have 25 minutes to stand and have a conversation with a patient to hear their life stories and connect with them personally.  What I found out is what got me so emotional.  He told me of his times in Russia way back to the beginning or WWII.  He is a Jewish Russian and fought against the Germans.  He spoke of Stalin like we would talk about Obama today.  Very casually and with details not many of us would remember 70 years later.  I didn't get if he was in a concentration camp or not, but to hear and see his face as he told me of the memories still so vivid in his mind.  I started tearing up thinking how blessed I was to be speaking to someone with so much history and wisdom to share.  Unfortunately not many else will get to have that conversation unless an interpreter is available and not rushed to leave. I believe there was a reason I was assigned this man and had the opportunity to spend as much time as I did learning about him and his life.  I believe God places people in your life to reveal things about yourself. I learned I needed to slow down and not judge a book (or patient) by the cover.  Sometimes it is hard to see the things that are revealed and it was hard for me to look at myself and learn not to judge people.  The trust I built with this man that day was stronger than an oak tree.  He allowed me to shave him and having that intimate moment with a patient can be scary, especially when the interpreter had left at that time.  I am glad I was blessed with the skills and traits to be a nurse and God has revealed to me that I am not done growing as a nurse or a child of God.  We are constantly being pruned and molded into the person He has created us to be.