Week 32 and 33

32 weeks: All continues to be well in my pregnancy. I feel good still. I get a little tired quicker than usual, but all in all no complaints. I try to walk on my treadmill or outside for 30 mins to an hour, but sometimes I get a little too busy :) 

I go to the doctor next week, so I will let you guys know how everything is going next update. Due date is December 1st, but they say it is like a bulls eye type of thing. Could be sooner or after. Let's all hope and pray it is the week of Thanksgiving! He will be 39 weeks then and pretty well cooked! Matt also has the week off. If he isn't ready, we will enjoy our last week as a family of 2. To be continued....

I did not take week 33 pics of my pregnant self...ooops! I will post a picture of me at 34 soon :) 34 weeks on Saturday!
Only real difference between last week and this ....I am starting to get back pain! Oh joys! I cleaned the house today, did not bend over too much, but my back feels like I did. I also feel uncomfortable sitting on the couch....Best position...is on the floor against the couch or lying on my side...

Maternity Pics: If you do not have facebook, I loaded the maternity pictures we took on this website. Our friend, Janie, is a nurse by day and photographer as a hobby. She is beyond amazing and went out with us one afternoon. We went down to Waterfront Park which is in downtown Portland. It is beautiful. A lot of green grass and trees (us desert folk can appreciate that) and it has boats on the water.  If we end up settling in Portland more permanently, we will have to get a boat.   

In order to do see them you have to click on "maternity pics" located on the right under pages. If you click on one picture it will enlarge it and you can click through all and see them bigger, if you would like. Here are a couple of our favorites:

Fall: Fall in the Pacific Northwest is beautiful. The leaves have started turning colors and "falling" this past week. Here are a few pictures. 

 This is outside the public library

 I was at a stop sign...

ON a walk 

you can't see but there are red and purple leaves 

 Outside the library

 Outside the library

  Outside the library

  Outside the library

 Our backyard...luckily the leaves fall behind the fence so we are no responsible for clean up...technically the power company owns that green space behind our house....

 Our deck has rain! It has begun raining now...we have a mini forest close by....

I just love the colors! 

 a long stretch from a walk I was taking with my neighbor

Love RED leaves!

Public library:  So call me sheltered, but I had never been to a public library until recently. I love where we live because we literally have everything in our little bubble. For those of you that live in El Paso, it is like how the westside has practically everything you could ever want or need without leaving that side of town. Anyways, the library is less than a mile away and my neighbor and took a walk there. (Side note on neighbors: We are beyond blessed and lucky to have such amazing neighbors. They have taken us Texans under their wing. The husband, Doug, is a very handy man and has been helping Matt with misc handy man tasks. He mowed our lawn one day since he knew that Matt has such a crazy schedule! Leiloni, has been my buddy. She loves arts and crafts and goes on walks in the afternoons with me. I am very thankful for her friendship. They have 2 boys, 1 away at college and another a sophomore in high school. They are nice boys too!) 

Here is a picture of the sweet swag I got from the library. All for FREE! What? I rented Seasons 1-3 of Friends and a movie called Young Adult. I got several books on tape and Christmas CDs (it is never too early to start up my collection).

It is a beautiful library and has an upstairs just for Children's book.  I know we have our own personal children's library already, but they also have wiggle time and baby store time. Grayson will just love books. 

Matt update:
I don't think Matt will have time this week to do an update so I will have to one for him. He is on University Wards for the next 3 weeks. Wards are when he is working in the hospital. He can have up to ten patients on the floor, which happens most of time time, and he has to round on all of them before his rounds with the attending.  For the non-medical people, he has to go into the hospital, check on his patients from the day before. He then rounds with a team of doctors including the "head doc" the attending, and he presents his patients. Matt will say why the patient is there and the course of action he has chosen for that patient.  The attending either confirms, asks questions then confirms, or guides Matt to a different solution. 

He has finished a week and a half of this rotation.  His days are 14-18 hours. We are happy when he leaves around 5 AM and gets home at 7 (12 hours). YUCK! I do not know how he does it, but he does it. He continues to feel like he picked the best program for him. Everyone is very supportive and he continues to get the praise as he did in medical school. He works hard, so I am not surprised. I am very proud. He has been told that he is one of the best interns by upper level residents and they say he has done the best they  have ever seen (as an intern) on several rotations. I have to brag about him, since he will not do it himself.

 Picture of the Hospital....obviously not taken by me....

This is a tram to get commuters and patients from the bottom of the "hill" to the hospital. The hospital is up at the top of a very windy road...some people chose to take mass transit then go up this to go to work or to see the doc. Matt loved it..he rode it during his interview. It has a great view of the city...

Next update: I will let you guys know what the doc says about little Grayson, pictures of the house...FINALLY, Matt update, and hopefully the baby's room mostly complete!

31 weeks, Halloween wreath, Matt update

Hello all! We are at the 31 week mark and everything is well. I had a doctor's appointment this week and everything looks great. I did not have an ultrasound but the doctor said everything appears well. Baby is moving around a lot and he loves to be active when I am at rest and right after I eat. Looks like he will be a good eater like his parents! He likes to hang out primarily on my right side ( we are thinking it is because of how my placenta is on my left side. My doctor had a nice little point, "Why settle in a studio apartment, when you can have a condo".  I have 2 doctors. I decided since I am at a hospital that has a rotating attending doctor on call and who knows when I will go into labor, knowing 2 of the staff well will give me a greater likelihood of knowing who my doctor is. I really like them both and feel lucky that OHSU have such a great and supportive staff.  

We had our birthing class. I know most people do this kind of course once a week for an hour over several weeks. Since Matt's schedule is so variable, we opted for a weekend class 6 hours each. SHEESH! If I ever say I want to get my Master's I need to be reminded that I would have to go to class which I am not cut out for...at least for a LONG time! We knew a lot of the information, Matt especially, but it was nice to have a refresher course. I knew about some of the information with my Early Childhood background, but we got to tour the place I would give birth and where we would be 48 hours after birth (2 different floors).

Good things: OHSU does not have a nursery, so baby is ALWAYS with us :) If they need to take him somewhere, Matt will be able to go, which makes me feel great! 

Below is a picture of me at a break we had during our class today. This is the beautiful view that OHSU provides. Portland is really beautiful especially to all us desert folk!

I never realized how much I love reading. I guess I never really had time/did not make time before. I know I liked to read as a kid and I know I love children's books (hello look at my library in baby's room), but with this recent free time before baby, I have enjoyed reading. I read the 50 shades trilogy, started another trilogy by Sylvia Day (Crossfire), and I decided to finally read the Twilight series.  Since Crossfire is still in the midst of getting published (Book 2 comes out late October), I needed something to read in between. When I unpacked all the little kid books I have and was sorting, I realized I also have the twilight series, so I decided to read it. It started off slow, and I feel like a teenager reading it, but I am really enjoying it. I look forward to watching the movies and comparing the books to the movie. I know movies are rarely as good as books ie Harry Potter, but I have held off watching any of those movies because I knew someday I would read the series. Anyways, I get into a reading binge so I started the series last week and I am nearly done. I would probably be done by now, but Matt had the weekend off and we had our 2 day 6 hour birthing class as  I mentioned before. 

Here are the books, I am currently on the 3rd book (Eclipse). 

I have also gotten in touch with my creative side. I have always loved arts and crafts and scrap booking and with the added time (for now) I have decided to engage it. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the holidays (if decorating late September for Halloween was not a telling sign)! I wanted to make a Halloween wreath so here it is :) Got the supplies from Michael's on sale and Viola! I dig it ;)

I am also working on his baby book. I realize that when he is older, he will probably not care for it, but I hope his wife will like it :) Matt and I will enjoy it if no one else does...haha :) I will add pics of the pages next time.  

I am not sure when I will post maternity pictures, but I will add it as a tab like I did for the baby shower and wedding, and I will post about it! They are so great and I cannot wait to share with you guys!

Matt and I had intended to finish up the baby room (except for a maternity picture of us that will go over on canvas over his bed), but we have been super tired and busy. Those classes really took a dent into our weekend. We still have time so no worries. I am hoping by next weekend I can post pictures of his room, but we shall see. It depends on Matt's clinic schedule. I think I will call Matt's posts "Matt's Minutes" if you have a catchier title...let me know ;)

Matt's Minutes

I just finished my two weeks of neurology which went well.  I learned a lot about neurology and certainly improved my neurologic exam which was something I was hoping to improve upon prior to this rotation.  This weekend I was off which is why we were able to attend the class which was great.  Next week I will be working in the internal medicine clinic seeing my panel of primary care patients which I always enjoy.

During these clinic weeks, I have also been working half days in something referred to as the "Chronic Illness Management" clinic which mostly focuses on treating patients with diabetes, and less commonly things like heart failure or hypertension.  It is an interesting approach to health care because we focus only on diabetes and management as well as mediating risk factors and complications from diabetes.  There is a coordinated approach including utilizing home calls, frequent check ins and utilizing multiple people from the health care including the nurse care managers, dieticians, and social workers to help coordinate the care for patients.  This is my last week to work in that clinic until the last three months of my intern year.

After this week, I will be moving on to inpatient (hospital) wards at OHSU hospital.  It has been great to see Tammy progressing along and I am really looking forward to meeting our son in a few weeks.  Everything is starting to come together but in the same sense, everything is starting to get closer.

Halloween is around the corner...Matt update..30 weeks!

Hello Friends and Family! Tammy has decided to "fallify" the house. By "fall-ify" it means make it Halloween-ie! I know October is right around the corner...but I could not wait!! I cannot wait for my November decorations! When it is time to put those up...our little man hopefully will make his appearance...EEEK! I will load pictures of the house later this week. I meant to take pictures today, but forgot! Oops! We did some amazing maternity pictures today downtown at a beautiful park...I cannot wait to share them with you. Our friend, Janie did an ABSOLUTELY amazing job! So grateful!

 This is a picture of our den. Our wonderful neighbors have beautiful rose bushes and have given me permission to cut roses. Those are courtesy of them! :) 

 This is our entry way table. A little bit of Thailand...a little bit of Halloween!

 Our dining room table!! I <3 Halloween!

 The bookshelf is complete! If you can believe it...I still have boxes of books in the garage! I know again, again...I have an addiction to children's book. Our little one WILL love to read...hehe...

 I found this with some of the books from my parent's house. It is my Dad's handwriting inside an old school Charlie Brown comic book. Too cute!

 Super nuts to find this! My dad was 6 :) <3 it!

 His name train came in!! You will see these at our maternity pics too! We did take off the tags! I took this picture to show Matt it came in!! <3 them!!

 Here is Tammy....30 weeks....only 8-10 weeks to go...Ahh!!

 I believe I shared this picture before. It is Matt coming off of Night Float...I am re-showing it because this is Matt's hair before....(He really wanted to grow it out because another guy named Matt had long curly hair and it made him miss it....so he went for it. He decided last night since we were taking maternity pictures last night that he would like to be hairless...or rather ...less hairy...hehehe below is the after!

Here he is! My handsome man!

Some words about his intern year from Matt:

My most recent rotations were night float and neurology.  Night float is working the night shift for patient's who are admitted and currently hospitalized at OHSU.  What is unique about this rotation is that there are five teams of internal medicine residents who admit during the day and I watch all of their patients overnight and take care of any issues that come up during the night or follow any issues that came up during the day.  I was working with a 3rd year resident for the week who helps with the admissions as well as advise me for any decisions for the pre-existing patients.  It was a fairly busy week and there are between 30-35 patient for cross-cover where a normal intern will only manage up to 10 patients during the day.  I learned a ton and hopefully I did a good job but it was rough flipping my schedule to nights for a week.

I am in the middle of my neurology rotation and just finished a week of working on the stroke service.  I am lucky to be working at a facility like OHSU because they have the resources and facilities to be able to do some very advanced and exhilarating treatments for stroke including drugs to bust clots and procedures to pull out clots.  Obviously, I am not anywhere near these procedures but I did watch a few being done and saw the dramatic change that occurred when blood flow is restored to the damaged area of the brain.  However, I am quickly learning that I am not a neurologist and I do not have a great handle on neurologic conditions overall but that is why I am here to help further my knowledge.  This next week I will be working on the neurology consult service where we consult on patients from other services who have neurologic symptoms or conditions that they need assistance in managing.

It was really great to be able to find a day where we could get our maternity pictures done.  It was such a joy to see my beautiful wife and my unborn child and we had a great time taking all the pictures.  I can not wait to see how they all turn out.

Night Float is Over & Tammy 29 weeks & Baby's room is coming along & Fall

Night Float is over over for now. It is amazing how a week of working nights feels like 2 weeks for both of us. Matt was in the hospital for this week of night float. His hours were typically leaving the house around 6 pm and gets home around 8:30 am. Long hours. Bleh! We  have found out that he has a couple of weeks of nights. We initially thought he only had it for 2 weeks for the year. He also has to do it when he does his ICU. I think it is a total of 4 weeks for this 2012-2013 school year.  Good news: He gets 2 done before the baby. Bad news: He has 2 after the baby. Although, it is around March, so the baby will hopefully be sleeping through the night by then...

Here is a pic of a dazed Matt. He had a four hour nap when transitioning back to days....it was not fun :( Poor guy. He did not really get a day off since he worked Friday night/Saturday morning. He was super groggy Saturday and we ran errands all day Sunday.  Our garage and baby room look great because of it.

Side note: Drawbacks to home ownership....you have to take care of your own yard and you take pride in it.....living in Oregon = millions of weeds!! I swear we have like 12 different types....

Here is Tammy 29 weeks. Can you believe in 9 weeks I will be full term? Eeeek! Scary and exciting all at once!

 If you were ever doubting the literacy of our child....worry NO MORE!! I know it looks like we have room on this bookshelf, but I still have like 6 boxes in the garage full of books ready to occupy that spot! These are just my Early Childhood books.....This baby boy better love books and different kinds of them as well!! Yes, I have an addiction. My name is Tammy and I am addicted to Children's books....I will upload a completed picture of this!

 This is a sideways view of the mirror that will go up in baby boy's room. It was originally the mirror in our guest bathroom. I wanted a framed mirror for that bathroom and decided to use this for his room. It has a Pooh and Tigger Frame with big pictures of Pooh and his friends. Sidenote: It would have been much easier if these were stickers, but they were not. They were hot glued....each and every one of them...That is LOVE! <3  You are also looking at the ceiling in our living room with a part of the baby swing ....

 Here is the changing table. We have not gotten the soft pad yet...but it is coming in the mail.  Don't mind the junk on top :)

He have decided on a name! Yahoo! Grayson Matthew will be his name. Matt spray painted these beautiful letters. They will hang near the bookshelf. I cannot wait to finish this room and wall decor! I dropped off a picture to be framed that hung in my room FOREVER to get re-framed! That should be back in 2 weeks so his room will be complete by then! Yesssssssssssss....

 It is beginning to look a lot like fall up here in the Northwest! It actually does not feel like it, though. It is still relatively hot. Now for all you Texas folk...its high 80s....PHEW That is hot to us now!  The trees are starting to turn colors! Yayy!!  I made this wreath from stuff from JoAnns. It is like a Hobby Lobby and is glorious! <3 it! I may have to make a Halloween one and Thanksgiving one. We shall see...I am getting a little carried away with this wreath making business....

 My friend Stevie has made some delicious muffins and keeps posting them on facebook. I decided to make some too. This is Chocolate chip...Yum! Next will be banana nut!!!! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

From our local Farmer's market....by local I mean it is like 4 blocks away on Saturdays. These were too delicious to pass up. I bought this, chicken sliders ( we used Matt's BBQ sauce which makes them soooooooooo much better) and shaved ice! Yum!! That's our favorite thing to eat on Saturdays. I will take pics of the other food next time!

Coming up soon: Maternity pics hopefully taking them in the next 2-5 weeks....more updates on Matt's schedule, a completed picture of the nursery, and maybe a completed picture of our house. I just realized I have yet to take pictures of our moved in house :)

One of the sweetest videos from one of my student's from last year 2011-2012

This is too sweet! It really made my day! <3

Nursery, Matt's schedule, and baby names

Our nursery is really coming along. We are just waiting for our bookshelf to be delivered this week, and then we will be able to start to really finalize where things will go and where to hang things! Eeek! I cannot wait! We have been buying a lot of things for this little guy and I think we are finally about done! Phew! That term "nesting" is totally true and an accurate word to use. I just want to get everything done so when it is time, I will not freak out about something minor...I know I will not think of EVERYTHING, but I am hoping we have most of the things we need!

Matt is starting night float tonight :/ I am less than excited about this. I will get to see/interact with him very minimally. Eh, it is only a week right? We have done it before. It was much better though when we were in El Paso, because I can go hang out at my parent's house. Oh well. It will be over before we know it!

So, those of you that we have shared a baby name, ie at the baby shower....remember I said we were 99% sure of it? Yah, we have totally changed our minds. I am not sharing his name right now, because again we are not sure of it. Right now, we are leaning towards the new name. We need to decide because his name or initials will be in his room.....decisions...decisions! Pictures of a somewhat completed nursery will be posted soon! Here is a picture of the new swing/bouncer we have courtesy of Matt's parents:

Glucose Test and Portland City Grill

So, I had my Glucose Test. For you non-medical folk, I had to fast overnight and before my appointment. They take my blood with "nothing" in my system. Then I have 5 minutes to chug some orange glucose. Think..flat orange soda. It was not the worst taste ever, but I do not think I will be asking to do that EVER...well until I have another baby then obviously I will have to! They take my blood at 1 hour and then again 2 hours after I drank the "drink". Everything came out well and I do not have diabetes! Wahoo. I was slightly worried because this baby boy of mine just LOVES his sweets...or at least that's what he shows me! I am still going to curb my eating habits and try not to indulge all the time. Just because I do not have gestational diabetes now.....does not mean I will not develop it.  

Below are pictures from 30 stories in the air from Portland City Grill. Great view, very pricey, but Happy Hour is very reasonable. Those of you thinking of visiting the NW and us...we will have to go during Happy Hour of course :) 

Matt's hospital (OHSU) is located behind the really tall building towards the left...near the top left of the pic :) He is use to this pretty view!