Marathon pt. 2

Sorry for my extended absence! Last week was another busy week of orientation, and it was followed by another marathon weekend that took me all the way from St. Louis to Springfield to Bloomington to Chicago and back again!

My second week of orientation went well. About halfway through the week, we finished general nursing orientation and the nine of us who will be working in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) started meeting separately for unit-specific lectures. I was getting really bored in general orientation, so this switch was much appreciated!

We've been learning so much about taking care of the babies. For example, we had a lecture the other day on the most common medications administered in the NICU, another on how to position premature babies in their isolettes (or incubators) to promote optimum muscular/neurovascular development, and a lecture on determining when a preemie is ready to begin bottle-feeding. There are so many complex issues to consider when caring for a baby born as early as 23 weeks gestation!

This week is another 5 full days of NICU-specific lectures and speakers. It's really interesting and I'm learning so much, but I'm not sure how much more new information I can take in! I am thrilled to finally be learning so much about caring for babies though after years of dreaming about being a NICU nurse. I still can't believe I've finally made it here!





















My St. Louis Children's Hospital badge! GN stands for "Graduate Nurse." Once I've passed my boards, it will officially change to RN, BSN (for "Registered Nurse, Bachelor's of Science in Nursing")


On Friday after work, I drove up to Springfield to spend an evening with my mom and younger sister. We ate Chinese food and watched a movie together. It was a quality "girls' night" at the Ketchum household.

Then on Saturday morning, I drove up to Bloomington to see Bryan. We weren't in Bloomington long before we made our way up to Chicago for a wedding (#2 of 6 this summer!). I didn't know the bride and groom, but the groom was a good friend of Bryan's. We took lots of pictures (I've posted a few favorites below!) and enjoyed spending time together in the car and at the reception. I was also excited to get to see Tony and Kim, friends of ours who just got married a couple weeks ago. It was the first I had seen them since they arrived home from their honeymoon.

On Sunday, Bryan and I drove down to Springfield to attend a very special 50th anniversary party for my good friends, the Lockharts. We weren't there long before I had to take Bryan to the train station to head back to Bloomington and I needed to drive back to St. Louis. The weekend went by really fast, but it was so much fun!