The Joy of Parenthood

Just a few parenting quotes I thought I would share

Parenthood isn't like fishing - every child is a keeper.

Parents are gamblers, risking their hearts to pain for a potential jackpot of joy

Leave it to a baby to turn your world upside down, take your breath away, and make you fall in love again. With his toothless grin, your baby sets your heart on fire.

Sometimes you think you can barely take care of yourself, and yet here you are holding your new baby. Someone up there must believe in you.

Parents of every nation want their children to live in a world where they can grown up safe from harm, free from oppression, and proud of their heritage. In this way, we're all alike.

Every mothers' eyes tell a story of hope, strength and pride- no matter what their color

While you can't recall what you did with your newborn all day, somehow it took every minute of your time.

Slow Down

So lately I have had several things on my mind... I truely hate the feeling of having a to do list stuck in your head.

Should we get new carpet or clean or old.

What should I put my tax money towards

I would really enjoy taking a vacation with my whole family

Going back to school or just picking up a hobby such as photography

State Basketball and when/if I should take a day off

Putting a fence up for our dogs

Bills

What I need to do today and tomorrow.....

We get so busy thinking about the things in life that sometimes I think we forget to live life.
There is always things that you have on your mind that never get done. Several times I have made good intentions but never followed through on them. I am so thankful to the people who have reached out to me and helped us at times and acted on thoughtfulness, even if it was just a prayer. I often have made spur of the moments decisions and have not often regretted them but I think that I forget that God is here to guide me through those decisions I may feel uneasy about.

Growing Like A Weed

KINNICK JAMES KAUFMAN

Thought I would share some pictures of my little man. Almost 4 months old already!


















Our Little Hawkeye!!




















He LOVES this dumb chair... and I thought the froggy outfit was pretty cute!!




















He even manages to sleep in the chair:)




















Looking like a little man sitting on the couch... still not much hair




















His Winter Hat




















Okay he has my eye color but pretty much everything else of Daddy's




















Kinnick and Grandpa Slechta when we went to visit. Grandpa took lots of pictures of his great grandson















Someday they will be the best of buddies

Back to School??

For several weeks now I have been thinking about going back to school. I would continue to work the weekends and begin working on my bachelor's degree. In Iowa Nursing is one of the few areas that you don't get compensated for the extra two years of work. Some of the programs I have considered are University Of Phoenix, U of I, Grand View, Allen, and Graceland. I think I am most interested in Graceland because the have the fewest prerequisite courses and are also the cheapest. I have also been thinking about becomming a midwife as a long term goal. I had such an amazing experience with my midwife that I would like to offer that same experience to other moms. Today I had a check up and got to ask my midwife, Jayme, her feelings.

My first concern was that it would take me away from my family. She said that although she is pretty much on call 24/7 most facilities don't have just one midwife and you would share call time with other midwifes. Although I enjoyed that she was always on call because I knew to expect her at my delivery.

My second concern was that as of now I don't really have any OB experience besides my own. She told me she was a very nontraditional student in that fact that she went into the program with no OB experience.... I would of never guessed. Her background was in ICU and transplant patients. She said that her clinical instructors were much harder on her because she had no experience but she also learned a lot!

My third question was that in 2015 they will be requiring a doctorate instead of a masters for all nurse practitioners. She felt that it would be an extra three years beyond my bachelors instead of four. She also encouraged me to go for it and said that she thought I could get it done before then and then could be grandfathered in.

We also talked about the online midwife programs. I enjoy online courses but I don't know if I would feel prepared with an online degree. She assured me that I would be able to do at least my theory courses online and that most of my education would come from clinical experience anyways.

Lastly she encouraged me to at least get my bachelors now so that even if I wanted to wait until my kids are in school I would just have to complete the midwifery program. I still have not made a decision but I know I would love being a midwife and specializing in one area instead of knowing a little about a lot of areas.


My midwife Jayme and Kinnick