- Workflows -

Sum-It-Up Sunday

For the past two years, Mercy Labor and Delivery has been designing and building a new, improved, HUGE, awesome, state-of-the-art unit in the hospital's new tower! It has always seemed like a far off dream, but this week the all dreams and hard work are realities.  THE NEW UNIT IS HERE!  

On top of our regular scheduled shifts, all nurses have been required to come in extra for "workflows" on the new unit.  [You know, because we want to have our sh*t figured out before all the patients come.]  We spent an entire day navigating through our three new floors and learning how to use new equipment, monitors, and pieces of technology we had no clue even existed. Holy moly, this new unit comes with a huge learning curve! 

In the last hour of the workflow, we were running mock codes from the triage center to the OR's. Our group of 8 is a litttttle [ok, a lot] proud of setting the code white record at 1 minute and 32 seconds. Holla! Bring on the laboring mommas and crashing babies! ;) 

Nurse Anna: at your cervix! [I'd take that smiling face at my cervix...I mean SERVICE...any day!]

Here are a few more pictures of our beautiful new unit! [I stole these from Mercy's FB page...] 

Maternity Welcome Center -- All patients will come here first to be triaged before coming to L&D!

New rooms -- love them!! 

So spacious and new and clean and gorgeous -- this must be a pregnant momma's dream!

 Bathrooms -- each complete with shower and tub!

All this new unit hype is kiiiiiinda stirring up my baby fever. Eek!! ;) Stay tuned for more posts and pictures from the new L&D!


Other week highlights: 

-- Work, work, work..... Extra shifts and workflows and no time for anything except sleep and WORK! :( Brian is remembering what it feels like to be a single man! 

- Goodbye, L&D! -

Tonight we celebrated our very last shift in the old 2nd floor labor and delivery! In this place, we spent hours in thousands of births and laughed countless times with friends who became family.  For sweet closure, we spent the 6-7am hour running around the floor like mad women snapping ridiculous pictures...

Hasta luego, recovery room...

Sayonara, operating rooms...

Arrivederci, team 3...

Namaste, team 4...

[Even signed the walls! "Thanks for the memories. Bad back, bad knees, wt loss from no lunches, and the urine incontinence - WORE OUT!" Hahaha!]

Au revoir, WEU...

Goodbye, goodbye, GOODBYE Labor & Birth!!!

#abandoned

- MICFQ 2013 -

There's nothing I love more than getting all dolled up to reunite with some fabulous fair queen friends! Small groups of us manage to get together here and there throughout the year, but the big homecoming comes at the annual Miss Illinois County Fair Queen Pageant every January! I love these 2010 beauties so much; I love catching up with them and staying in tune with their ever-exciting lives even more! 

Forever fabulous! Clinton, Marion, Montgomery, Edgar, Effingham, Iroquois, Champaign, Rock Island, Marion, Macon, Vermillion, and Union: the best of the best! [Lots of people missing... We know you were there in love and spirit!]

Love these two to pieces! 

More important than catching up with past fair queens is cheering on our CURRENT fair queen. Sunny, you rocked that stage and made all of us so proud! Montgomery County grows some pretty great chicks! ;) This picture is of our director Missy with Mont. Co. fair queens from '08, '10, '09, '12, '11, and '??. [Brandi was the fair queen the same year Sunny was the Little Miss!]

Is it sad that I'm already counting down for next year's state pageant?! :( See you in a year, glamour girls!! 

- Goodbye, Nikki! -

Sum-It-Up Sunday

I have the BEST co-workers in the entire universe! "Work" is lots of work, but "work" is also incredibly fun because I'm constantly surrounded by crazy people!  Friday night, a few of us met at Culpeppers in Creve Coeur to celebrate Nurse Nikki's culminating and crashing L&D career. :(  It doesn't seem real that she's leaving us for a new job in the OR, but it's a great opportunity for her and she will only be a few floors away! ;) Love ya, woman. Missin' you already! 

Other week highlights: 

-- Brian and I headed to Springfield for the Miss Illinois County Fair Queen state pageant! Another post with more pictures to follow...

- The Bachelor -

Sum-It-Up Sunday

A new season of the Bachelor has premiered...FINALLY! There's nothing like being completely mesmerized by the trashiest reality TV show there ever was... But still, we love it! And we love it even more with the lights out and a bottle of pink champagne! Cheers to us being enthralled by ridiculousness and again to Bachelor Sean "finding love!" 

Other week highlights: 

-- Marko and Jon turned 31! We had a yummy dinner in Carrollton with a huge group of friends. 

-- From the couch, we cheered for Megan Ervin on the Miss America stage! This beautiful Miss Illinois is AWESOME and even made the Top 10! My mom and I love watching Miss America every year, but the pageant gets a million times more exciting when you know someone competing.  Congrats, Megan and all of the Ervin family! We are proud of you! :)

- Eileen's Bachelorette Party -

We love Bride-to-Be Eileen!! Her bachelorette party this weekend started out with a surprise welcome from her "tacky bridal party" + a similarly tacky bridal gown that her mom purchased at the Goodwill! ;) ...And the best part? It fit her PERFECTLY! [So sad that you can't see the poofy long sleeves in this picture...]

First stop: The Painted Zebra. Just call us artistas. 

After heading back to her mom's house to open gifts and have a few snacks, we had dinner at Katie's Pizza. Mercy L&D girls huddled up for a quick pic!

And the rest of the night? Well, that goes undocumented. ;) 

Happy bachelorette party, Eileen! And the countdown to your wedding begins! 

- New Year's Day -

Sum-It-Up Sunday

Cheers to 2013!!! We hopped between a few parties in Mt. Olive on New Year's Eve; thanks to Matt & Steph and Brandon & Val for hosting! On New Year's Day, we rode along on Marko and Jon's 2nd annual bus bar crawl through Clinton County. It was a fun day with the Dragovich family! 

Other week highlights: 

-- The Mercy L&D girls rocked the town for Eileen's bachelorette party! Stay tuned for a longer post!