Hello med student wives!

So, I am a bit late getting myself introduced, and for some reason, thought FOR SURE I had a pictures posted up here last time I was on this site making myself a blog. Sorry! I will download one when I am home on my computer again soon hopefully so you can seemy family! :)

Just a little about my family. I am a pediatric nurse of five years here at the University of Iowa. I am currently working full time, and boy does that change things! ( I feel the need to talk about this later! ) I have been married to my highschool sweetheart for 6 1/2 years now, and together we are embarking on this new adventure called medical school. What were we thinking! ( just kidding) Dustin (my husband) is in his first year. He is also a nurse still working part time (yes, you heard right) in the surgical intensive care unit here at the U. We have a 2 year old daughter, Abigail Joy, who is the light of our life, and who makes us laugh, 24/7.

So, I must say, for my first entry, things have been tough, which is why I have sought out a blog for medical school wives! We need each other ladies! Seriously. I have a separate blog account, but feel like talking about medical school needs a blog of its own!

The biggest challenge, I have found, it that I am working full time with a child at home. We hire a friend to watch our daughter during the days that I need to sleep. ( I work 12hr nights) Because I work long hours, my husband picks her up from the sitter, I make supper while he entertains, I get her ready for bed, and bags packed for the next day at the sitters, and then try my best to put her to sleep so that my dear hubby can study as soon as I leave at 6:30pm. Well....now she isn't needing as much sleep, and has been not going to bed until 9, even 10pm sometimes, and you can see how this effects my husband and studying when I am at work. Well, tonight I talked to him ( I am at work ) and he infromed me that he did NOT do well at all on his bio chem test. My heart sank. While I know that the fail rate here at the Uof I is only1%, and that my husband surely can't be that one, I couldn't help but think that maybe I am not doing EVERYTHING I can to help him. I am planning on dropping my hours some, come December, and I think that this will make a big difference as I think me working full time has been our biggest challenge. But for now I keep racking my brain, thinking....what can I do to help? I try to make things as easy as possible with our daughter, and take care of 100% of house work, ect, but still, I have this feeling that he didn't pass this test because of me. That may sound silly, but of course I want him to do well, and I completely understand that he has to study almost 24/7, but at the same time too, I KNOW he feels guilty for doing so, and is just trying to surrive balancing school and family.

I think I may have just rambled a bunch....but wow....it feels good to write my thoughts into words. Blogs are awesome. So, I really haven't read your blogs a lot to know who has kids, who doesn't.....but please, give me your advice. My advice for those of you thinking about having children during medical school....GREAT, seriously, but I think being a stay at home mom during medical school, if it can be done, seems to be the best option for your hubby, if it works for you. It doesn't work for us right now because we decided not to move, and to keep our house that we bought before we knew we were serious about medical school. Anyway, just an FYI. :)

Look forward to reading all of your blogs, and hearing advice/struggles/joys that you have during this time in our lives!