He's an intern. Which makes him a doctor.

(If you want a doctor-ish picture with this post, tell Steve to take one of himself in scrubs. Doctor Selfie!)

I know a lot of people thought we were crazy/stupid/naive when Steve started applying to medical school. We heard a lot of really awful things. People said it wasn't worth it. That they wouldn't do it over again. That I would never see him. That we would probably end up divorced. (Yes! Multiple people said this!)

I guess I could have been mad or offended or hurt by these comments--and yes, it did sting a little that people chose not to be happy/excited for us--but mostly what I realized is that the kind of people who would choose to say those things just didn't know us very well. And while many parts of our medical school journey were incredibly challenging for each of us, for the most part? It was really fun. Yes, it was hard. But everyone's life is hard. We were chasing Steve's dream, learning how to really live on a shoestring, building a family, building a life.

Are we happy to have moved on to the next chapter? Of course. But we also wouldn't trade the years that lead us here.

Anyway, as we neared graduation we started hearing the same kinds of things. How intern year would be the worst year. We'd never see him. He'd hate his life. You know, that kind of stuff. And you know what? Steve has had an M.D. on his name tag for a over eight months now--which means he is well over halfway through intern year(!!!) and again, yes, there have been hard parts. There are always hard parts. But it has also been really good.

It's kind of like a bowl of Lucky Charms. (Yes, I'm kind of hungry but stay with me--I think I'm going to make this work.) You've got the cereal (which my kids call the "Cheerios" and my brother and I just called "the brown part") of day to day work, and the marshmallows--those are days off, date nights, day trips to the science museum or Ikea, mini vacations and Friday night movies with the kiddos--and the occasional burnt piece of cereal. Sometimes you get a bowl mostly full of cereal because the marshmallows have moved when the cereal settles in shipping, and that's kind of depressing. But it makes the marshmallows more exciting, doesn't it?

Because the ED (that's what the cool kids call the Emergency Department) is never closed, Steve can have some pretty strange hours. The kids are getting comfortable with asking me "Where's Dad?" because its just as likely for him to be at work at 9am as it is for him to be in bed asleep after a night shift that didn't end until 8am. Some weeks I go to bed alone for nights on end, and Steve comes home to collapse into unconsciousness just as my day is beginning. Some weeks I only see him if I climb in bed next to him during the kids' nap time and read a book--or take a nap myself. (This happened a lot when I was still preggers with Juliette.)

 Naptime with two sleepyheads.

But it feels SO good and so much more special when we get to the end of the night shifts and get to fall asleep side by side again. We don't like being apart like that, but it really does make us appreciate the specialness of waking up on a weekend morning when he has no work responsibility, or holding hands in church when he has a Sunday off. It's like the marshmallows taste even BETTER after all the "Cheerios" you know?

And sometimes I'm single-parenting the roughest part of the day (4pm to the kids bedtime at 7) because Steve is staying late on an off-service rotation or has that awkward 4pm-12am shift. For those shifts we see each other in the morning and make sure to hang out and watch a TV show or eat lunch together during the kids' quiet/nap time. Sometimes I have to put the kids to bed early so I don't get too crabby. Sometimes I let them eat cereal for dinner. Sometimes we have a really perfect evening playing a card game in front of the fire. I'm learning that a lot of it depends on how well I prepare myself and the kiddos for these slightly crazed evenings. And I go to bed for a while, but then I get up when he gets home a little after midnight and we eat a snack and watch an episode of Parks & Rec on his iPad in bed before we both fall asleep.

And then there are the days when Steve just has a day off right in the middle of the week! Like, its a Tuesday, and he's just home! To hang out or work on a project or maybe go get pizza for a mini-date with Jules in tow if Charlie is at his co-op preschool and Gracie is at kindergarten. There are mornings when I get to take a kid to the doctor solo or visit Gracie for her lunchtime at school because Steve is home to hang out with the others, or when I can grocery shop really quickly (I am so quick, for reals) on my own. There are evenings when he is home by 4:30 and we bake cookies and watch a movie or have friends over for board games and (too much) ice cream.

A lot of our post-work conversations start with Steve asking, "Can I tell you something gross?" and me asking, "Does it involve pus?" (A lot of times it does. I've found I can hear almost anything without much preamble now, but I do need to be prepared for pus stories.) And sometimes he will quiz me after work if he's seen an interesting case. Like he will ask me to figure out which side of your diaphragm is more likely to burst when put under intense pressure, and then make me explain how I got to that conclusion. (It is very exciting when I get these right.)

I've also learned a lot of new words. I know that tachycardia is an elevated heart rate, afebrile means you don't have a fever (and therefore febrile means you do), and sating ("satting") refers to the oxygen saturation in your blood (you want to be sating above 90, FYI). One of my favorite things is figuring out what some medical term means based on the Latin roots in the word (thank you, Junior year English teacher Mr. Patrick Barrett! I actually learned all those Greek and Latin roots!!!). It gives me a nerdtastic thrill to puzzle a word out on my own and then have him confirm it. (Of course, sometimes he will mess with me and pretend I am using the completely wrong word. And then he laughs when I get confused. Great bedside manner, right?)

There have been some rotations that were, shall we say, not his favorite. But for the most part, he makes the most of whatever he is doing, and he is really enjoying life in the ED. Plus, he has gotten to do some very cool things, like put in central lines (that's a catheter that gets inserted into your neck or chest! Yikes!), learn how to do a great ultrasound, and ride on a helicopter.

A helicopter!

I don't want to make him blush, but I am crazy proud of this man. It really just fills my heart up to know that he is the one so many people wills see when they get taken to the emergency room, because I know how hard he works, how diligently he attends to their cases, and what a good-hearted, good-natured guy he is, and don't you just need all that when you're hurt or sick and scared? Someone to take good care of you, and maybe crack a little joke or tell you a funny story. Yep. Super proud of this doc.

...also he's pretty handy to have around now--there's tons of stuff I don't have to look up on WebMD anymore. ;)