Grad-ye-8-ed

Scout was born March 11 and I graduated from school with my bachelor's May 17th. Here is the in between with how it all panned out. All my professors knew I was going to be having a baby, not that there was any hiding it at almost 9 months pregnant anyway, but I was determined to miss as little of class as possible.  Depending on my professors, some were more willing to work with me than others. In one of my classes I lost attendance points for missing class while I was in the hospital having Scout, while in another my professor actually let me bring Scout with me after she was born. Granted,  there were only 10 of us in the that particular class AND we were working on a infant health project related to breastfeeding AND that professor was the one I worked for AND she had known about Scout since I was only a few weeks pregnant, but it was still incredibly gracious of her to let me bring her with me. 

Mondays or Tuesdays I had my preceptorship at Meridian St. Luke's that started at 7am so depending on which day it was I would need to drop both kids or just Scout off at my parents around 6:30 in the morning so my mom could watch them(her). Thankfully my mom was just as willing to care for both a newborn AND a four year old as she was to care for a solo two year old when I started this journey.  by the time I was done.  The night before my preceptorship, I would get everything ready (bottles, pumped milk, travel bed, diaper bag, food, etc. ) so that it was good to go in the morning. On the days Sawyer was in daycare, Matt would take him after I had left. On Wednesdays my mom would watch both Scout and Sawyer for my morning class from 8-11, then as soon as it was over I would run to my parents house as fast as possible to feed Scout and/or bring her back with me to that second small class at noon. On the days I was at the hospital for my preceptorship, my mom or Matt would bring Scout to me at least once during a 6-8 hour shift to nurse and I would pump the rest of the time.  It took a lot of coordinating schedules, willingness of family/friends/colleauges to work with me, and a lot of hard work from all parties involved, but all in all it went smoother than anticipated and before we knew it the semester was over and it was time to graduate!! 

Matt's mom Carol came into town that week and was able to meet Scout for the first time and attend my pinning ceremony. The night of my pinning we went to dinner at Bardenay's beforehand with Carol, my parents, Matt's aunt Rosie and uncle Steve, my grandparents, my little brother Bryson, and my aunt Linda and uncle John. Dinner was great and Sawyer had a grand ol' time snapping a bajillion pics on my iPhone while we ate. Literally, a bajilllion. I counted. That's also how I discovered if you hold down the camera button on your iPhone it takes photo after photo after photo in succession. Thanks little buddy for teaching me that trick. 

Speaking of that little buddy, Matt lifted him up at my pinning ceremony so he could place the ribbon (with the pin attached) over my neck and you could hear the audible "awwwwww" from everyone in the audience. You can see the video at the end of this post. This celebration was as much Sawyer's, as it was mine, since for as long as he can remember I have been in school and he is glad to not have to share me with homework anymore. 

The following day was my actual graduation and Matt sat with my parents and held Scout up in the stands while Carol stayed home to play with Sawyer, which worked out great because there was NO way Sawyer would have managed to sit still for five hours! I was worried how Scout was going to do, especially since I left Matt with only one bottle and then found out as I was sitting on the auditorium floor, that under no circumstance was I allowed to leave. I thought about trying to sneak out, under the pretense of it being a medical emergency (hey, needing to nurse your baby is sort of an emergency, right??). Thankfully Scout did amazing and slept in Matt's arms for most of it. He sent me cellphone pics periodically, like the one below, so I wouldn't worry.

There's me sitting down there in the left row of students. What, you can't see me? Ya I didn't think Matt could either, but somehow we managed to figure out where each other were and wave.

Here are just two of the many, many, many, manyyyyyyyyy selfies taken during this little dude's photoshoot at Bardenay's that I previously mentioned.

The rest of the photos below were taken on graduation day. All day long I was feeling a mix of emotions: relief to finally be done, excitement over what the future holds in the field of nursing for me, sadness to not see these friends every single day anymore.  It felt so surreal that two and half years of nursing school with these girls was actually coming to a close! I am going to miss them!! 

The weekend before graduation we all gathered at my friend Mary's house to decorate our caps. I thought mine was super clever, until I realized that in the stands where Matt and my parents were, all you could see was one giant mustache. Nice. 

I told Matt that he has earned at least one corner of my diploma, if not half of it, for all he did the past six years while I pursued nursing. Not to brag or anything, okay I take that back, I am to going to brag about this man for a minute! He never once hesitated to encourage me to go back to school even though I had only been using my cosmetology license for a mere six months or so before I decided to throw in the cosmetology towel and try my hand in the medical field. He didn't so much as flinch when I brought it up after we had just spent a bunch on moola on buying all the hair paraphernalia that one needs to work in a salon, now THAT my friends is true love! Then only a year into going back to school we found out we were pregnant, but that didn't deter Matt from still encouraging me to continue my education. If you have been following this blog since Sawyer was born you know Matt watched him in the evenings while I went to night school ever since Sawyer was just a few months old. Matt also helped me enroll each and every semester, managed my financial aid, edited almost every single one of my papers, helped on more than a couple school projects using his graphic design skills, hugged me when I cried from being stressed, told me I could do it when I didn't think I could, listened to the awful sound of me grinding my teeth in my sleep due to stress, told me I was still a good mom when I felt horrible for being impatient with Sawyer because my mind was so focused on school, the list is truly endless.......which explains why his smile is so big in the photo below ;) He was as ready for me to be done with school as I was!!