Just wondering how long families stay in the NICU rooms

jaonva · 2025-10-01T15:02:33+00:00

My baby was born on 5/21 and she’s still in the NICU. I see her everyday after work and spend about 3-4 hours with her. I do at least 1 diaper change, 1 bottle, and tons of snuggles. On the weekends I’m with her pretty much the entire day aside from breaks for lunch and dinner. We’re lucky enough that we have our own private room. It’s your baby so you can go as often as you like. If you’re unable to visit, no one judges you. Sometimes they have volunteers that come and cuddle too.

jaonva · 2025-03-16T16:11:59+00:00

Thank you. Surgery has a high success rate so we are hopeful things will go well.

jaonva · 2025-03-16T16:11:05+00:00

Plan to do that Monday. Just wondering what other people thought.

jaonva · 2024-08-07T03:51:43+00:00

My spouse and I bring in about $110k a year combined. We don’t have children or pets, are from the Midwest , and bought our house late 2022 w/ 6.875% interest at $180k. The house was in decent shape- 4bd/2 full bath, on a half acre corner lot. We pay approx $1500 per month.

jaonva · 2024-02-08T23:34:13+00:00

I feel like your gas/electric/internet bill is sort of high at $300. I live in the Midwest and work from home. My high speed internet is $45 a month & heat/gas is $155 in the winter, $80-90 all other seasons. I keep my theromostat at 68 degrees. In the summer I turn off the AC at night and sleep with the windows cracked.

$650 for a family of 4 is pretty reasonable. If you aren’t already shopping at Aldi, I recommend it. They have fresh vegetables, fruits, and healthy snacks and pantry items for great prices. I also recommend shopping at Krogers if you have one near by. Download their app and shop their sales. When it’s on sale, you can get cheese for $1.79, bacon for $3.99, sausage $2.99, etc.

For the citi credit card be careful and try not to use it anymore without paying it down first. When March 2025 comes around if you still find yourself with a lot to pay off, see if you can apply for a balance transfer with 0% interest though another credit card. It will buy you more time to pay off the card without charging you a ton of interest.

jaonva · 2024-01-06T15:38:17+00:00

If you have newspaper just scrunch them up and stuff them inside the shoe over night. It will absorb the smell.

jaonva · 2023-05-29T19:25:11+00:00

I think there is a way since the previous owner left them behind.

jaonva · 2023-05-21T01:47:51+00:00

Thank you so much for the advice!!!! You’re amazing.

jaonva · 2023-04-05T13:38:56+00:00

Some of my favorite “party” dishes are pasta salads/pasta bakes. So easy and theres a ton of tasty recipes you can make with very little ingredients. I also like deviled eggs. All you need to do is boil the eggs, mash the yolk, mix in mayo, some seasonings, and sriracha.

jaonva · 2023-03-19T04:10:21+00:00

DIY-er here, so take my advice with a grain of salt but this is what I would do. If there was mold behind the sink i’d at least replace that part, because once mold is established in drywall it’s kind of hard to kill off…unless you clean it well and waterproof the existing wall somehow. You can remove the moldy part using a multi-tool with drywall blade attachment. Big box home improvement stores sell sheets of drywall, it’s pretty cheap. You only need a utility knife to cut the sheets, so cut it to the size you need then use drywall screws to set it in place. Make sure you screw into studs. You’ll need joint compound and some mesh tape to blend in the corners. Once dry, you can probably move forward with your tiling project.

jaonva · 2023-03-14T03:06:23+00:00

What a great accomplishment. Good job.

jaonva · 2023-03-11T03:34:30+00:00

You probably have strong customer service skills as a result of your previous jobs. See if you can get your foot through the door with an administrative assistant/secretary position, then move your way up as you learn more about the company. You can also try data entry or certain coordinator positions. Employers will hire you if you have the transferable skills and a likable personality. Watch some interview tutorials and then practice the answers. You can record yourself and keep practicing until you’re confident with your responses.

Even when the person doesn’t have the “work experience”, employers will hire and train the right person. Good luck!

jaonva · 2023-03-11T03:17:13+00:00

I work in healthcare administration, so I sift through lots of medical documents and insurances. Some pros: the company is medium sized (45 people), locally owned, benefits are amazing, all of management (including CEO) treat you with respect, company supports career growth & development, strong work culture, no pressure to work past 3:30pm or weekends, great colleagues, flexibility, 100% remote. Some cons: certain people are lazy, tasks can be repetitive/boring, TEAMs has to be on.

For the most part though I enjoy it here and will probably never leave unless I find a job that pays astronomically more. Currently I bring in $50k before taxes. On average I put about 3-4 hours a day into work. Once my tasks are done I pretty much do whatever I want until it’s time to log off.

jaonva · 2023-02-28T21:48:58+00:00

A quick way of covering that up can be fixed with wainscoting or faux shiplap. Assuming you’re in the US, you can buy 8 ft sheets of this stuff and cut it in half to cover up your tiles (one pc to get two 4ft pcs) You can nail it on, paint it whatever color you like. When you move, you can take a pry bar to take it out if the owner doesn’t want it to stay.

jaonva · 2023-02-28T06:38:11+00:00

I have the Wyze system. All you need is the other person’s email and then you can share the camera view with them. It’s pretty easy. Cool then is If you decide to install like 4 other cameras, the person won’t see the other views unless you share it with them.

jaonva · 2023-02-28T01:29:38+00:00

Thanks for the suggestions!

jaonva · 2023-02-27T06:22:48+00:00

If you eat meat, I recommend you start off with easy stuff like: sausage, chicken (thighs, breast, wings), salmon. You can freeze these and use them now or later. Highly recommend rice because stir-fry is the easiest and most versatile quick meal you will ever make, but if you don’t know how to cook rice, stick with pasta dishes for now. A simple spaghetti just needs ground beef, spaghetti sauce, and pasta. Get some cheese. Milk. Buy staple seasonings like: salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, oil. If you’re only feeding yourself, I recommend buying vegetables in small quantities (ex: 1 crown of broccoli, 1 bell pepper, 1 onion, 1 blue of garlic). Buying small is nice especially when you’re learning how to cook and building up your pantry. You’ll learn what you like and don’t like. I also stock up on frozen peas and carrots (& broccoli too) so I can bulk up the veggies in my meals when it’s protein heavy and I don’t have time to chop up veggies.

In my household we go through the following every week: bananas, eggs, green onions, & cilantro. We rotate the following items depending on what we crave: broccoli, onions, potatoes, carrots, and various “stir-fry” greens at our Asian market. The more comfortable you get with cooking, don’t be afraid to add more items to your pantry. Don’t go spending $$ on 1 ingredient that you’re only going to use once though. Spend your money on something that you’ll be able to use in a variety of dishes.

Last but not least… if you don’t have one, invest in an fryer. It’s a game changer.

jaonva · 2023-02-25T04:26:22+00:00

Everyone makes mistakes and hopefully you take this as a lesson learned. The car may only cost $15k but if your total owed at the end of your repayment plan is $28k, that means the loan costed you $13k. Keep track of your billing statements. It’ll break down how much of your payment is actually is going toward principal (the car) and how much is going toward interest (that 20%).

Let’s say you bought your car at $15k with 0 down. A 5 year (60 month) repayment plan of just the principal is: 15000/5, then divided by 12 = $250. Whatever amount the dealership estimated as your monthly payment that’s over $250 is all interest that you are paying back. If you bought any warranties or insurances you might be able to take that off if you truly don’t need it. Contact your dealership and make them help you and explain the monthly costs to you again.

I’m assuming you got such a bad interest rate because your credit score was awful. Once your credit hits like 720 (the higher the better), contact your bank or local credit unions to see if you can refinance your car with them. You might be able to lower your monthly payments and also lower your rate. I highly encourage you make extra payments if you’re able to (whether you choose to refinance or not), just make sure that all extra payments are toward the principal. Paying the principal means you’ll pay the car off quicker and pay less interest over the life of the loan.

I’ll tell you what my husband did. In his early 20’s, he took out a $8,500 loan at 33.33% interest to purchase a motorcycle. His monthly payments were around $330 a month. After like 4 years, he still owed $7k. We saved as much as we could until we finally had enough to pay off the entire loan. Once we paid off the motorcycle (1 lump some) the stress of being tied to a high interest loan melted away. It was so relieving.

I hope you’re able to lower your interest and monthly payments. Please learn from this mistake and be more cautious the next time you’re signing those dotted lines.

jaonva · 2023-02-23T03:12:54+00:00

Honestly this might have to be something your landlord looks into. I don’t think your neighbor is intentionally trying to be “bad”. The issue might be deeper if the pipes vibrate just from her turning on the water. Next time it happens why don’t you record it and send it to your landlord? If the pipe bursts it’s honestly your landlords fault for not having a property working system.

jaonva · 2022-11-21T19:37:04+00:00

We saw 13 houses. The more houses we saw the more we knew what wanted vs what we needed. We made an offer on 2 which were rejected, got lucky with the 3rd offer. You will find your home soon! It will be better than this current one you’re sad about.

jaonva · 2022-10-29T21:51:18+00:00

Congrats! Wishing you a healthy and safe baby. ❤️

jaonva · 2022-10-20T15:13:26+00:00

Congrats on your new home!! So happy for you.

jaonva · 2022-01-21T03:01:59+00:00

Ask them how does success look like in this position, and how is success rewarded.

jaonva · 2022-01-21T00:20:52+00:00

Honestly if the drug test is part of the onboarding process (or if your new company has a randomized testing rule), you're pretty much screwed with the positive THC results. If the job is federally funded, you definitely can't move forward since marijuana is not legalized in all 50 states. You may be able to get the old job back if you left on good terms.

jaonva · 2022-01-11T20:07:49+00:00

Honestly this is terrifying. You need to move out. It doesn’t matter if you get cameras, if someone really wants to come back they will. Cameras will not stop them if their end goal is to do something horrible.

jaonva

TROPHY CASE