Super exciting

This week went by pretty quickly. Monday was our suturing lab class. It was kind of informative but I don't feel comfortable at all with suturing yet. They said we could borrow the instruments (needle holder, forceps, scissors) to practice on our own time but we have to find and acquire sutures. I'm supposed to be in my hospital tomorrow with my preceptor so maybe he can give me a bag full. We will see. I got kind of annoyed bc there is a girl in my program who is always at least 30 minutes late to everything. She doesn't really participate and bond with the rest of the midwives. On lab day, it was no different --- she came in late after we all had to wait for her to arrive. She also came unprepared -- no chicken breasts. She asked if anyone had any extra and someone volunteered that I had an extra breast (which I did.) I said sure and she waltzed over and took my whole package. Didn't say thank you or act gracious or grateful that I had given her my chicken! She just acted entitled to it. I was so mad -- I wasn't the only one with extra but I was the only one who offered. So freakin rude!

We also had our first midwifery skills lab on Tuesday. We talked about determining fetal presentation, lie, and attitude. It's amazing to me at how much of what I do is based on touch and feel. V*rney's recommends feeling all sorts of circular things with our fingertips to estimate their size then measure to see if we're correct. Speaking of my measuring tape...I have no idea where mine ran off to. Hmmm.

My preceptor emailed me today to touch base with me about when I can do my 24-hr call shifts. He wants me to be on call with him first but I'm not available for the next two weekends (bummer.) So we'll have to work that out. I'm not worried about call hours or my delivery numbers. My practice is big enough to where I should be able to get 2-5 deliveries every time I'm on call. We're required to do 40 before we can graduate. Our call hours are continuous until December. The midwifery circle in this area is pretty close-knit and many of my instructors are very familiar with how our preceptors practice. I heard that my preceptor is one of the only midwives in the area who delivers breech/twins/etc. So I'm super excited I will learn that from him. He's been a midwife longer than I've been on the planet. I'm eager to see his practice-style. I haven't had much opportunity to work with him in the office due to our conflicting schedules.

It's so interesting to see how my fellow midwifery-students are developing their own preferences and thoughts about how they want to practice. I feel like I'm in the process of seeing how I want to do things with my patients...being the decision maker is very exciting. And my approach to how I will practice is shaping more and more every day. I feel like I'm getting closer and closer to my life's dream and it's super exciting. Soon I will catch my very first baby. I can't wait.

Not too bad....

Ow.

I have to get through this "Perineal Repair" tutorial before tomorrow's lab class on many things including suturing. While helpful in explaining many things, there really wasn't a whole lot of demonstration. Sure, video clips were attached but I couldn't see what was going on. So...I G*ogled it to see if there are any videos out there. Turns out there are but after watching a couple and wincing through the entire thing, I think I'm just going to call it a night. It just looks painful. Ouch.

Follow up: I'm not the only one with this type of reaction. It just takes some time getting used to the idea of suturing a vagina. And separating your work from yourself. Some of my fellow midwifery girls also mentioned the same reaction.

Homework...ugh

I am avoiding my homework like the plague. I have to read for my pharm quiz due on Tuesday, review the materials for our midwifery lab class on Monday and read for my health policy class too. Blah. My friend had her baby girl yesterday -- 9lb 11oz at home. Big smile. Super proud of her. It seems like a lot of people I know on FB are pg and due in August (my birth month) --- seeing so many of my friends pg only gears up my baby-making itch. I want to have my first by 30, so I've got 5 years or less. Tick tock.

Right now I'm working on my coffee and making steel cut oatmeal for breakfast. Yum. Last night's mixer was boring, but a lot of my friends showed up so it wasn't too bad. I just had one (free) drink and then came home. My best friend from nursing school also came by to hang out for a little while. We'll call her SuperICUnurse. I hardly ever get to see her because of her crazy work schedule and my equally crazy school schedule. Plus she lives really far away. But the stars aligned yesterday and we got some quality time in. We hung out at the house for awhile, just catching up and then went out for sushi. She's probably one of the best things I got out of nursing school. We're going to be friends for life. No matter what. I love her.

The school was sponsoring a version of B*ggest Loser for this semester. Some of my girls signed up so I figured why not. The grand prize was a W*i Fit! Unfortunately, not a lot of my classmates were as amped about it so they cancelled it for lack of participation. Oh well. I've been trying to be better -- working out more. I actually don't eat like crap...in fact, when I keep track of daily intake -- I'm never anywhere near the recommended daily caloric intake. I try to eat all organic, minimally processed foods from the farmer's market. So I've been considering going vegetarian. I really don't eat a lot of meat --- probably the last remaining meat item in my diet is sliced turkey for my sandwiches. So I'm gonna try to phase that out and see if I like being vegetarian. I can't go vegan for my love of all things dairy and eggs. But we'll see how it goes.

Monday is our first midwifery lab -- we're practicing suturing, pudendal blocks, placental examination among other things. I'm really excited to learn all of these fun skills. Next week I think I'm going to ride my bike into school with a classmate. I'm excited to get back on my bike --- I haven't really rode it in a long time. And I've never had the opportunity to ride with someone else. It should be interesting because she bikes all the time. I told her my route was about 5 miles one way and she's like "Oh...so it should take us 20 minutes?" Hahaha -- maybe for her, but I ride leisurely there so I'm not a big sweaty mess that has to sit in class for 8 hours.

Blondie just bought a bike and so when she comes to visit we might go riding together. There are a lot of bike-friendly paths here in the city that we could try out. She's coming down for Valentine's Day (sweet, I know) weekend. The long distance thing is pretty challenging but I don't think it's that bad. I still have absolutely no idea what I'm doing/getting her for Valentine's Day....suggestions would be helpful. I've been stuck on it for a little while. She's not a flowers and chocolate kind of girl. At all. I could make her dinner, we could go out to dinner...but it has to be something more than just that. Alright...I better get on my homework even though I don't want to.

Back to reality

This first week back has been super easy. I was supposed to have class from 9a-4p on Tuesday but my 3-4p class was cancelled so I ended my first day back at 11a. Not too bad. Wednesday I endured my (yes, it is awful) Pharmacology class, followed by my super awesome Women & Health Policy class. I got out early on day two as well because my lovely carpooling partner was feeling nauseous and didn't want to puke in public. Understandable. I like the policy class already because it's kind of a Women's Studies course about women's health and policy and politics. Very cool. The instructor mentioned we'd be watching a film on the pill and its development. She asked when the pill was released...I replied "1960s...after we tested it on Puerto Rican women without their consent most of which died." She was impressed :) A lot of people don't know the background behind contraception in this country. Like how Margaret Sanger actually wanted contraception to control the population of the immigrants and lower classes --- eugenics-style. Gross.

Next week is a little bit more to handle. Our program director sprung a weekly lab on us Tuesdays 4-5p. I am super excited for this lab for us to practice lovely midwifery things. We're doing a huge lab on Monday from 9-12, including suturing. I need to email my preceptor and get days in the clinic for this month. We start our call shifts in Feb and catching babies should soon follow thereafter. Monday's lecture was on postpartum. I feel pretty comfortable with postpartum because I worked in it for almost 2 years. I knew the answers to most of the questions my instructor posed to the class. We got a new midwifery-convert -- yay; but her name is the same as mine, sad face. I like being the only one. Oh well.

I just bought a new external hard drive so I'm currently porting things from my mac. Hopefully it will lighten my computer up a little bit. Tonight is the grad school's welcome back mixer that I'm going to with a few of my friends. And a good friend of mine from high school is in labor with baby number two today at home. Makes me smile big for her. :)

Catching you up to speed

So I really have been a bad blogger. In my defense, a lot has been going on with my personal life. (Haha -- a personal life!? Graduate nursing students can have one of those? *sarcasm*) Beloved and I ended our almost 5 year relationship shortly after my last post. It was a completely mutual and no-nonense break up. We still live together with our dogs but are working through the process of separating out 5 years together. I'm fine with it. She's a wonderful person but we just weren't happy together.

And with the end of that relationship, I am now dating a new person. Hmmm...I hadn't thought of a blog name for her --- Blondie works. I've known her for over 8 years and we just reconnected when I was home. She's from my hometown and currently lives in NC. I never thought I'd date someone who lived away from me but it works. We see each other as frequently as possible but my life here is so hectic that it doesn't seem too impossible to do. Also, I love my space and freedom to do what I want -- hang out with my friends, etc. I'm comfortable with my life here alone. My feelings for Blondie snuck up on me out of nowhere. I've never thought of her as someone I'd date. But I am happy and that's what's important.

School is still not in session. We have a very long winter break. I spent the majority of it between NC & VA with my family & Blondie. School starts next Tuesday after MLK day. I'm taking Nurse-midwifery II, Advanced Pharmacology, Women & Health Policy, and Embryology. Sounds like fun, right? This semester is when I will catch my first (and hopefully second/third/fourth/etc) baby. We'll start our call hours in February. For the rest of the program, we will do 24hr call shifts every week and two clinic days a month. I am so excited about it! We're having a skills lab when we first start back to learn episiotomies, nerve blocks, suturing, etc. Yay! I'm feeling more and more like a real midwife every day.

Of course it wouldn't be school without some drama. Here it is --- I'm betting my pharmacology class is going to be utterly and absolutely useless. I've heard a lot of negative stuff about this class. This new professor has been teaching the class for a year but she's not a pharmacist. She lacks clinical experience in advising patients, nurses, practitioners about drugs. She's a pharmacologist --- knows how the drugs work but can't apply it. Our last pharm instructor was a pharmacist who still worked in the clinical setting as well as a pharmacy. He provided a lot of invaluable information to us. I have *all* of his notes so I'm hoping that will make up for this other professor. Maybe I should go into it with an open mind. But I'm skeptical.

I will try to be more on top of the blog posts. I should be chronicling my most important firsts throughout this year. 2010 is the year I become a midwife. Exciting.