Boyness Birthday!

Boyness had a great birthday!

Making treat bags:


LOTS of balloons:


When asked what he wanted for his birthday, Boyness said "Fruit! and Friends!"


"And SMOOTHIES!"








We had a treasure hunt (that we were too busy running after kids to take pictures of after this):


Cake:


Mmmmmm, cake:



Pinata!


The pinata mob:

Basking

In the lovely warm glow of a Boyness Birthday Party that went very well. Aunty B and Uncle O, Boyness was so excited that he got a present from you, since he wasn't expecting one :).

And basking in the lovely warm glow of the car needing not a new transmission, but a new thing-that-joins-transmission-to-wheels. $160 vs $2000. Thank you universe.

Out with a whimper. Kind of.

Last hours of call and waters-broken primip is finally in active labor. Francesco is about to get off of work, so I drive with the kids to meet him there. We switch vehicles. I head on my way, am next to the mall in the left turn lane as MW calls and tells me she's started pushing, am I less than a half hour away? Yes. And then...

The transmission on the car goes out. Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck. Francesco is luckily not too far away yet, and less than 10 minutes passes before he comes and we coordinate pushing the car (with the van...I was headed slightly uphill) into the parking lot.

Needless to say, I missed that birth. The last with this preceptor.

"Are you going to be OK?" asked Francesco...he almost never asks this kind of thing, I guess he usually assumes that I've got it handled or he can't do anything for me anyway or something, but he asked me then, so I must have looked like the shit I felt like. "Can we, I don't know, all get in the van now so you can go help out?" Pointless. Arriving after the birth when there is another student there already.

This was supposed to be my last one, though, and I feel like eversomuch shit. The nearly overwhelming feeling of that competed with the nearly overwhelming thought of how much this is going to cost to fix, and then I just couldn't think about any of it anymore. The kids and I went to the bookstore and Francesco called towing companies. The car is safely transported to the mechanic, now, who assures us that if it is complete transmission replacement that we require, he is now equiped to do it. This is someone we trust to do this monster repair right and cheap, and that is no small thing. It's still money we don't have, which will make an already lean holiday season even leaner.

I have no idea how we're going to do this coming week. Today, Francesco is off so I can take the van and strand him at home with the kids; tomorrow we are both off for Boyness' birthday. The remainder of the week we have wildly diverging schedules in hugely different places, and there is no way to do it with one vehicle. There just isn't. Mass transit? OMG we've never even been on the busses in this state.

At least I'm not on call this week.

Ah, the Weekend

I am in my waning days of on-call time with one practice. Last day, actually. I've liked working with them very, very much.

So anyway, on Friday, again sitting happily in the last bits of my on-call time for this practice, with nobody really looking like they were going to go into labor (three primips due two weeks from then), I thought it would be safe to invite ~L~s daughter G to sleep over.

Because we are batting 1000, ~L~ and I, with me having to call her to get her kids every time I babysit, my suspicion was pretty high, but I thought we'd make it this time. Fuck, the sleepover was even my idea.

So of course one of our primips goes into labor and another's water breaks.

Our trend of primips with speedy labors continues. This woman went from 0 - literally couldn't get a finger into her cervix - to baby in four hours. 9lb 4oz babe, intact perineum (I am proud of both of us for that one). It was a great birth, postpartum hemorrhage notwithstanding. She was completely asymptomatic - practically skipped off to the bathroom - after at least 1200cc blood loss (we couldn't estimate well, it wasn't contained on the blue pads and bedding and floor in a way we could get a number out of). The new student, who will be taking call after I leave mostly but was at this birth while the other student took time off call, was excited and clueless. I remember not quite knowing what to do like that. It seems so far in the past, now, and while at the time I just told her what to do ("[otherstudent], draw up pit please" "get a blood pressure please" "I need you to come assist me over here") it feels weird on reflection to be so far from where I was just over a year ago. And it feels weird to know that in a short few months, she'll be where I am.

Morning came, and I went and traded cars - my sedan for a van full of kids, mine plus G - at Francesco's work. We stopped at Trader Joes and forgot several important grocery items. Came home and let the kids have crazy/fun time. Enjoyed a visit from ~L~. Got to bed around 8:30, and true to form, a MW called the second I turned out the light. "Just an update," she said; apparently client-with-water-broken was contracting in a halfhearted kind of way. I went to bed fully expecting a call last night, but no, here we are at 9am and I have a full night of sleep behind me. That's the way to do it, eh? I'm hoping for an afternoon birth today. In the meantime, as much schoolwork and house organizing as I can cram into the morning without exhausting myself.

Life Craziness

My parents came to visit this weekend, which was great. The kids really enjoyed it. And my house is WAY cleaner. I have some photos somewhere. Figuring out where all my photos are and archiving them is on my to-do list, in a fairly low priority position...which means I may get to it sometime when I'm procrastinating doing something more important.

Like writing my senior paper...the rough draft is due Dec 4, which is impossibly close. I was going to do some of it over this past weekend, but I had two births and then my parents came to visit. Urgh.

I have a lot of school work catchup and oh-shit-I'm-falling-behind to take care of. And the clinical exams, fuck...we keep doing study sessions for these and sitting around practicing saying "we pretty much know what we're doing, why are we still feeling so unprepared?"

The kids did Thanksgiving themed art projects with my parents yesterday. It's a little absurd how much you love those crazy hand-shaped turkey feathers with "things I'm thankful for" written on them when it is your own children doing the project. BittyPrincess is thankful for "Tutu and Papa, Birds, Trees, My House, Cereal, Pink, and I'm a Big Girl." Boyness and Girliness are thankful for similarly predictable things. Oh, the mushy lows parenting has taken me to.

Reboot

I kept putting off restarting my blog, because of all the "catchup" I'd need to do.

So I'm skipping that catching-up part, and just starting again.

Yesterday, I started with a new practice. I'll be with them through August, which is after I graduate, but it's what I had to do to get a spot there and finish up my numbers.

I was quite comfortable at the old practice. This one is closer, and it feels good to jump in as a senior and feel pretty competent, but there is a lot of adjusting to do. Including 4 days a week of clinic. And hour-long appointments (which, IMO, is ridiculous, I greatly prefer 45 minute slots - I understand wanting to make space for your clients to talk and to deal with anything that comes up, but about 99% of the time you wind up talking about cats and who needs a new hamper). The charting at the new place sucks. Their supply closet is a wreck. They don't have an online schedule (working on it...). The schedule is hectic because they are changing locations. I remember feeling highly irritable the last time I switched practices, too, so I'm sure I'll settle in.

Oh So Neglected

My blog...oh so neglected.

The rest of my life, too, have no fear. Haven't put the pics from the Hawaii trip on my computer yet (it has been almost a month now, yikes).

Hawaii trip was great. Busy at clinic/births. The sun came out this weekend, which elevated my mood greatly.

More comprehensible updates to come. Maybe. When I have time.

The more there is to write about, the less time there is to do it. Crazy how life works out that way.

Friday, on the Lighthouse Trail

On Friday we left bridezilla et al to their last minute planning, and took a hike.

Clearly, BittyPrincess doesn't like her Uncle P...



...at ALL.



The view from low on the land-side of the ridge:



The kids managed to make the hike more difficult for themselves than it had to be:



Enthusiastic even in the heat:



A bunch of way-up-high photos:






At the first lookout on the ocean side of the ridge:





It was hot. I present...princess hiking!



First decent view of the lighthouse:



View of the shore from the top:



Goofballs!



Perpetual Motion Bittyprincess:



The whole crew:



More pretty:



Awwwwww, mother and son:



Boyness!



Clearly, BittyPrincess doesn't like her Tutu (grandma) either:



Or her Papa:





And, the picture to put all earlier cliff pictures into perspective...see that little light blue pool down there? There is a person swimming in it. If you blow up the picture real good, that person is identifiable as a couple of lighter colored pixels in the water.



We managed to avoid sunburn and narrowly escape heat exhaustion, before returning to the wedding prep nonsense. No pictures of our manicure/pedicure session (which I'm sure ~L~ will thank me for). I didn't take my camera to the wedding, either...not that I would have been snapping away as matron of honor or anything, but I am looking forward to seeing the photo album. The photographer was everywhere and I'm sure she did an awesome job.

Top of the Makapuu Lighthouse Hike

A video for you :)

Vacation Pictures!

Time for some photo catch up, I think! We've been trying to fit our adventures in with the pre-wedding festivities/complete insanity.

We arrived on Monday and spent the afternoon swimming. BittyPrincess found a hidey-hole and decided it was her bedroom, and then proceeded to fall asleep in it, which meant I had to sleep nearby for my own sanity (and not in the nice real bed they'd set aside for me...)



The next day, we went to (arguably) the tamest beach in Hawaii.



The following day, we did some snorkeling and reef-ing at our favorite tide pools. The girls both got stung by portuguese man-of-war, which really sucked...

Snorkle Boyness:



And a whole bunch of photos of the beach we went to the next day (also where Boyness got his chance to experience the man-of-war up close and personal), before the rehearsal/rehearsal dinner/bachelorette party:

















A day at the beach is only REALLY complete if you get shave ice in there somewhere:

Supervised Primary

Woot!

I wasn't going to claim them, but on my paperwork review my preceptor crossed out "involved" and wrote in "primary" :). I realized why when I couldn't answer "so what did I do that you didn't do more of?" That sure did creep up on me.

Leaving tomorrow. Off call at 8am. I was really hoping to get another birth in there, one I'll be sad to miss, but that is looking less and less likely.

Goodbye, July

In July, I:

Made my way through over 100 hours of clinic time, plus about 30? hours of labor support time.

Didn't take any time off call, at all. That's a first, a month entirely on call.

Made an interesting mistake on a cervical exam, messing up somebody's initial assessment. I thought I felt 7 and she must have been about 4. Later in labor, after her water had broken, I felt again and it was obvious that the ridge I was feeling was not, in fact, her cervix. I could still feel whatever-it-was and it felt like a 9 with a bit of an anterior lip at that point, but the internal os was obviously there and obviously 7, with the exterior os not much further open than that. I may not be comfortable doing another initial labor exam without follow up for a while after that mistake, although the poor client was actually not upset about it at all. As bad as it felt to suddenly realize I'd screwed up (when I did the second exam, that flash of realization was a real "oh SHIT" moment), I think I would have felt way worse if I'd had to tell this woman she wasn't yet to the same point I'd thought she'd been before.

Had a first episode of sticky shoulders.

Saw a bili level so high (25) that our statistics gathering program insists it is impossible.

Did a physical and pelvic exam for a woman who had a fibroid so big, her abdomen had a size mistakable for 32 week gestation at 11 weeks. It was the most interesting exam and pap I've done to date, by far.

Discovered that I actually like the preceptor I was a tad bit apprehensive about.

To and fro. Kids and meals. Go, go, go, go. As insane as this last month seems "on paper," I get 4 days off a week. We get friends in there (sometimes just lengthy phone conversations), and family outings. Laundry and good food. Life goes on. I am busy and happy, and learning learning learning. The kids are thriving on their schedule: three days with me (with someone held in reserve in case I get called), one day on a full-family outing, one day with Fran while I'm in clinic, two days with friends while I'm in clinic, and repeat. We rotate which friends they spend time with, and the kids really love that. No matter who they're going to be with any given week, they're excited about it.

Leaving soon for our trip to Hawaii, to visit family and for my sister's wedding. The level of excitement in this household is pretty incredible. Going off call 14 hours before the flight leaves, and hoping for no inconvenient overlap. Several women are postdates, and I'm now convinced that they're waiting for me to leave before they go into labor, just because the first rule of midwifery is that labor happens whenever it is least convenient. I'm hoping my need to pack spurs a veritable onslaught of women in labor (ok, not really...I'd settle for two of them!). I can pack fast and buy what I miss. Can't replace missing births with these women I've been seeing a lot of and getting to know.

Reading this post back, it doesn't exactly flow and doesn't entirely make sense, which is what I get for posting after 10pm on the last day of the month, after a full "week" of clinic. But ah well, off to bathe and to bed, editting be damned.

Homebody

Well, I'm not really a homebody. I think I'm gone more than I'm here, for the most part. But we haven't left the house a whole lot in a few days. Why would we? In between "do nothing" days (which honestly are anything but), we had friends over on Sunday.

Today, Boyness and I spent several hours harvesting the wild overgrowth around us. A portion of the returns (about 1/4 of what we packed up today), in our uber-high-tech drying bags and ready for placement:



As we started to get ready to go inside, we had some visitors:





They're so nice, it almost makes you forget that they're the buggers that eat everything in your garden.

Almost.

Boyness found the one and only strawberry to escape the deer, so of course he got to eat it. He said it was good.

We followed the deer down the driveway, trying to be quiet on bare feet, but the little one was pretty unsettled by us, so once they'd gone around the bend we let them be.

Monday is Fun-Day

Or something like that. Our schedule now works out where Fran and I are both off work (though I'm not off call) on Mondays, so it is our "do something" day.

Yesterday, we packed the back of the van with bikes and headed off to Point Defiance, a spot that has a lot more going for it than biking (which we didn't really get pictures of).

First the rose gardens. All of the kids love the rose gardens. Even Boyness, who despite the numerous scowls in the pictures, sighed and said "I love this place" just before we left.





We met friends at a playground, and then broke up into groups. I took the girls on a longer bike ride, pulling BittyPrincess behind me. The rest of the group stayed behind and got their bike on near the picnic tables:



And then went into the Fort Nisqually Living History Museum. Boyness proved his usefulness by grinding some coffee beans:



And I hear that they all got off (more than a little) on the trading post stuff:



It was a gorgeous day yesterday.