Clinicals and homelife

It finally happened. After much agony and stress and planning and reassurances and studying, I began my clinical portion of training. Lest you be one of those confused by my course of study, no I'm not finished school yet, no I'm not getting paid for this (I wish!), yes I still have another 6-9 months to go, and yes I'm still writing papers and completing projects. But it's the hands-on stuff and way more exciting than textbook reading (though that's thrilling in its own way as well). Anyway, given HIPPA and all that good stuff I obviously can't tell you what I saw and did, but know that it was awesome and I'm so not used to working a full day anymore, and everyone was so welcoming and kind, and I do indeed have a pager, and all of my clients have seemed thrilled to have the additional attention of a student. I think it's good for them as well, because they feel more the expert in their pregnancy (since I have the title of "student") and want to tell me about everything going on with them and what they think it is, what they should do about it. It really makes them the leader in their own care, which is what midwifery is about. Anyway, I'm very humbled that they are so willing to let me in on this special time in their life, be so open, and be completely forgiving of any bumbles I make (be assured, Connie has her hands poised right above mine if I'm doing anything that would in any way risk mom or baby). I've already seen some really hard stuff that I'm still processing, some really happy stuff, and heard some pretty crazy things (the nontraditional lifestyles gravitate towards this care and it's pretty awesome). I'm on call through the weekend so I may or may not get some more hours, but this coming week I have a few overnight shifts as well as clinic, and being that it's the holidays, I'm hoping for some action :)

Other than that, everything has been the norm around here. H loooooooves her school (there's happy cheering in the backseat when I drop Steve off and tell her I'm taking her to school), she's testing like crazy when she's home, she's started to not play as independently (boo) and grabs our hands to pull us to wherever she thinks we should be, and she's starting to string 3 words together. She also has this habit of not correctly pronouncing the first letters of a word, but she'll pronounce those letters in other words so I know she can say them. It leads to some pretty bad-sounding phrases. And while my language isn't always lily-white, I assure you what she's saying is NOT what it sounds like. For example, "S" usually gets the "SH" sound at the beginning of a word so demands to "sit"...well, you get the picture.

(I just dashed off to hit up my favorite thrift store...got there 7 minutes after it opened and there was only 1 parking spot left. Crazy. I made out like a bandit!!!!!!) Anyway, some views from the week:

Food shots are annoying, my apologies, but this cake has been a huge part of my week. Not only is it chocolate, I made the frosting out of avocados, agave syrup and coconut oil. Who knew? It's fudgy and rich and it's made me very very happy. Also very very fat. That's the trouble with being the only chocolate eater in the house....

Oh yeah! I became an aunt again :) Dustin Josiah. This kid has the most incredible hair, I can not wait to meet him, and it amazes me that my little brother is a dad. Sounds like everyone did really well, and I can see already that Katie is going to be a great, easy-going mom. Hopefully we'll get to see them over Christmas!

She's not so much in to dress-up as she is anything with zippers....

Being a ham. I'm trying to keep her hair up at all times because she has this massive mullet going and I don't want to cut her hair because it's so thin....and only long in the back. We'll see.

Hard to spot, but our friendly cat and groundhog. They spend a lot of time in our backyard.

Pants I made H. Anything I make her she proudly wears because she thinks it's special. I'm milking this time for all it's worth as I know this phase does not last long

She's starting new favorites for books, ones that have a longer story line. Right now it's "Dr. Dan the Bandage Man" and "Nurse Nancy" (I'm so proud) although she just picked up "Goodnight Moon" the other day and it's been with her since.

Steve and I had a friendly bout of ladder ball the other night. I smoked him

Henri pretending she has no idea where all the balls are that she just ran off with. She has a pretty definite idea of where stuff belongs and what the proper order of things should be and gets VERY upset if that gets disarranged (no idea who she picked that up from). She doesn't like us throwing the balls, she wants them hung neatly. She freaked in nursery because the kids were running around playing duck duck goose. And unfortunately she thinks all the refrigerator magnets should be in a heap on the kitchen floor. Good thing she's such a cute tyrant.
 

We're looking forward to a quick trip to VT for Thanksgiving Day. I'm having fun plotting for Christmas and trying to think of a few traditions I want to make/keep just for our family as it looks like there will be a lot of traveling. We might save decorating the house/stockings for January when things settle a bit. Hope you're all enjoying this season of thankfulness :)