Long time, no post...

I know, I have been gone for a bit. A lot has been happening! I fractured my ankle (healing slowly), Bean had a birthday (5!), summer vacation, getting my house ready to sell, and OMG applying for grad school! W00t!

Lots of big news going on. ACOG has finally recommended VBAC after c/sections x2! Can you believe it? My jaw seriously hit the floor when I read this one! Does anyone on my unit know, or care? Heck no. Will this change my hospital? I don't know yet. I mentioned ACOG's new stance on VBAC's to my nurse manager and she wrote it down on her little notepad to talk with the medical director. My hospital is a pretty progressive one (in the area anyways) as we encourage women to VBAC after one c/section. I am really hoping that we will implement a new policy based on these recommendations. *fingers crossed*

Bean turned 5! He is my homebirth baby and somehow 5 just seemed like more of a milestone than 3 or 4. He will be starting kindergarten this fall. He is turning into a kid, no longer such a toddler. I really miss having a baby around, although if he had his way I would still be nursing him (he was weaned at 3) and carrying him in the sling (which I do, but man is he heavy now) all of the time. He is a mama's boy to the 9th degree! I am wondering now if I will have another baby, and that makes me sad. I am young enough, but with the dissolution of my marriage there are a lot of ducks that would need to get in a row for that to happen! *sniff* my baby is growing up!

Grad school! Is it really time for that already? I have been getting my applications together for several online midwifery programs: Frontier, Stony brook, and Univ of Cincinnati. There is a local DNP program, but I want the flexibility of an online program. As a single mom, childcare is hard to come by! Plus, I am really hopeful that I will be able to move back to my home state out West in the future. With an online program, I could continue my studies uninterrupted. Of course, there is always the issue of finding a preceptor, but I am hoping that my homebirth/ birthcenter connections will help with that. The local DNP program is lacking  out-of-hospital birth experience which is the PRIMARY reason that I am going to grad school! Why would I choose a program that will never let me see an out-of-hospital birth from a midwife's perspective? Some of the local midwives at my hospital have kind of looked down on the online programs, but they are right up there on US News and World Reports rankings of graduate midwifery programs. Frontier is 12th, Stony Brook is 28th, and Univ of Cinn is 29th! Is my local DNP program listed? Nope! The only brick and mortar school that I am interested in attending is UCSF, but that would require a BIG move and for me to be completely fluent in Spanish- which I am not yet. Anywhoo, wish me luck! There are a lot hoops to jump through to get these applications in.... Jumping through hoops is not my favorite thing in the world.

Along the education lines, I have been researching what I need to accomplish in the next year to sit for the IBLCE exam to become a lactation consultant.  I would be on Pathway one and really just need to complete a lactation course to receive my 45CEUs in lactation management. I am trying to figure out if my hospital is willing to shell out the $700 that one of these courses costs. I really hope so, because we have had 3 positions posted for L.C. in my unit for a long time. Clearly, we need more L.C.s but are they willing to pay for it?

The ankle... Le sigh. It is slowly healing. Management has finally seemed to understand that "light duty" really means I can't take care of patients. Lots and lots of paperwork though. I hate it. Really really hate it. I am so ready to labor patients again, but as long as I have to wear this boot I am stuck.

Random conversation overheard between two Attendings in the OR hallway.
Attending one: "You do circumcisions, right?"
Attending two: "Sure, the money is good."
Attending one: "I used to be so fast at them! But, then I realized that one thing that you shouldn't be fast with is a circumcision."

I really want to know the story behind that one. Poor little boys and their missing foreskins.

July. Do NOT ever, ever get sick or have a baby and go to county in July! July is when we have a whole new batch of 1st year docs start, the 3rd years become 4th years, and everything is discombobulated. July is also the start of LAD's busiest time of year. In LAD, you always need to think about what was going on 9 months ago. Well, 9 months ago the holiday season was starting, it was starting to get cold, and people were making babies!  I am dreading September and October of this year because we were snowed in so much this last winter! Holey moley, the babies are raining down! It doesn't help that we are really short nurses (not just me, but many others too). Just craziness everywhere. We did over 650 births at my hospital in July! I was out much of July completely because of my ankle, and now being back light duty it is really hard to not jump in and help.



Too random? Too much? Hopefully I will actually manage to post more than once a month now!