Life...

I just wanted to give an update on Cindy and Natalie... they are both doing GREAT! Cindy is such a great mom! I'm so proud of her! She is pretty much amazing! And her mother comes to every single visit she has, and brings every piece of paper I have ever given to her! ;-) It's so cute. Here are a couple of pictures from Natalie's check ups!



In other news... our new assignment is newborn exams... and it is very long, and very interesting. And, I am so easily distracted by the information in those text books... when I am doing my assignment, I find something interesting, and then I just start researching it... it's good, I'm learning a lot... but it's not very productive.

True to our agreement... Holly and I have celebrated our test with a McDonalds meal... :-) Ok, don't worry, sometimes it's not a whole meal, just ice cream.... but this time it was a whole meal... oh man, and I'd just like to say... the chicken nuggets were heavenly this last time. They weren't over cooked... I was SO excited!!



I am on shift right now, and it's been dead since we got here... we had 3 girls to discharge, but they were completely done, only to pay. and they were out... and we haven't had anyone since then! :-) maybe it'll pick up a bit, because I didn't bring any of my text books over here... :-)

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!!!

~Sarah

wow, 6 of them!

So you have your slow shifts, and your mild shifts, and your busy shifts.. but then there are there are the crazy shifts that people talk about for days after... well I was on one of those on Saturday morning... our shifts are only 8 hours, and usually we have 1-2 babies on a shift, 3 would be busy... well, saturday morning we had 6!!! That's right, 6. The team was Ate Ermie, Jenny, Medea, and Ghang ghang... and me... and Medea's friend from Switzerland... thankfully everyone can catch except me (and Elizabeth, Medea's friend). We were endorsed 3 labors, one of them pushing, one of them about to be pushing, and another one in early labor who refused to go home. So the first one delivered at 6:23 right after shift change, we actually did endorsments right outside of her cubicle. So I charted for her birth. The second went at 6:53 and I charted for her birth as well (it was really fast). Then we had another girl come in who was active... and she had her baby at 8:04, I charted that one too, meanwhile there was another girl pushing in bed 5... so after the placenta and checks and stuff, I ran down to that one... but it turned out that she wasn't ready to be pushing... so they made her stop...then some time... another girl came in (I think when I was with Ate Ermie at that 8:04 birth), and she was pushy... so, her baby was born at 8:40... and that was Medea's second catch of the day! yikes! So then we had a little break... and that girl who was pushing but had to stop wanted to push again... and this time she was ready. But if you will recall the order of things... 10 observes, 5 charts, then assist... and I had charted 5... so I was up for assisting... holy cow... SO my first birth as the assist... it was a boy, and he was born at 10:38... I didn't feel like I was too incredibly helpful, I didn't really know what I was doing.... AND he needed deep suction... and I definitely didn't know how to do that... so, I'm not counting it toward my 10... but I was the official assist on birth 5 of the day... so sometime in there... on of the other girl's continuity came in (that means, you do her prenatals, and then when she comes in to deliver you are the midwife, and you do all her checks and stuff after the baby). SO that was her girl, and she delivered at 1:23... and I helped with that one, it was a pretty tough birth, and there were some complications and such, so they needed me to do some stuff (stimulating the baby and such). So that was my day of 6 babies in 7 hours... There are only 5 in the pictures, because that last girl didn't go until a bit before endorsements, and then the baby needed deep suctioning, and then he needed deep suctioning again a while afterthe birth (I actually did that one, so now, next time it's needed I can do it... yikes!).

Me-Medea-Jenny-Ghang-Ate Ermie and 5 of the 6 babies of the morning.

Natalie Bolcan

In prenatals for the past few weeks, I have had the great pleasure of checking Cindy, a first time mother who is 18 years old! She is the sweetest girl, ever, and she just has the best attitude, and the sweetest spirit (I know i just said sweetest twice... but it's true). So she came in last night, at around 8:30 and they called me over, and I was really excited, but trying not to be, because she is having her first baby, and it was her due date... and she's young. So I went over... and she was still early. So she went home. And so did I cause I was not working. SO, then around 1:30, I got another message... and she was back, and she was further along, so I jumped out of bed, and pulled on clothes, and was over there SO fast... So she labored, and she was incredible. She followed every instruction we gave her, and the birth was amazing. A baby girl was born at 3:34. Her name is Natalie, and she is SO pretty. Cindy did an amazing job, and she's going to be a great mom! I'm so proud of her!!!

Solomae

It happens sometimes, at mercy, that a mom will need to be transported to the hospital after she gives birth to her baby. This is ok, although sometimes crazy to facilitate. The problem is, however, that if we transport the mom after the baby is out, they won't accept the baby at the hospital. If we transport the mom when the baby is still in, the baby can stay... SO, this happened the other day... I came on shift and at endorsements there was a baby in one of the beds. And no mom. But, as far as I could see he wasn't alone (they said it was a boy). So I figured they had a helper was there and everything, and I had another patient I was helping to take care of, so I didn't even see the little guy until later... when he started fussing... So I went in to the crowded postpartum area to see who was making noise and to encourage their mother to feed them (because that is my solution for everything...). And I noticed this poor little guy laying on the bed alone... and it was him... the transported mother baby, who, it turns out wasn't a boy after all... :-) In the Philippines, the word for he/she is the same... so... it sometimes makes it confusing, and when some people say he or she... it's not always he or she in the strictest sense... :-D So I made it my personal mission to take care of her... and I named her Solomae (her mom doesn't know, though... ) cause I wanted Solome but, they pronounce it differently than I wanted to here... Anyway, so my little girl was hungry... and I needed to find some way of fixing that... It just happened that it was a crazy busy early shift in the birth room, and we had quite a few postpartums. So I brought little Solomae around to all of those new mothers and asked if they would share... I even got some of the women coming in for baby check ups to nurse her too... I was very creative. So Solomae and I hung out all night, and I kept her warm and clean and did cord care every two hours... and brought her around to the new mamas every time she needed.... And then, right before shift change, our supervisor decided to try to bring the baby to the hospital to see if they would let her in... and they did! Praise the Lord!!! They let her stay there with her mom!! It was truly a God thing!!!
Thanks for praying for me this week. I am doing really good. I'm a little tired today, because I worked last night, but I had a big nap, and I'll go to bed early! I'm just about finished with the assignment that is due on friday, we have class today, and I'll find out if there is anything I need to add, and if not, to the presses! I have a little creative stuff left... which... is always interesting given my creative talents... yikes! and then I have a free weekend! Yay! Maybe we'll find something fun to do... I hope you are all having a wonderful week, and God is continuing to bless you in ways you wouldn't even think to ask for!!!

~Sarah

hmmm....

So.... Jenny soooo kindly pointed out that I haven't blogged in a long time... I was trying to think of a remarkable occasion in my life on which to blog... but it seems as though mostly it's work and school... Holly hasn't been feeling the greatest this week, so in order not to spread germs to tiny people... I took her shifts... which leaves me with 11 shifts in 14 days... yikes! and we are only supposed to have 3 shifts a week... so it's been pretty crazy for me. In between the working, I have been getting some much needed homework done. Yesterday, Holly and I went to McDonalds to do some homework, because they have air conditioning... and we bought lunch, and worked for several hours... McDonalds isn't the MOST conducive place ever to do homework... but we both got a bunch of stuff done... :-)


For birthroom news... I have all my observations done, and next I will be charting the events of the birth. Thats pretty cool! After charting, assisting, and then handling... oh my! Ok, back to the homework! I hope you all have a great weekend!!!

~Sarah

The week in review...

So this has been a pretty eventful week for me... I have finished my assignment, saw a bunch of babies be born, worked my first night shift... transported my first baby (that was not so fun)... we went to that high ropes course, and that was pretty much great fun.

Friday night Michelle and I had a swing shift and we had two little girls born and I got to do SO much. I got to do the footprints and weight and bath and cutting the cord, and so much stuff! It was SO great! I felt like I was actually doing stuff, like making a useful contribution to the shift... So the footprints... they are not as easy as you would think... the baby has her little foot out, and she is crinkling up the toes, and trying to pull her foot away, and wiggle her toes around... so, she kinda looks like she has 12 toes on one foot... but no fear, it's actually only 5 on each foot! :-)

Outland Adventure (the ropes course) was great! There was a lot of really scary stuff, but I did it all and at the end, I was really happy with myself, and also rather sore... :-) There were lots of team building activities, and we really learned a lot about each other. And we only had one small accident when we were there... there was this girl, actually it's Michelle (the one I always work with), and she was going down the zip line, and there was a problem with the brakes, so she didn't stop and she kept flying by until she rammed into the emergency stoppers right before the tree. So she slammed into the ground and the wire pulled her up and smashed her down a couple of times before she finally stopped... She was hurt pretty a lot, but not seriously, thank God. She has a HUGE bruise on her upper thigh where she landed the first time, and a slight concussion, and a bunch of other bruises, but God was so merciful, because if she would have gone even 3 feet further, she would have slammed right into the pole that was holding the zip line, and been in a much worse situation.

It's been a good weekend of hard work and lots of fun. And this week is going to be great too! Friday we have our first test... we turned in our assignment today... so ikes, now it's starting.. :-) I hope you all have a wonderful week!

~Sarah