August Birthdays & Catching Up

House of Leo (and one Gemini)
Our youngest turns 2 today. He'll get his prezzies later today. Happy Birthday, son!

My wife turned 29+7 on the 6th. She got an iPod... and guilt about my gift (read below).

I turned 29+7 on the 3rd. I got a T-shirt with Mr. Roger's saying, "Its good in the hood." (see.. told ya)

August keeps us busy. Guess I need to update my profile since I ain't 29+6 anymore.

Finals week
This coming week is going to suck. I have a final and a group presentation this Monday. My second final is Tuesday. The third final is Thursday and my comp is the following Monday.

Fun! (don't trust the smile)

During my hiatus from blogging I stood witness to my two A's melting away to B's. I should finish the semester with a 3.0 (four B's). Even though my instuctors tell me that I did extremely well for the accelerated 12 week summer session... I don' t believe them. It sucks!

My strategy for Fall is to regain the ground I lost over the summer. I can only hope.

Last OB Clinical
I was able to shadow a L & D nurse for a shift. Although the clinical started out a little bumpy it turned out to be a great experience.

The goal I hoped to accomplish for the day was to witness a vaginal birth. Keep in mind my two sons were both c-section babies so I had yet to witness a vag birth.

My instructor tried to accommodate my request and at first it looked like everything was going to work out fine but it didn't. As soon as my instructor left the room my nurse tensed up as she asked me:

"How do we approach this with you being a male needing to witness a vaginal birth?"

I have to admit I was irked by the notion of a problem. Especially since the resistance was coming from a nurse. If I was a medical student or a doctor my gender wouldn't have been a problem. The sarcasm center in my brain was tingling and I wanted to say, "Why don't you tell her that my sexual deviance arrest was expunged from my record days ago?" But I opted for the more direct approach:

"Why don't you just ask her?"

It turned out that my patient was a registered nurse so at least that fact made my nurse a little less tense having a male student in the room (my nurse probably notified security to stay on high alert).

Things changed rapidly after morning assessment. The expression on my nurse's face changed after the vaginal exam. It was during our brisk walk down the hall to collect the portable ultrasound machine when she shared her thoughts:

"I felt nothing but baby butt and we're going to have a c-section!" (Guess the reporting nurse is going to get a good thrashing when she returns to work.)

The ultrasound confirmed her assertion and we had to move FAST since 'mommy' had dilated an extra two centimeters in the 5 minutes it took us to retrieve the ultrasound machine.

It was exciting there for about an hour but we eventually got all parties notified (especially anesthesia... thank GOD!), got mommy's contractions slowed, and prepped for surgery. It was during the brief lull before surgery that my nurse shocked the hell out of me when she pulled me aside:

"This is an opportunity too good for you to miss. We have to get her to agree to let you feel that baby's butt."

Wow! I was surprised that my nurse would seem to make a 180 in attitude and I agreed. I did get to palpate my first son's head (vertex position) just before it was determined my wife needed a c-section. I hadn't ever palpated a breech presentation. Fortunately my pt saw the same educational opportunity my nurse did and allowed me to feel the breech presentation.

The surgery was uneventful, the baby was beautiful, and my nurse turned out to be a pretty cool mentor after everything was said and done.

I SURVIVED OB!!!
(now for PEDS this Fall)