Vitals...Hearing Test...Weigh...Latch...Weigh...Repeat.

Today's clinical experience was rather uneventful but educational nonetheless! I was assigned to work in a clinic that Overlake has for recently discharged mother's to come to for wellness checks and lactation support.

First off, breast feeding has got to be one of the most complicated yet natural things ever. It was interesting to see that all the moms I worked with today needed the same basic lesson. I could sum it up for you in three simple points:

• Mother's breast:baby::Red Robin Hamburger:you. No joke, they compared the boob to a big hamburger. Effective tool, kinda gross.
• Don't you dare try and put your nipple in that baby's mouth until they've got a big, wide open mouth or it won't latch properly.
• Breast milk solves any and all of life's problems. Sore nipples? Squeeze out some breast milk and watch the magic happen. Sore incision site from a c/s? Squeeze, rub, enjoy. Miraculous!

Overall, I really enjoyed my time in the clinical setting. I don't think that this particular one is necessarily for me because of the repetition of it all (hence the title. It's seriously what we did for all 6, 1 hour-long appointments today) but I really do enjoy the one-on-one patient interaction that this type of setting provides so my interest in pursuing a Doctor of  Nursing in Women's Health. There is something very fascinating about the different stages and health changes a women goes through that I don't want to limit myself to just the OB experience, although I do love it. But, then I'm torn because I really like meticulous procedure things (such as maintaining sterile fields or catheter insertion) so I think that I would also enjoy becoming a Certified Nurse Anesthetist. Oh drat, life's little choices. I suppose I shall figure it out in time!

The other thing I learned today is that I definitely want to have children someday. NOT ANYTIME SOON! But someday. Sometimes I wonder if I really want kids or if I've always assumed I would have them because that is what you are "supposed to do." But after interacting with lots 'o babies and seeing the family development and bonding I realized that I really want to experience that in my life and help a tiny, adorable, human being progress through a healthy and comfortable childhood. And baby girls are too much fun to dress, so there's that whole thing.

I also learned this week that unless Portland can make me a better offer, I would consider re-locating to Seattle to have a baby if life takes me elsewhere. First off, the clinic that I worked in today is not standard procedure but really should be since the average time for hospital stays for vaginal births is 24 hours and 48 hours for c/s. You can't possibly educate your patients in that short of time! I just like the follow-up aspect of it and when I'm an exhausted, emotional wreck after birthing large footballs I would like that kind of support. Also, there is a pediatrics office that is open everyday of the year, even holidays! That's pretty amazing and convenient. Especially if my children are fated to the never ending string of strep throat incidents that I was subject to. Me and chewable banana-cherry flavored Amoxicillin are pretty much best friends now.

That's pretty much it for this week! Because I was in a different building I couldn't follow up on the family I worked with last week so I'll never know what time their baby was born, which is kind of disappointing because I think my time prediction was really close. Drat.

Next Week: A Day in the Mother Baby Unit (The next step after labor and delivery)

No Crowning Babies....Yet.

Every omen prior to clinical today pointed to bad, horrible, terrible things in my future.

Anyone who has ever spent the night with me knows how anal I am about checking, re-checking, and checking once more to make sure that my alarm clock is set and ready to go. Well, much to my surprise last night I realized that the reason why I had missed three alarms in the last two weeks was due to the fact that my phone no longer makes sound. At all. But, never fear my friends. I'm basically like MacGyver Part Two because not only did I set the alarm on my stove for six hours of "bake time" but I put my vibrate-capable phone in a pint glass so that when my mom called at 5:00 to try and wake me up, an audible ringing would drift through my apartment. It was pretty epic. Turns out the stove woke me up just fine and my pint glass 'o magic was not necessary. So that was bad.

Then, I forgot my stethoscope. Seriously, it's got to be the most basic thing in the world but I was without it. So my faculty instructor lent me hers. Which was wonderful because it came in very handy with my first assignment...

My first patient had just delivered a baby cesarean (c/s from here on out ever in the history of this blog) two hours prior to my arrival. So, I got to do lots of cute new baby things like taking vitals, swaddling, and giving Baby Girl her first bath ever! The experience was wonderful, adorable, and a little emotional. Perhaps it was all of the anxiety of the last three weeks culminating to my teary eyed moments. Perhaps it was the always incredible sight of a grown man telling his mom for the first time over the phone that he is the father of a healthy baby girl and uncontrollably crying (it's powerful if you have yet to witness it). Whatever the cause, it was hard not to cry as I interacted with this tiny infant and I got emotional. Prediction: I'm going to be a wreck with my own future (underscore future) babies.

On that note of future babies, working in OB is the best contraception ever. Every teenage girl and boy should have to see some of these things. Teen pregnancy rates would drop dramatically, I am for certain.

I was supposed to get to scrub in for a schedule cesarean but for reasons unknown, the mother never showed up. She re-scheduled for tomorrow but I was disappointed that I didn't get to see a live surgical birth. Le boo.

My second, and main patient, of the day was a woman in labor with her first child. It was pretty exciting because she was excited and her husband was adorably anxious. For most of the morning we monitored her contractions and the coinciding fetal heart rate, which was exciting and grand. Then she decided the pain was too much and needed an epidural, pretty standard. But, the cool part was that I got to watch! It wasn't weird, the anesthesiologist was hilariously over-dramatic (remind me and I'll re-enact his swishing of vials motion), and the needle was a lot smaller than I imagined. Smaller in the sense that it's still a pretty damn big needle to go into such a sensitive space, but in my fantastical brain I had visualized a needle slightly smaller than a thumb. I don't know why, it's just how my brain thinks.

About an hour after her legs became all numbly and full of tingles, I got to insert her catheter. Lordy bee was I nervous for this one! I've practiced on mannequins and I'm a pro at maintaining a sterile field, but actually doing one on a real person is totally different. And stinky. No unexpected smells for a laboring woman, but sometimes it was hard not to make a face and for that I feel bad. Anywho, the procedure went swimmingly and luckily for me she couldn't feel anything because of las drogas. But, I feel cool and accomplished because I got to do something pretty neat-o.

From here on out it was pretty standard procedure of checking in with mom and family. She was dilating about 1cm every hour until...BAM. She jumped from 5cm to 9 cm. It was exciting, scary, and just bizarre and my little hopes got all raised up that I would get to see a birth. I even held a leg as she pushed and tried to make Little Baby work his/her way down the birthing canal. However, sad day when we realized Little Baby wasn't going anywhere yet and I had to go home for the day.

All in all, it was a very good first day of clinicals! So much fun, lots of downtime, but mostly lots of fun! Also, as a side note, we took bets to see what time my patient was going to give birth and I called 2:30 PM. When I left it was 2:15 so there is a relatively good chance that I won, but I could have also been way off.

On next weeks episode:
-Did I call the birthing time right?
-Will I wake up on time?
-How many mother/baby post-partum assessments will I complete in 8 hours?

Stay tuned.

Bring on the Crowning Heads

Tomorrow is my first day in the clinical setting as a nursing student. Am I starting off with something relatively calm and stable like gero? Nope. We're are cutting right to the action packed world of labor and delivery. Terrified? Definitely. Anxious? Most certainly. Confident in my abilities after a two week intensive "Baby Bootcamp"? We'll see about that.

I mainly decided to start a blog to share my experiences during nursing school with friends, family, and random strangers on the internet because it seemed like a neat and simple idea. No patient stories will be shared (Gotta stay cool with HIPAA!) but thoughts, feelings, perspectives, and learned lessons will be. So, sit back and enjoy watching the magic unfold as I work my way through my life as a nursing student!