And the Snow Just Keeps On Falling......

Falling falling falling.....

Sigh.

So, I love the snow. I really do. I am not as much a lover of the cold. I know you must have cold to have snow. I hated the fact that in Florida, it never snowed. Despite it getting below freezing. I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. So we got lots of snow. I have such fond memories of building snow forts and igloos and snow ball fights and snow men. I love the snow. However, why did it have to snow today? Why not Sunday instead? Sigh. I was suppose to see my guy tomorrow, and on through Saturday. The longest amount of time we would have spent together probably since June, when we took a trip to Florida. Here me whine. Here in Alabama (and very southern central Tennessee) they are not prepared to handle snow. Which makes for lots of black ice on roads. Which makes for cancelled dates :( *whine* I am watching it snow outside. We have about a half inch accumulated right now. I am sure it is less in Alabama. I would still *probably* be able to drive into Huntsville tomorrow even if it sticks up here, as long as it is more clear down there. I don't cross any bridges until I am well into Hazel Green Alabama. However, if it is snowing this much up where my guy is staying (with his parents atm, in New Market, on a rural road up a mountain) then he will not be able to drive into Huntsville. *whine*. ah well. Such is life.

That said, the snow has also caused the schools around here to shut down for the day. There was no school today in Lincoln county, and Fayetteville city. I also heard that Madison county schools closed (which probably means Hazel Green and meridianville are also closed, since they are near there, and north of it). I have to giggle at how people react to the idea of a little snow fall here in the deep south. But I understand that black ice is dangerous, and that they do not salt the roads here, which leads to more instances of black ice than we usually had in Ohio. All of our clients declined to come today, and rescheduled for next week. It makes next week a full week, but that's ok, I *LOVE* busy clinic days, it was one of my favorite things about working with Christina back in the day!

So, clinic news? I haven't started working on moodle again yet. I have had issues getting motivated, but need to get on the ball for it. I did open my own website ( a free one) for midwifery, hoping to bring in a few new clients. I have also been visiting the local book stores and slipping business cards into the pregnancy and baby books. Neither has worked yet. LOL! I also have been doing some billing work, trying to get Linda paid (and at least 50% successful thus far) from the insurance companies. It really is pathetic how hard it is to get them to pay. It is like squeezing water from rocks. I kid you not.

We just had one student cancel for the January workshop, which is a bummer. I am hoping to fill the spot, but not sure that I will be able to with such short notice. I did not have a waiting list this workshop, which was sort of surprising, but I did not advertise as heavily as I did the last time, so maybe that is why.

I do have *four* pregnant mommies coming for the workshop and I know the students will have a great time with that. I also think that Lily's mom may bring her for the newborn exam demonstration. Yay! The workshop is coming together nicely! Andrea is coming Monday so we can go over everything that we will cover, and just to visit (we have missed her, since she has been sick!)

I have also started a count down for Andrea and I for sitting for our NARM exam to get our CPM certification. Because of the rules that NARM has set forth, we have to have all of our paperwork turned in 6 months before our planned date to sit for the exam. We were hoping to sit in October this year (the last exam of the year) but that is not going to be feasible. Therefore, we are hoping now to sit by February of next year. In order to do that, we have to have all of our paperwork turned in by October of this year. In order to turn in all of our paperwork, we have to have all of our births documented (and post partum exams, and newborn exams, and initial exams, etc, but those come much easier). Right now we sit at 13 clients currently here and due by August. I need an additional 19 before October in order for *me* to sit. Andrea needs another 24. Combined (so both of us can sit in February next year) we need another 30 *total*. This is because some of the births we can share, and others we cannot. Hence the total amount that we need is less than the combined number we each individually need. Here is hoping that a bunch of pregnant ladies come raining down on us over the next few months!!!

Twins update!

The twins seem to be growing well, and are measuring approximately 4lbs and a little bit by ultrasound. Unfortunately they both have turned breech (as opposed to vertex/vertex the presentation they have consistently been in, and the best position for a vaginal delivery). She is now 32 weeks and we are not wasting any time to try to get these babies to turn, and we have an appointment Saturday with Dr. Mike Neeley (the local accupuncturist who helps us out at times). Hopefully we will get the babies to turn to a more desirable position.

In the mean time, my fellow apprentice who has been down for the count for over a week with the flu is finally feeling better, and will be back Thursday (yay!). We have a few appointments Thursday, and I'll spend the rest of the day getting ready for the workshop and working on insurance claims and other boring billing stuff.
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Happy Birthday Baby Lily!

Baby Lily decided to make her appearance on New Year's day, which also happens to be my preceptor's birthday. Lily is the first baby that Linda has helped deliver that was born on her birthday. After a fairly fast 4 hour labor, and only 24 minutes of pushing, Lily Grace was born!

I just love this picture of baby Lily and her daddy!

Her mommy and daddy are proud first time parents, and the clinic is now filled with birth energy. Linda and I spent yesterday cleaning up around the clinic, but today I am taking a day of rest. Tomorrow starts the first work day of the new year. My children go back to school on Tuesday, and my guy, with any luck, finds out if he will no longer be laid off sometime this week. We're all praying that he gets put back to work by his employer, and that he works a contract here in Huntsville, instead of having to move.

We have a few weeks "off" here at the clinic, and then it's back to sleeping with my cell phone! Our next baby is due on February 4th.

A New Year Full of Promise

Today starts the year 2010 and my new year holds a lot of hope and promise both for my midwifery studies and for my personal life. I am busily preparing for the Basic Midwifery Skills workshop which is in a mere 21 days! It has really snuck up on us. We will have six students at this workshop: three from Texas, one from North Carolina, one from Memphis area, and one from Orlando! Our student from Orlando may stay the month of February on a short term apprenticeship as well.

Right now, at the clinic, we are waiting on one baby, who decided she wanted to be born in 2010. Perhaps so doing the math might be easier for her age later on?? Lol! She is now post dates, and we are hoping she decides to make her appearance this weekend!

We also met with a new client due in March, which officially makes our March most likely as busy as our February. Hoping that our two April moms deliver in March or very early April as the three of us are making the trek to the Midwifery Today conference in the middle of April. The count down has started! We have 12 clients thus far, and I need 21 more to sit for my NARM! Hopefully they really start pouring in by the half dozens, since I only have until October to turn in my paperwork in order to sit in Feb of 2011!
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Now That Christmas is Over

Now that Christmas is over and I have a moment to take a breather, I realized that the next basic skills workshop is only 26 days away!! Somehow it crept up on me, and I have a feeling that in only another blink of my eye students will begin arriving!

I am working through the MTB program, but also am going to start practicing for the skills assessment. I have to pay an additional $700 for the skills assessment, and so I do not plan on failing it! Andrea and I are probably going to start quizzing each other on it. With any luck, I will be taking the skills assessment later in the year in 2010.

We are still patiently waiting on our Christmas baby, and we are so happy that our mom is just glowing, and enjoying her last few days pregnant, instead of spending them miserable and wishing her baby was here already. I will, of course, update as soon as our Christmas baby decides to make her appearance!

This week at the clinic we have a fairly slow paced week. We have a client coming Monday for a post partum visit, our Christmas baby's mom coming for a check up Monday or Tuesday, and three clients on Thursday morning. Friday is my preceptor's birthday. The clinic is going to start getting busier in January, as we have a busy first half of the year. I am so excited, I can hardly wait!
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Merry Christmas!

We are still waiting on our Christmas baby. I have a feeling she will make her appearance late in the evening tonight, but we shall see.

In the meantime I had Christmas Eve dinner with Linda and her family, and I had a lot of fun. They are so warm and welcoming. I decided to stay home today and rest, my sinuses have been miserable due to the weird weather here, and I want to be well rested and feeling good for our Christmas baby's appearance.

Our twins mommy is doing well, and I was so happy to see her again. We will see her again in two more weeks.

We are gearing up for a busy first half of the year next year and I am so excited!

Merry Christmas!
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A Bustling Season at the Clinic!

This has surely been a bustling season at the clinic! We have had a few false alarms with our Christmas baby, but she has not arrived yet. We are being happily patient for her perfect birthday to arrive, as always leaving it in God's hands! I will, of course, update you when our Christmas baby arrives.

In the mean time, my children are in Florida with their father, and I am spending my Christmas season alone, but not. If I could have chosen company for a Christmas without my children I could not have made a better choice! I am away from *any* and all of my blood borne family this holiday season, but am celebrating with Linda and her family, who have welcomed me as if I was born into the family during this season. I also have my Church parish family, and will probably see my guy at some point during this week as well. I have secretly been dreading Christmas day for months now, and have had a bit of hidden depression over it. I have never been away from family during Christmas, and much of my family is very close knit. I was not looking forward to it. But, between all the excitement with the impending birth, and Linda and her family, Andrea, and my guy, it's not as bad as I thought it would be. My Christmas has been blessed.

I have taken a break from setting up the MTB moodle program, as it was beginning to consume my every waking moment. I was stressing about it and decided I needed a break from it. I wll get back on it after the first of the year.

I have also been busy organizing the next Basic Midwifery Skills workshop here at the clinic. We will once again welcome students from all over the USA to learn basic skills in a two day workshop at the end of January. I am excited about this, as I love the sense of sisterhood that we foster, as well as loving passing on the knowledge I have thus far attained.

Merry Christmas Eve everyone, and have a blessed Christmas Day!

Our Christmas Baby, and other updates

Our Christmas baby could come any day, and I am in the mood for a birth! We are all excited to meet baby Lily. I have been sleeping with my cell phone, with the volume turned all the way up, and trying to get to bed early in case I get a call in the middle of the night.

Other news at the clinic? The clinic cookie exchange party was wonderful, and lots of fun. I met many new people, including the local bradley instructor. The clinic is decorated so beautifully for Christmas. I am having a more difficult time getting into the Christmas spirit this year because it will be my first Christmas away from my children, and pretty much away from all family.

I have decided to take a break from setting up MTB moodle, and will come back to it after the first of the year.

Our twins' mommy looks beautiful, I love how beautiful her belly looks. Every time I see her I compliment her because she is just glowing!! Both of her babies are still vertex (head down) and in the ideal situation for a clinic birth. We are so excited to be able to be a part of her pregnancy!

We have had several other clients come in that are new, and our year next year is really shaping up to be pretty busy. With any luck, Andrea and I will be able to complete our numbers so that we can sit for the NARM exam soon!

Tomorrow is clinic day! I love clinic days, they are so fullfilling for me. It is one of the few places and times in my life that I feel totally in my place, in my element.

I know it's been a while

and I apologize to anyone who is reading along with my blog. I am not usually such a slacker when it comes to journaling (as can be seen by my dozens of journals that hold the last twenty years of my life in them stacked in my closet.....) but this last month has been so busy. We have had several new clients come to the clinic, plus the holidays are in full swing. I have been busy setting up the Midwife-To-Be moodle community for all of the students, and have been frustrated as well as joyous at the work involved to get it set up.

We are expecting a baby soon, she is 37 weeks now and in the count down, can go anytime! I am officially sleeping with my cell phone again, to make sure I don't miss a call! We have been busy turning babies who were stubbornly staying transverse lie as well as doing the cookie exchange party.

I am hoping to finish the moodle project before the end of the year, and I should at my current rate of progress!

We have also been very busy organizing another basic skills workshop for January, I am so excited to be offering this service to students across the country once again. My preceptor is awesome!

Tomorrow we have another Ultrasound for the twins' mommy, and I will post and update on how her babies are doing after that.

Until then!

city girl in a farm town

So, I knew when I moved here that it was going to be quite a bit different from anywhere I have ever lived. I have never lived in "farm country" and I have definitely never lived in the "Bible Belt". I was so happy to move here, I was finally where I've always wanted to be. My spring was wonderful, I watched the trees blossom and the new leaves bud. The birds come back out and life be reborn. Things that I missed while I was living in Florida.

Summer was amazing. It was never so hot and humid at the same time that I couldn't stand it outside. I spent much of my summer outdoors enjoying my new home to go along with my new life.

Fall came later than I had expected it to. And it came on suddenly. On Saturday, when driving to Huntsville, the leaves were all green. On Sunday, when driving back to Huntsville for Mass, the leaves were variations of reds, oranges, yellows, and golds. It was breathtakingly beautiful.

That said, not everything has been beautiful and refreshing here. We're closer to the earth here than in the city. There is more grass, more dirt, more wildlife, and you can notice changes in the earth here more. Around half way through the summer, we realized that all the corn crops were dying. The corn was rotting before it was ripe. Then the cotton plants failed to open. We had acres and acres of brown, dead, corn stalks, and dead cotton plants then later. The corn has thankfully been plowed under now, but the farmers haven't managed to plow under the cotton. It is just like death surrounding you.


As can be seen by this picture I snapped with my BlackBerry camera this morning, these fields are all over the place, and very depressing. all you see is acres of white on black. Millions of dollars worth of crops dead, and you have to wonder about the food supply for the winter. Was the growing season so bad for everyone everywhere? Or only in this area? Granted, cotton isn't a food stuff, but the corn and beans were, and they also died. As a midwife I rejoice at every new life, every new birth, and seeing these dead crops just give me shivers. As a mother, it makes me wonder how many years we can stand total crop loss before we go hungry?

We also have had a weird budding of flowers very late in the season, and monarch butterflies that are just now coming out as caterpillers and butterflies. So I ask Linda, is this normal for around here? And she answers me with "no", turns out she is just as startled by it as I am.

We have celebrated new birth here at the clinic though, and welcomed baby Selah to the Blessed Care Clinic babies. She is just beautiful, as can be seen in her picture below.


Isn't she beautiful? We don't have any more babies due at the clinic until December 28th, and so the midwives around here (students and senior alike) are relaxing, cleaning, and getting ready for a busy year next year!