Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Kwansa, Solstice and New Year! It’s been awhile. The end of the semester sort of caught me in a sudden blitz of work and stress, and I wasn’t able to find the time to update this site as I had hoped. I stayed up late, ate a ton of ice cream, studied my ass off, wrote the second chapter of my research proposal (a whopping 19 pages), and then, as soon as the semester was over, I worked three exhausting nights in a row, then got on a plane bound for London, to spend as much of the holiday as possible with my beloved boy, who is currently living there (although hopefully not for much longer…he’s due to move to the US any day now, just as soon as his visa comes through, so that we can live together like we’re meant to, huzzah). Wheeeeeeee! I am the Queen of Run-on Sentences.
The good news is this: the holidays were lovely! Such a welcome break from work and school and books and computers and internet access. I’m also pleased to report that even though there was a fair bit of cramming at the end, I managed to finish my first semester of midwifery school with straight As. Hot-diggety. Now, let’s just see if I can continue the trend this semester. That would be quite an achievement.
And speaking of this semester: ooof x 12. I think last semester, difficult as it was, was probably just a warm up for this semester. I’m taking 15 credits, 3 credits more than I was taking last semester, and an additional two classes: Well-Woman Gynecology, Antepartum, Obstetric Pharmacology, Professional Aspects of Midwifery, and Research II. Antepartum (AP) and Well-Woman Gyn (WWG) are two pretty major classes—classes that will be the backbone of our practice, and material that we will be using again and again as midwives. Clinicals will also be much more hot and heavy this semester, longer and more demanding, however, I also suspect they’ll be a lot more fun. We’ll actually be taking care of pregnant women this semester! (Well, to be fair, we did take care of pregnant women last semester too, but it was at an abortion clinic, where the women were very interested in NOT being pregnant any longer, and we were only doing quickie pelvic exams.)
Let me repeat that: we’ll actually be learning how to give prenatal care to pregnant women! As in…actually doing what it is that midwives do.
Last semester seemed so abstract and academic and surreal…unrelated to our actual future jobs as midwives, in so many ways. This semester…I have a feeling we’re finally going to be learning meat and potatoes: the filling, juicy, delicious part of our jobs. So very exciting. A little bit nerve-wracking, and I must admit, I am a wee bit apprehensive about all the work and stress in store for us. But mostly just excited. Maybe this is the semester it will finally hit me; maybe this is the semester when I’ll finally begin to feel like I really am in midwifery school.
