I haven't written about many if any of the rotations I've been on this year, mainly because I believe it would be boring to anyone with a pulse.

However, I'm currently on my OB/GYN rotation and while most things are boring, who doesn't like to talk about delivering a baby?

Most of the peeps at church have heard me go on and on about this but for the sake of trying to stay awake on a week of night float, I thought I would share...I got to deliver a baby. I've been told that by the end of the rotation I will have been able to deliver around 10-15 babies. I know that doesn't seem like a lot but it's still very exciting. By the end of the week, I will have had enough supervision to even be the front runner in some of the deliveries which is just stinkin' awesome! Now, I could go into the details about how wonderful it is to bring a life into the world and blah blah blah but that is self-explanatory I would think. So I'll just keep it short.

Lessons learned:
1) Babies are inredibly slippery when they come out. You may think they would be easy to catch...and yet I am always a little concerned that one will drop. They never do but they are slippery.
2) Preterm babies shoot out of the mommas like torpedos. If the resident/doc wasn't standing right in front of that hole, it seriously could fly!
3) There is a lot of fluid coming out of those moms. It doesn't matter how much you prepare yourself, there is all sorts of colors and fluids leaking. When a woman is in the final stages of pushing everyone says, "Get your boots on."
4)Amniotic fluid on a good push can fly clear across the room! Wear a mask with a shield.
5) Two good standing rules the attending told me on my first night of call...don't let the baby bounce, and don't treat the umbilical cord like a bungee cord.
6) Delivering a baby gives you an incredible high especially late at night when the coffee has worn off.
7) Moms who choose to deliver without an epidural deliver waaaay faster than those who do. This is very valuable information.
8) Not every baby born is a happy moment. Many of the moms here for several different reasons don't really care about the child after they deliver him/her. This makes my desire to adopt all the more intense.
9) There is a lot of fluid that comes out of those moms.
10) a lot of fluid...

For those expectant moms out there, I feel like I need to put a disclamour on this entry. While jokes are made about babies bouncing, etc. it is all said in fun and all deliveries are taken seriously. I'm sure most everyone realizes that but in the off chance that I offend someone...this was all said in fun.

I got tired of scrolling down through so many pics. So instead I added new ones of some seriously cutie patooties. Here are the twins...Alyse Hope and Natalie Faith born on Jan 20, 2009.

Natalie: 6lbs5oz, 19" Alyse: 6lbs3oz, 19"

So I'm not a big fan of having my picture taken or shown but since this was my wedding day, well, I guess it's okay to show some since some friends and family have been asking. I haven't gotten the official ones yet but these are some fun ones that friends and family took.

Hope you enjoy!



We had all the chairs set up in a round which was pretty fun because everywhere you looked, there were people.

I'm getting married in less than 8 days! AHHH! Crazy excited about that. Found out that I actually get the Friday off before the wedding. Really excited about that. Still have to be back at work Monday morning at 4:30 AM...not excited about that.

Surgery is overrated. I'm glad that surgeons exist; they are important. I'm glad that I will never be one, never consider being one, never hope to be one. Why? Because I get bored about five minutes into the surgery...never a good sign.

Sleep is a wonderful wonderful thing. I miss it very much.

I am stoked that so many terrific friends are coming to have some fun with us in a little less than a week. Hopefully, ha ha, they feel the same way.

And to add just a little mushiness, I am most excited that in 8 days, I will actually make a promise in front of God and everyone to hang out with my best friend on a regular basis, love him til death, care for him, and enjoy him for the rest of my physical life. That's a pretty awesome promise.

There are several strange phenomenona that occur during med school. You begin to find joy and comfort in the most bizarre places such as a mnemonic helpful for remembering cranial nerves or a silly sentence to remember a certain biochemical pathway...anything to make studying for exams, boards, etc. any easier.

But perhaps the most bizarre of all is how I have come to rely on panic as a measurement of my preparation for a test. What I mean is, if I ever feel good or confident about a test I know I haven't studied enough because generally I will do poorly if I feel that way. It is only when I am 100% utterly convinced that I have no chance of doing well that I know I am ready to take a test. And the past few days I've been feeling really great about a test coming up on Monday...which in essence is bad. It wasn't until this morning after a brutal two hours of patient case presentations that I realized I am in no way prepared for the exam coming. And there it was, ahhhh, my panic wrapped around me like a warm security blanket.

Isn't that ridiculously strange? That panic, sheer panic can actually be something desired? I tell you what, school will make you turn into the weirdest person. Oh to be normal again.