Back to the Grind

Okay, it is time for an update . . . so here goes. The summer semester finally ended and instead of taking my needed time off I travels to all corners of the United States. Directly after my last exam we headed out on an all night road trip across the upper US to Boston while my sister was in labor to get there in time for the birth of my first nephew. I was not actually at the birth and there was a lot of mayhem which included much pain for Marcie and a nice three day vacation for the baby in the NICU. Alas, we visited with family and enjoyed ourselves. From their we headed back to Chicago for five days before heading to AZ to visit Paul’s family. We enjoyed our five days in the desert, where we in turn left our children for another five days while we explored the Northwest in beautiful Seattle. During our time there we gathered with many old and new friends at a gathering surrounding ideas of missional living and community. Then we headed back to Chicago with three days to prepare for school to begin for a first time preschooler, kindergarten and a return nursing student. Those days were full of school supplies and doctors visits. And then we plunged right in to the next phase of GEP (Graduate Entry Program).

I have been much more excited about his semester, because it holds within it the true beginning on my journey to midwifery. I am in a Maternal and Child Health class which is all about women and childbirth and pediatrics. So this was a welcome relief for me from “med-surg” . . . the bastion of nursing, or some might consider themselves the “real nursese’. So alas I am making my decent after just completing a 5 week rotation at a Chicldren’s Hospital, I will now take on the mentally ill on a Mental Health Ward for the next five weeks and then I will head into Labor and Delivery and maternity units. So that is the blueprint of my semester, of which I am ¾ of the way done and excited about that.

This semester has brought with it much more doable pace of life. We have needed it. The kids have ended up loving Catholic school and consider it a bad day when they are not left in aftercare. I have already been called a “mean mommy” for not leaving them there until it is dark. I am very fortunate to have such social and people-loving children who value these kinds of experiences or I might be inclined to feel a little guilty.

Alas, I am looking forward to the next weeks and then one final nursing semester. Hopefully within a couple of weeks I will begin to have many more birthing stories and fun midwifery kinds of facts for us to discuss.