How do they do it?

I do not see how people in the medical field, I think they are called residents, can go 24 hours working a shift.

As a lot of you already know, I'm a doula, helping moms physically, emotionally, mentally through the labor and delivery of their baby's. I'm also a volunteer doula (meaning I'm do not get paid for services) for a program called Operation Special Delivery. It's a wonderful program for military expecting mom's to get free labor support while their husbands are deployed. Another doula and I have been working together with this mom who was expecting their first baby (dad is currently on the east coast). Her due date was the 17th so we've just been playing the waiting game. Saturday morning just before 7am I get a call from my partner saying the mom's water had broken a few hours earlier and that they were going to be heading into the hospital within the next hour or so. Of course, I had things planned for that day so my partner, Patty, was so kind to go in first and let me get some things done since the mom wasn't really having regular contractions yet. So I went and worked out with my friends Marissa and Kellie, came home and showered then went to the movies with my mom, Marissa and her mom. We went and saw Mama Mia. LOVED IT!!!! My parents used to play all the ABBA records so I knew all the songs, sorry Marissa if I annoyed you with my humming along. After the movie I called to see how things were going and it was still real slow so I was able to go clean my grandparents half of the house (mom and dad take care of their side while I clean for my grandparents). I checked in with Patty again and we decided I'd go to the hospital to relieve her about 7pm.

When I get there, Patty fills me in with the details. Not much progress. The contractions are only about 5-7 minutes apart, mom is handling them well. So, we walk the halls, sit on the birth ball, sit on the toilet, taking one contraction at a time. During each and every contraction, all night, mom needed her back rubbed (by me) while either her mom or cousin held her hand. She was finally checked around midnight and she was only dialated to 1cm and baby was still really high. It was decided to give her some morophine/phenergan to help her get some rest. It didn't work. She was given pit. to help speed up the contractions which made it harder for her to cope with the pain. In the end, she got an epidural (all of which she was really hoping to avoid). Two hours after the epi they checked her and she was at 4cm. About three hours after that she was fully dialated. By this time Patty had arrived back at the hospital with a good nights sleep. I didn't go home since I knew it wasn't going to be too much longer. Just after 11:30am the baby was born.

I had my phone on vibrate during the time I was there and about a half hour after all the excitement, I heard my phone vibrate. It's my other client, she had called twice in the past hour and a half. Oh boy, I thought. I gave her a call and she tells me that she thinks her water broke. We talked for a few minutes and it was decided that she should talk to her care provider since it was around 2 in the morning when it broke and it was now 12:30 in the afternoon. She really didn't want to go to the hospital since she wasn't really having that strong of contractions so she said she'd call me after she talked to her doctor. I go back to Patty and the mom and tell them I need to get home, congratulated mom and headed home. Of course the dr. told my new mom she needed to get to the hospital right away because of the risk of infection, yada,yada but she told me they were going to take their time, walk the dog and get there when they get there. That's great, it gives me some time to get home, eat something, take a shower and hopefully get a nap in. I do end up getting a four hour, albeit interrupted, nap. It was decided to meet this mom at the hospital at 7pm, the first mom delivered at SWWMC, and this new one was up at the Salmon Creek one. We get there at the same time and her brother and sister-in-law are already there in the waiting room. Mom gets a room, is given a swab of her cervix to check and see if her water actually broke and then is strapped to the monitors. After getting all her vitals, medical history and the rest of that stuff, the results are in. Mom's water did not break but she's having regular contractions about 2-4 minutes apart. They decided to check her. Only 1cm, 70% effaced and baby it -3 station, which means way up there still. They tell her to walk the halls for an hour and come back for another check, if there is no progress, she'll get to go home. During this time, nine more members of her family show up, making that a total of 14 people out walking the halls with her including dad and I. We get back to the room, she's checked again, no progress. They monitor her about 20 more minutes and tell her to go home. Mom is frustrated, and I think a little embarassed, but I'm actually very greatful since I'm so exhausted. I get home around 10:30 and go right to bed. I'm still not fully rested but at least if I'm called in tonight I'll be able to think more clearly.

So, as to my first statement, I don't see how anyone in the medical field can function working such long hours. I love what I do and I can understand the adrenaline rush you get from the excitement that helps keep you awake but still, that rush doesn't last long and the brain stops functioning properly. Okay I'm babbling now so off to bed I go. Wow, this was longer than I thought. Kudos to you if you stuck to reading this.

Just a few things

It's been a busy past few weeks. This will be a huge post if I give all the details so I'll just summarize.

We finally got my parents (and grandparents) moved into their new home. It was a long, slow, and tiring process but it's finally done. We've ALL been enjoying it out there; bbq's, baseball, sprinklers, lawn mowing, especially the lawn mowing! It's the first time my parents have ever had any land (and a brand new home) so it's been lots of fun.

Aiden and Olivia tired from moving.

Playing in the water. BBQing old school style. We don't need no stinkin propane!

Birthday dinner for Gramma.

Fun on the mower.

Even 90 year old Great-gramma took a turn!

On July 2nd, we came home from swimming at a friends house to find my sister and her family parked in our driveway. What a fabulous surprise!!! They had driven all the way from North Carolina, with a few stops in between. We had so much fun play the wii, PS3, 4th of July, Kids club, trampoline, more sprinklers. Thanks guys for coming to see us!!

Aiden, cousin Anya, Olivia. Bryson with cousin Kennedy.

Anya, Kennedy, Olivia, Riley and Bryson all playing around.

Waiting for the fieworks to start and the stash, all $230 worth.

Uncle Bryce and Papa goofing off.


Pooped!

Gosh, that doesn't seem like much but when it's sandwiched in between our everyday activities, it was actually really busy. The only two things set in stone for the rest of the summer is that 1) I'm on call for a client who is due to have her baby any day now and 2) we'll be going camping next month. Oh, and I can't forget our trip to Texas in October, yay!

Medford visit Part 2

We left Moday after Doug got home from work and got down to Medford around 1:30am. After getting a quick tour of the house, Nat had gotten there earlier in the day, and having picked out our rooms, we settled in for the night (morning). Shannon and Olivia were up at about 7:30, which is a little early for them, so I climb out of bed and find Natalie awake as well. I had mentioned to her that "I could swear I heard the sound of little feet running around last night." She said that was because Aiden had woken up and was crying so she took care of him. Thank you Nat. Because of where our room was located in the house, we couldn't hear anything in the main part of it.

Okay, on with the day. After a quick internet search of what there was to do around Medford, we decided to go to a museum for the kids. When we got there, it was closed for renovations. Great, plan B. We remembered seeing an ad for a miniature golf/arcade place online and went to a gas station to look up where it might be. We end up driving to this hole in the wall of a place that has a slick track (no golfing) and arcades. We decide to give it a try. Shannon was just tall enough to drive a car by herself but Bryson had to ride with Dad. Aiden, Olivia and I just watched and they weren't too happy about that. Shannon had this look of fear the whole time. I couldn't really get a good picture of it but I thought it was so funny.

We played a little arcade then went to a park we saw down the street and played a while there.

That night we had pizza and played cards. After the kids went to bed, the three adults got into the hot tub and had a great visit. Natalie also works for UPS so there were quite a few stories exchanged.

Wednesday was checkout day so we packed our things and cleaned up. We went to another park to kill some time before our tour of the Harry and David factory. If you're ever in Medford, I recommend going on the tour, it was "very nice."

After our tour and some shopping, mmmmm chocolate covered cherries, we headed over to the local TacoBell for lunch and then time to say goodbye.

It was a short but fun trip. Thanks Natalie for meeting us halfway!

Medford visit

Last week we drove down to Medford to meet up with a dear friend of mine, Natalie and her two boys. We hadn't seen each other in 13 years so it was a great reunion (she lives in Alaska so it was a real treat to have her visit down this way). While we were there, we rented a vacation home. It was so much fun.

(sorry it's a bit crooked, I was in a moving car)

our room on the left and our bathroom

Bry & Aiden's room (left) Shan & Liv's room (right)

Each room had their own bathroom.

Standing at the front door.

Kitchen and TV room.

I'll post more of our Medford trip later.

Owwie

This is a hitch exactly like the one she ran in to.



Here's the broken bike, and yes, that's blood.



The following day.




Swollen lip.



It's looking better.

ER Trip #3

Friday was an eventful day. After the two younger kids woke up from their naps, we went to a local park with our neighbor from across the street. The kids had fun playing in the water, it was in the 90's that day, but it quickly ended when we saw people starting to run to a certain area of the park. The family next to where we were sitting started acting crazy, screaming, crying, running. It took me a few minutes to figure out what was going on. I thought it was a fight but it turned out that someone had found a little girl floating in the water. It didn't take long for the paramedics to get there and then leave with her. I still didn't know if they had revived her but we were all a bit shaken up so we packed our stuff up and went home. (I found out on the news tonight that they did revive her but she had severe organ damage and she passed away this morning. She was only three. I'll be praying for the family.)

We weren't even home for 1/2 hour when the neighbor came pounding on our door saying our daughter was hurt. Sure enough, Olivia was being carried into the house with blood all over her mouth, clothes, legs, shoes. Doug went outside to find out what happened and I cleaned her up to assess the damage. She had a cut on her lip, a cut on the side of her chin and another cut on the other side of her chin. None of these cuts were bleeding too bad, so where was all the blood coming from? I had her spit and looked in her mouth and found that it was mostly coming from inside. I thought for sure her teeth had gone all the way through her lip so I checked to make sure her teeth were all there, they were, and it looked like maybe her teeth had gone through. The cuts to her face were big enough that we felt we should take her to the ER so off we went while across the street watched the other three kids.

On the ride there Doug told me what had happened. She had been riding her bike (not really a bike but not sure what else it's called. I'll post a picture later) down our street and couldn't stop so she did a face plant into our neighbors car. The back end of it has a trailer hitch on it. Thank goodness the actual hitch wasn't fastened to it so she just hit the part where it attaches. Sorry, I'm at a loss for technical words right now. So we get to the hospital and sit down in the waiting area, it's 7:45pm. We finally leave at 12:10am and six stitches later. Good news, her teeth didn't go through her lip and the teeth seem to be fine. All the bleeding was from her gums, which got pretty banged up and hopefully didn't damage her permanant teeth. She's doing fine now and I thought maybe this will stop her from sucking her thumb........nope. Just wishful thinking. I'm am just so thankful that she is okay and that she's still here.

We went to Shannon's Dr. Wednesday and he confirmed it, yup, it's broken and she'll need a cast (she was in a splint). So today we went back into Portland and she got to choose the color she wanted. What do you think?

I just had to show you this. Last night I had a meeting and while I was gone, the kids picked up all the dirty laundry and this is what I came home to.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who has a laundry room like this!