Oi! The guilt!

Song o' the day: http://www.xtreak.com/go/carenott/130533/Trinity_Roots_-_Little_Things.m

I just called in sick to my postpartum job today, because I am so overwhelmed with other things I need to get done. In the longterm, it's a good decision because I'm working on my longterm, big picture plan today, but in the short term...Oh the guilt! I just need to be organized enough to work full time AND get nursing school stuff knocked out. But we all know that's not how I am, at least not at this stage of my self-improvement.

Things I'll be doing today:
1) Writing three birth stories and emailing them to clients
2) Calling to check in on postpartum mamas
3) Calling to check in on pregnant mamas
4) Emailing out birth plan forms/examples and homebirth supply lists to two clients
5) Rough drafting two essays and finishing the form part of the common application
6) Volunteering at the DV shelter
7) Mailing off some care packages
8) Deciding who to ask for letters of rec
9) Catching up on SMS board stuff....ugh
10) Updating my appointment book

Things I need to do tomorrow:
1) Take a float test for rowing (yep, I can tread water for 10 minutes!)
2) Study for GRE
3) Pick out some cologne for Alex (cause it's really for me...)

Alex is being incredibly wonderful helping me stay motivated and enthusiastic about nursing school applications. We daydreamed last night about how great it'll be to get acceptance letters (please, please, please!) and actually get to go somewhere new and do something new. The world is so wide! Staying focused on the outcome is definitely important, when it's so easy to get dragged down in the annoying details of applications.

I'm trying to think about any updates I haven't included since I last posted. Went to a great volunteer birth at the UWMC last week. Early in the labor I really didn't feel like I was connecting with the mama. The differences between us were so huge: she was African, already a mother, much older than me, probably not someone who would've chosen me had we interviewed. But I was the only volunteer available when she got to the hospital, and she was stuck with me-or at least I felt like she felt stuck with my cheerful, young, white, childless, English-speaking self. But as usual, when hard labor really set in, the walls came down, we connected, and afterward we felt like sisters for the 45 minutes or so I could stick around. It is wonderful and amazing what labor does to social boundaries and divisions.

I also got a kick in the pants from watching the new resident, and (I know this is totally prideful and arrogant) realizing that I know a bit more about normal labor and birth than he did, and possibly am even more familiar with the common drugs and interventions. To cut the guy some slack, all the newbies just started July 1st, so he hasn't had a whole lot of time yet, and maybe he doesn't even want to work in OB. But still-it made me realize how much I really have learned from going to all these births over the last couple of years. The interrupted sleep has paid off!

My twins moms had their babies yesterday-they are HUGE for twins, and so healthy! Yea!

Alex has a stress fracture and tendonitis in his wrist, probably from his bike trip. Poor guy can't ride his bike now, but he is quitting his job effective late September. That's soothing the wound of being bike-less.

As you can see from the To-Do list above, I need to go actually get things done.

Love ya's!

Caren