Busy Time

The last six weeks have been a total whirlwind. First I took the NARM in the middle of August. I left three homebirth moms and one doula client who were all due. They all waited for me too. Then all four of them had their babies in 9 days. Whew. 3 of those 4 babies were within 2 oz. of 10 lbs too. All of them had great vaginal births. Two of them were VBACs.

After the second of these births, I discovered an issue with Mountain Mama. My heart was devastated, and I had to let her go from my practice. It was a very, very difficult thing to do, and it still stings. I have a new assistant, and she is marvelous, but she is not at a place in her life to want to apprentice. I have to remember not to lean on her for clinical stuff... she is just there to help me out, not to learn. I love to teach, though, and I"m sure plenty will rub off on her.

Then, just as I was trying to recover, I got a call from my dad that my mom had had a difficult time in dialysis, with trouble breathing, etc. They brought in ultrasound machines and discovered that she had a large blood clot in her Jugular vein and also one in the Superior Vena Cava. I booked a flight using Preacherman's frequent flier miles and flew up there for mom's surgery. It went well, and I was able to spend a couple days with her and my dad and brother. She is slowly recovering, but she really, really needs a kidney.

The day after I got back from visiting Mom, I got an email from one of our state midwives saying that one of my sister midwives in my state had lost her husband in a motorcycle/truck accident on his way to work. This particular midwife came 3.5 hours to supervise me for one of my NARM births when Faerylady was at another birth herself. She is a homeschooling mom of 6, 4 of her children still live at home. This was a devastating loss.

The weekend after that was the BOLD event two hours away. The widowed midwife had been the organizer. I drove out to help set up and help out in any other way that I could. The play Birth by Karen Brody was performed and it rocked my world. It was amazing, outrageous, inspiring, touching, and very emotional for a pregnant lady.

This weekend I drove 5 hours to a surprise party for a fellow brand new CPM who took the test on the same day as me. Congrats to you M, I know you read here!

The party was a blast. Her preceptor made "boobies" out of pineapples, peaches and cherries, there was a uterus cake, a chicken soaking in a "bath" with an egg between it's legs and milk duds "floaters" in the water, a sitz bath with chips in it and speculum halves for the scoops. It was really fun.

Now, on to the October storm. I have four ladies of my own due, and two that I'm helping Faerylady with. This will be a very busy month.

My own little pea in the pod is starting to make his/her presence known through subtle, weak little fluttery wiggles. I look forward to feeling those little tapping kicks in the upcoming weeks.