Wash Your Hands!!

Everybody keeps telling us to post pictures, but we can't. Unfortunately our camera died a couple weeks ago so our lovely people who look at our blog can only read about our stories until Ben and I get a new camera.
I just wanted to lecture everybody who reads this blog about hand washing. My family is a bunch of hand washing nazi's. If you look at our hands they are usually cracked and red from washing so much. I wash my hands before I go to work and a hundred times at work and I wash them when it's time to go home from work and then right when I get home from work the first thing I do is wash my hands. When I get home from school the first thing I do when I walk in the door is wash my hands. I carry hand sanitizer in the car so after I fill up with gas I can sanitize my hands. You might think it's rediculous, but I tell you what, if you've seen some of the people I've seen you would wash your hands too. 15 seconds of warm water, soap, and friction is all it takes to prevent you from getting sick.
This is a true story that happened this week. I was at clinicals this week working with babies. One would think that babies are fresh into the world and so they are clean and fresh, but they aren't. They are actually really disgusting creatures. I don't care whose baby it is, it doesn't make them any cleaner. Imagine this: a baby comes up to the floor a few hours after delivery. It is a cute little bugger and you just want to pinch his little cheeks. You observe the nurse because you are the student. The nurse gets things ready for the new borns first bath. When things are ready the nurse picks up the naked baby bare handed. If you don't think that's a big deal then just go ahead now and slap yourself for me because that nurse just touch a new born baby that was covered in amnionic fluid, blood, urine, and feces bare handed. Not to mention the mom who gave birth to that baby had absolutely no prenatal care which means that she has not had any blood test for communicable diseases like std's, hepatitis, aids, tuburculosis, mumps, measles, and etc. After the nurse placed him in the holder she put on her gloves. By then it's too late, she already has the germs on her hands (which are multiplying by the second). When she's done bathing the baby she disposes of her gloves and does not wash her hands. In the meantime she handles everybody elses babies, she's touching pens, stethescopes, doorknobs, patients, elevater buttons, and moving your cup of water aside. YUCK!
If you want to infect yourself in the privacy of your own home that's fine, but when you are out in public you really have the responsiblity of washing your hands. That's not just for healthcare workers either, it's for everyone.

Labor and Delivery

This week was our first week in clinical rotation. I have to say that this semesters clinicals are a lot different and a lot more educational than last semester. Last semester we were all together in a nursing home and this semester we are all seperated in a hospital. It is a lot scarier and a lot more intimidating this semester because you don't have a buddy with you, they make you come out of your bubble. My first rotation was Labor and Delivery. My shifts are 3-11 so there isn't too much that goes on in the afternoon in that department. I wasn't sure I would see anything.
My first day was Wednesday and i was prepared and ready to see a baby be born, but I went there and there was nobody. I sat the whole eight hours. It was very disappointing. Thursday I went back and they said they didn't have anyone so I was kind of bummed out, but I saw one of their delivery rooms closed and I asked about it and they said one nurse had a patient in there that might have a baby. I asked the nurse if I could go in with her so the nurse took me in with her and asked the patient if I could watch if she had her baby and she said I could. The nurse left me in there with the patient and a student midwife and the student midwife was really good to me. She let me follow her around and she explained everything to me. The patient that I was with did not want an epidural. She was one tough lady. She was dialated to a seven and still walking around the halls and only have to stop every once in a while for a contraction. Finally the midwife made her go to her room and sit for a while. The contractions were getting closer and closer. They decided to have her push once she was dialated to about a 9. i was at the foot of the bed just watching everything, but they needed an extra hand to hold the ladies leg so they had her husband on the left and they had me on the right. It only took a few minutes and the baby came out and it was blue and crying and there was lots of blood....it was awesome. Then it was cord cutting time so they asked the dad if he wanted to cut it, but he said the midwifes could do it and they were so cool they turned and asked me if I wanted to, so I got to cut the cord. How cool is that? That baby was so cute too. He was eight pounds with a head full of hair and his shoulders were fuzzy and he was born with a tooth. The nurse was going to let me do a fundus massage after we gave the family some time together, but she couldn't find me so I didn't get to do it, but I'll eventually get to when I rotate to post-pardum.

The Blessings of Tithing

We are only two weeks into school and already this semester is going by smoothly. It's almost too good to be true. Ben and I have had a couple of good experiences these last two weeks and since our camera died all we have is stories to post.
Ben and I were both really stressed out about how we were going to make it through this semester because we have to pay our bills, our doctor visits, we have to pay for the baby delivery in May, and we have to pay for my summer school tuition with fees and state boards exam and fees. On top of all that Ben had to cut back on his hours this semester because his school schedule won't let him work as often as he could last semester and with two days of clinicals and two days of lab I can't pick up more shifts either. We went through our budget over and over and kept coming up short. I didn't think we would make it through this semester at all until three days before school started. I went and checked my email one afternoon after Ben had left for work and got an email from a lady that I won a scholarship. I thought it was junk email or something like that. I almost deleted it, but just before I did I remembered that a few months earlier my mom helped me fill out a scholarship for school and I completely forgot about it. Ben and I went into the school and that's where the scholarship came from. I wasn't expecting to get anything, like I said I completely forgot about it, but we won it and it is plenty to help us get through summer semester. I was so excited, I called my mom to tell her we won and to thank her for helping me get everything together for it and she said, "It's what you get for paying your tithing".

It's A Boy!!!

Here are the first pictures of our baby. We have discovered that he does not like his head touched one bit. We can't decide if it's because he's shy like his daddy or stubborn like his mommy, but this picture took us over a half hour to get because he kept his face tucked and covered and every time the ultra sound lady poked at his head he would bat at my belly and then he would kick his feet like he was throwing a tantrum. It was really funny. His head is on the right side of my belly right now so he won't let his mommy lay on her right side at night, everytime I do he kicks me until I roll over to my other side.

Isn't he so cute!!

Here's his little footies.

Here's his little Ben junior.

Going To Nursery Is Fun To Do

Today was a pretty good day at church. Two weeks ago all of the nursery leaders were released leaving me, the only teacher left. I about died when I found out. Not that I don't like nursery, but you have to sing little kid songs that I don't know the words to and give little kid lessons and talk baby talk with them and lets just face it I can't and even if I could I wouldn't do that. It's just not my thing. I really hope the person they call to help me has children young enough that they are willing to do that or else nursery is going to get lame for some of the kids. I have had Ben come help me with nursery for the past two weeks until someone is called to help me. I think Ben really likes nursery. This week one of the girls came right in and ran to him and hugged his legs so he would pick her up and she asked him to read her a story. Last week during coloring time Ben wanted to color with the kids so I let him. You can judge for yourself, but to me it definitely looks like a Simpson.

January 14th

For those of you who keep asking us, Ben and I will find out what our baby will be January 14th. Don't worry we aren't holding out on anybody even though some people think we are (mom). We will tell everybody as soon as we find out.