A new beginning...

If you had asked me a year ago if I would have the warm fuzzies while saying clinical bound I would probably have said heck no! But here I am, six months from completing grad school, celebrating the beginning of the end. CB was amazing. It turned out to be more than I ever thought it would be. I expected huge amounts of stress and anxiety and trust me when I say I experienced those emotions. But I never expected it to be spiritual, and emotional. I feel like I learned so much and even though I still have a pretty good level of anxiety about going into practice I'm feeling a little better prepared. I'm happy to say that I passed both classes and completed all my checkoffs. Right now I'm just enjoying a little down time while waiting for my clinicals to start. Figures that I would end up on the losing end of some paper work issues but I'm hopefully optimistic that things will work out over the next week or so and things will go well. I'm starting off in the clinic seeing patients so no babies for the first few weeks but I'm grateful that I will be able to ease into things. Let the fun begin!

Raise your hand if you're exhausted!

Well first I would just like to say that I am super proud of myself for lasting 6 days now with no television...Good practice for all my nights that I'll be up doing births. So anyway, yeah I made it to day 6. Just 2 more days to go before I get to hug my little boy. I think that this has been the hardest part is not being with my son. I've never been away from him for this long and its pretty depressing! I'm to the point now where I just want to finish this up and get home quickly!
Today I caught my first fake babies. We had some pretty awesome simulations and they have been a real confidence booster. Am I still scared that I will drop the babies in the floor? Oh absolutely! I'm told though that the fear is pretty normal, especially at this stage. I've also learned how to suture-I would like to think that I'm ok at it but I will be doing lots of practice over the next few months.
Tomorrow is shoulder dystocia day. It's also the day where we get to suture beef tongues. Yes...I said beef tongues. Pray for me!
By the way, 8 of us, myself included, got special matching tattoos. Some people think we're an odd little bunch but we're all pretty excited and happy with them. It's been a wonderful bonding experience and I know that we will be in each others lives for many years to come.

Live from CB...

So life here at our clinical orientation/experience is very busy! We've had some down time to just hang out and talk but its really just blowing off steam before the next set of check offs. Yesterday was the check off for the physical exam. Sounds really easy but when you have to pull information out that you haven't thought about since the beginning of nursing school 5 years ago and learn new info on top of it not as a nurse but as a provider-its pretty tough. I passed though, only missing one set of information that I knew but frankly just ran out of time. Having had that behind us it was nice to just hang out around the bon fire last night and blow off steam with the ladies. We've actually discovered that we're a pretty wild bunch and we have a lot of fun together. Something tells me that there will be many wine and chocolate filled reunions for years to come.
This morning was truly vagina boot camp. We had the pleasure of doing pelvic exams on each other (so much fun!) and I'm happy to report that I fingered my first cervix. To some this is either not a big deal or really gross and disgusting but it was pretty satisfying to know that I can get my hands into somebody's vag area. :)
So I'll spare you the rest of the gory details but so far so good. I'm missing my kid like crazy but thats the only really big downfall to this whole experience. Tonight we are getting off campus for the first time since Wed. night and busting loose. We've decided to get tattoos for our next bonding experience and I'm really excited. I already have one tat but I've wanted another one for a while and I think after the past 2 days I've earned it. I'll try to remember to post pics of everybody's creations-that is if I'm not too impaired! 4 days down, 4 more to go!

(Almost) Live from CB...

Well I spent the last 2 weeks stressing myself out for this occasion that really has come a little too quickly for my liking. That's right ladies and gents. Tomorrow morning I'm trekking back up into the Appalachians to start my clinical journey. Somebody asked me what I'm feeling today. Honestly? I'm repeating my mantra that I will probably be repeating the entire 6 hour drive tomorrow-Holy Shit! And if I didn't have enough to worry about my sweet little heathen has chosen this moment to act out, my tires are nearly bald and flat, I've had no time to pack let alone go grocery shopping which means leaving half a box of cereal and some milk for my child to live off of while I'm gone. Oh and did I mention I forgot to renew my car registration yesterday? I just have to believe that all this hell has a purpose and that the next 8 days will be nothing but great. I am looking forward to meeting the lovely women I've been talking to through our classes and facebook and I'm looking forward to knocking these skills exams out so I can finally get a decent night's sleep.
So I will be doing my best to blog everyday. The wi-fi/cellular signal is not the best but I'll try. Things are about to get really interesting so stay tuned!