Not my finest hour...

What a night! I'm so close to the finish line its crazy. It literally feels like its hurtling at me full speed and I'm a little overwhelmed right now. I am my own worse critic and I set the bar very high for myself and when I don't achieve my own goals its hard for me to feel confident in my abilities. I won't go into specifics because now that I've had a few hours of sleep my answers to some of the questions I was being asked by my preceptor are quite embarrassing. I'm like a broken record when I say this but I really do have some amazing preceptors who are working with me and encouraging me without tearing me down. If you know anything about nursing you know that's a big deal! Anyway, despite my gaffes and complete lack of L&D experience, I pushed through and hung around to catch my 6th baby. This weekend's plan is to spend a lot of time studying intrapartum care which will be beneficial in the long run because I wanted to study for comps this weekend also. I refuse to look like an idiot again. 6 babies down, 34 more to go.

The joys of student midwiferyhood

So yeah its a been a month...but its been pretty awesome. I've been getting some great feedback from the midwives, and the staff and I are getting along so I would say so far clinicals are a success. Does that mean I haven't had days where I feel like I don't have a clue what I'm doing? Absolutely not! In fact, I don't remember having so many days where I felt like a true fish out of water in nursing school. It's a very humbling experience, but then this whole process has been humbling.
So where am I now? Finishing up the second part of clinical and getting ready to start 3/4 next week. I've got a bunch of assignments (also called busy work) to get done over the next couple of weeks. I have to say that I have the best preceptors a girl could ask for. They've been helping me choose case study patients to help with the assignments. They're also really great teachers. No disrespect to my previous faculty but I have learned so much-more in fact over the past 2 months than I have in the past year. Which is really helping me study for the final comprehensive exam that I'll take sometime this spring.
And oh yeah....the best part...I caught my first baby! I actually helped with 2 and then caught the 3rd one later that same day. I was proud of myself because I thought I would get all emotional but I'm thinking that the adrenaline and the cramping in my legs from positioning myself all awkward and funky kept the emotions at bay. Looking forward to spending more time on L&D next weekend. I don't take call but I plan on spending a few extra hours with my patients now that I'm starting to get to know a lot of them in the office. So that's it...upward and onward! :)