Week 9

I've been given a glimpse of God's grace in my life, in the midst of my daily nausea.

When I have to work, my nausea lasts for a few hours, limited to the morning only. When I have a day off, I'm nauseated for most of the day. As I complained to Shan about this, he brought up this concept of being blessed on the days I have to work with less nausea so that I can do my work. It's true and always amazes me the effect of a changed perspective.



This week was a typical week for me at work and I've had a few people ask what that really means. So I'll describe it to you.



I get up almost every morning at 5:30 to exercise and am on the road by 7:30 to be to work by 8. I'll start by saying clearly, that I am not a physician. However, if you've never seen a nurse practitioner in a clinic setting, the best way to think about what I do is to think of me as a physician. I see patients all day long in an urban run down community clinic. Seeing patients all day long means seeing between 18-25 patients for reasons such as: a sore throat, diabetes follow up, numbness in the left arm, HIV, pregnancy, birth control, depression. I don't see children but I see male and female patients aged 13-old age. My two areas of specialty are HIV and pregnancy (together and separately) but I see the above patients in between seeing these two favorite groups. I share an office with another nurse practitioner and a physician. In between patients we chart, visit, run patients by each other in consultation and even have some fun. We are staffed by medical assistants, nurses, front desk staff etc who help with everything from check in, to rooming patients, to vaccinating, to monitoring of babies in pregnant mommies.



I do sit between patients but I rarely relax. The pace is fast with most patients given 15 minutes with me for a full visit. We often double book patients, anticipating some will not show up. But when they all do, all the more chaos as I try to see two patients in a 15 min time slot. Many unexpected events happen such as a woman showing up in labor, an old man having chest pain needing a 911 call and transport to the ER or an angry patient storming out because he was refused narcotics by me.



On top of managing patients in the clinic, I also manage my patients when they're in labor. This means calling in admission orders, managing their labor, catching the baby and evaluating the baby after it's born. Some of this can happen while I'm seeing patients in the clinic and some requires my presence in the hospital. Needless to say when the day holds a delivery and a clinic day, it's quite exhausting. When a delivery happens in the middle of the night, it affects my next day in the clinic as many hours are usually spent in labor management overnight.



That said, it's been an interesting ride this first trimester of doing my job and navigating a new pregnancy. Add the new burden of nausea for most of the morning, constant hunger therafter and fatigue that I've never experienced before, it's a lot to handle. It does remind me of my need: for sleep, for a restful weekend, for help from Shan and for "the peace that passes all understanding" that only come from Jesus (Phil 4:7).



Turns out our baby is the size of a date, has fingers and toes now and no more webbing, is moving it's arms, is gaining in it's immune system and is moving out of the embryotic phase and into the fetus phase.



Grateful for this little nauseating life and still in awe that this is even possible.



shauna

Week 8

Well it's been a while since I've posted, but I'm back.

Wow, just read my first 2 posts, and I'm way behind.

So the US moved my due date to none other than Christ's birthday, that's right 12.25.2010 is our due date putting me today at 9 weeks and 1 day. Got a cute little US showing a black triangle with a little white peanut, ie our child!

The last 2 days of my MN trip turned me into the nauseated princess. Bad in the morning, but clearing up by lunch. This has become the routine for me. Up at 5:30, with nausea until about 9:30 when it magically vanishes. Then as my coworker observed, I fill my mouth every 2 hours because I'm STARVING ALL THE TIME! You should see my desk. I have food stashed everywhere from fruit bars, to granola, to peanut butter, to fruit. Anything to satisfy me in between patients.

My body is changing. About 5 years ago I went through Weight Watchers because I was sick of my ongoin weight gain and I lost about 60 lbs and have kept it off for the last 5 years with watching my diet and exercising. So this has been a trip to already notice my belly changing and my hunger be huge. My husband has to midwife me and remind me it's okay to eat a little more during this time...I'm not a very good patient.

I'm much more fatigued, so am sleeping much better at night. I am taking lots of naps and making myself sit more than before. It's been good for me. It's amazing to me how the days can fluctuate. Some days like today, are great with real minimal nausea. But this weekend I spent Saturday and Sunday feeling wiped out and nauseated most of the day. Up and down up and down.

I'm reading Dr. Oz's book called "You having a baby." It's actually really good reading on new research called epigenetics and even pregnancy stuff I didn't know, so thanks Aubs for the book!

Turns out week 9 is when the immune system starts to kick in, the heart is divided into the 4 chambers, fingernails are forming and my baby is the size of a grape. A cute little grape at that.

I have my first midwife appt in 2 weeks where I'm hoping to hear the baby's heartbeat at that appointment. So in the meantime we keep cooking this little bun in the oven and count the days until the nausea lessens.

shauna

First OB Appt

I had my first OB appt today with the nurse! I had a big form to fill out ahead of time and we set an appt for me to have my dating US tomorrow since the last few months of periods have been weird due to my miscarriage in January. If you didn't know, they use the last menstrual period to pick the due date so it's important to know. So they drew labs and sent me on my way. Feels fun to be the patient as she went through all I should and shouldn't do while pregnant. I had to remind her to treat me like a patient, not a midwife.

I spent last week in MN and told my brother first about the news! He was so happy for us and even more excited that he was the first family member to hear our news! I spent the weekend with Josh, Rachael and the 3 kids and saw a preview of life to come! What a joy! I loved being called "auntie."

Then I left for my friend, Trang's house who has a 2 month old. Another preview of what's to come! I was at her house for 5 days just sharing what it's like to be a new mommy. She gave me lots of tips on everything from breastfeeding to cool things to buy for the baby. A much needed education as my confidence wanes beyond pregnancy and delivery when I have a real live human to care for.

I have a feeling that I'm further along than I thought. Ultrasound will right this wrong. Way to go midwife, got the first question wrong on the pregnancy quiz...

shauna