Readers Beware

I've started my maternity nursing class, as I've mentioned, last week. My warning is this: I went to nursing school so that I could be a midwife. That means that I am already obsessed with my class. So - expect a lot of posts about pregnancy, labor and delivery, post partum, and the newborn.

Today was our first active day of clinical, and it was SO awesome. I was in postpartum, and was lucky enough to spend the whole day with my clinical instructor, who is the clinical nurse specialist and lactation consultant on our floor. We walked around and I felt a couple uteruses, at different stages, which was awesome.

I'm really impressed with the hospital. In most cases, people want to go to the city to go to a great hospital. But the maternity unit at SIUH is unbelievably impressive. One of my patients told me that even if she were to move to the west coast she'd come back to Staten Island to deliver her next child. The doctors are great, the nurses know a TON and are SO sweet.

The only bad part of the day was at the end. And warning - a little gross. Another student did a postpartal assessment of a mother who JUST came up from the delivery room, and she was very swollen - she couldn't close her legs because of the swelling. The student, who is 40-ish said to me, "I'm glad I never had children." Ummm... hello? Swelling goes away. This woman has a child. Get some perspective. I hope she doesn't become a maternity nurse.

Orthodox Jewish Culture

Nursing has gotten really into cultural awareness. However - the textbooks aren't written by people of these different cultures, and so usually the things they write are bastardized form of the truth. At least when it's about Judaism, I can't speak for the other cultures, but I imagine it's true.
I just started my maternity class (which, by the way, is the last one, and the reason I've gone through the others) and, while reading the chapter on cultural awareness, was shocked with the truth, clarity, and conciseness of the Jewish part.

"In Orthodox Judaism, for example, it is a man's responsibility to procreate, but it is a woman's right, not her obligation, to do so. This is because, according to Orthodox Jewish law, the health of the mother, both physically and mentally, is of primary concern, and she should never be obliged to do something that threatens her life."

Impressive, no?

So, I'm sick. And I have no doubt it's because I stressed myself out so much about my psych paper and nursing final that I lowered my immune defenses.

I'm bored. And movement makes my head hurt.

Any fun websites for me to look at?

MIA Partner

Well, it seems her computer crashed. Thursday. And she told me Sunday.

It's hard for me to believe that she couldn't get to any other computer to email me in the meantime. None of her friends have computers? She couldn't get to school? Give me a break.

Either she's a moron, or she thinks I am.

I told her that I'm sorry, and had she emailed from another computer to let me know I would have happily worked it out with her, but since she didn't, I finished me paper. Would she like a copy of the article?

Apparently she doesn't. Or maybe her computer crashed.

FREAKING STRESSED

So my completely annoying psych teacher gave us a paper to do comparing media coverage of a psych report to the original journal article. Fine, right? Right. Except that she's making us do it with partners, who she paired us up with. So the paper's due Monday, and my partner wont FREAKING get back to me. So I've written 4 pages (out of 5) on my own, and if I dont get anything from her I'm going to finish the report on my own and not put her name on, and I'm gonna feel really bad about it, but I shouldn't because she wont help me! We had agreed to have it done by last monday. When it wasn't done then she was all, "well, i want to have it done by wed." Fine, Wed came and went and she didn't send me anything (since I said I'd put our work together because - frankly - I don't trust her to do it well). I told her I abolutely HAVE to have it done thursday night, because I have a final in my nursing class on monday that's worth 40% of my grade, and Thursday night came and went, and nothing. It's now Friday, and I've TOTALLY lost any semblence of patience.

And I'm really a patient person.

Stupid psych!

I'm sorry it's been so long, but things have been kinda busy.
I have a new nephew, Zevi, or "Z-Funk" as my wonderful husband insists on calling him.
He's really cute:



and I made him really cute booties:

Photo Credits: Wonderful Husband

and I'm in the middle of an awesome sweater, for my favorite nephew.

Anyways, they've been living with the in-laws, so I've been busy spending time there, bonding with the beautiful boy.

Alas, they are leaving soon, and back to school work it will be for me.