The last few days have found it really hard for me to concentrate on schoolwork. I don't know why. Remarkably, I have felt able to get things done around the house (which is a blessing, since one of our cats has been throwing up on the carpet after each feeding, and today while I cleaned that up, Eden found my full cup of coffee and "sent it sailing," as my mother would say, further adorning our cream-colored living room rug). It's just when I try to sit and get work done that I feel antsy. Probably some senioritis, since this is my last term of only classes; probably some spring fever; and probably some of the inertia that comes with being just past the middle of the term.
So I'm set to start clinicals in May. Here in Virginia. Our plans have changed about this so many times that I don't even know where to start. At the beginning of this year, we thought we felt the call to move back to Iowa, stay with my parents, and do my clinicals there. While part of me was brokenhearted to leave Virginia, part of me was thrilled to move back closer to our families, and almost all of me was thrilled to finally have things settled. A few weeks into it, however, one of my sites dried up and the other became...less than enthusiastic. The logistics of melding our household (two adults, a baby, and two cats) with my parents' (three adults, two to three dogs, and a business) started to seem increasingly difficult. Jobs did not appear promising. Finances began to look daunting. The final straw was finding out that despite the fact that I'm scheduled to attend Frontier's weeklong clinical preparation session (known as Clinical Bound) in April, if I didn't start clinicals within 16 weeks, I'd be required to repeat it (not easy or cheap). Getting started--and, of course, also finished--sooner started to seem like an imperative.
Making phone calls to find a preceptor around here didn't go much better this time than it had the first, but I did find a place doing office visits with a women's health nurse practitioner (allowed for certain elements of clinicals if a CNM can't be found) I know, and I'm thrilled about that. A close friend has agreed to watch Eden one day a week, so I'll know she's in good hands, not have to be away from her too much (other sites I'd talked to wanted me there full time), and still be able to work. Matt will be able to keep his job into the summer and so our finances should be all right. I've found a hospital in Maryland where I can start doing births starting in September, and from what I can tell, I should be able to finish up around December. That's a nice idea.
It's frustrating not to know what we'll be up to after that, but we're trying to resign ourselves to it. Every time we've tried to plan ahead, we've been brought back firmly in check by a change in circumstances. Evidently we're meant to live one day at a time, quite literally. This has put a strain on us, and our families and friends, but we're doing our best to deal with it.
I've been thinking lately about our diet. While overall it's quite good, I daresay better than most, it isn't perfect. We each have our own chronic health concerns that are not entirely resolved, and having Eden start eating table foods versus just effortlessly receiving perfect nutrition we don't have to think about has made me want to give her the very best start I can. Things like the GAPS program or the Maker's Diet seem to make intuitive sense to me, but we haven't figured out anything definitive yet. More on that journey yet to come.
So I'm set to start clinicals in May. Here in Virginia. Our plans have changed about this so many times that I don't even know where to start. At the beginning of this year, we thought we felt the call to move back to Iowa, stay with my parents, and do my clinicals there. While part of me was brokenhearted to leave Virginia, part of me was thrilled to move back closer to our families, and almost all of me was thrilled to finally have things settled. A few weeks into it, however, one of my sites dried up and the other became...less than enthusiastic. The logistics of melding our household (two adults, a baby, and two cats) with my parents' (three adults, two to three dogs, and a business) started to seem increasingly difficult. Jobs did not appear promising. Finances began to look daunting. The final straw was finding out that despite the fact that I'm scheduled to attend Frontier's weeklong clinical preparation session (known as Clinical Bound) in April, if I didn't start clinicals within 16 weeks, I'd be required to repeat it (not easy or cheap). Getting started--and, of course, also finished--sooner started to seem like an imperative.
Making phone calls to find a preceptor around here didn't go much better this time than it had the first, but I did find a place doing office visits with a women's health nurse practitioner (allowed for certain elements of clinicals if a CNM can't be found) I know, and I'm thrilled about that. A close friend has agreed to watch Eden one day a week, so I'll know she's in good hands, not have to be away from her too much (other sites I'd talked to wanted me there full time), and still be able to work. Matt will be able to keep his job into the summer and so our finances should be all right. I've found a hospital in Maryland where I can start doing births starting in September, and from what I can tell, I should be able to finish up around December. That's a nice idea.
It's frustrating not to know what we'll be up to after that, but we're trying to resign ourselves to it. Every time we've tried to plan ahead, we've been brought back firmly in check by a change in circumstances. Evidently we're meant to live one day at a time, quite literally. This has put a strain on us, and our families and friends, but we're doing our best to deal with it.
I've been thinking lately about our diet. While overall it's quite good, I daresay better than most, it isn't perfect. We each have our own chronic health concerns that are not entirely resolved, and having Eden start eating table foods versus just effortlessly receiving perfect nutrition we don't have to think about has made me want to give her the very best start I can. Things like the GAPS program or the Maker's Diet seem to make intuitive sense to me, but we haven't figured out anything definitive yet. More on that journey yet to come.
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