midwifery

I passed my boards! (and now I'm gonna drink some more champagne!)

...and it's going to be a couple of more months before I post any more entries (unless something strongly compels me). I'm in the process of studying for my national boards ('national' since this state doesn't recognize them yet) which I'll be taking at the end of Oct. But on the bright side, I'll be testing in Monterey, so when I DO post again, there should be great pictures!

I am so glad to see the back end of February, despite the subfreezing temperatures and blustery entry of March. Even with our huge, northern exposure windows & full-spectrum bulbs, February always wears me down. I get through on caffeine & Dar Williams' Mortal City song February.

THIS February was made extra special by our first visit ever from the lice fairy. Of course it happened around Brigidmas so at least I could dedicate all the futile-except-for-lowering-my-squick-factor cleaning, not to mention the laundry. But the nitcombing took 2-3 hours every night for two weeks. Have you seen the Girl's hair? It's THICK and over 2 ft. in length. The Boy wriggles like an eel, and it's more difficult to comb one's own hair than one would think. (The 'Savant escaped infestation due to his curly locks, I guess. And his efforts to comb my hair would have been ruinous to our partnership had he continued.)

But it wasn't all bad. The Girl & I watched Ken Burns' "The Civil War" and had some good discussions, not all of which were related to history. I learned how to make some lice rid hair pomade with essential oils which proved to be quite beneficial to my dry scalp issues. Think it must be nearly as effective as the chemical stuff we used the first time, since I combed 6 live lice out after they had been poisoned for the 15 minutes directed. Damned bugs are gonna take over the world. I also got over thinking that lice would be the worst parasitical infestation in the world (and I have experience on this, after managing an ICF/MR, people) and moved on to thinking preventively. We're combing weekly & have invested in a RobyComb, which has kept me sane by allowing me to distinguish between itchy winter scalp & reinfestation. So, the lice fairy has done the job, and I hope, will not need to come back.

Enough about bugs. In other news, I taught a large Childbirth Education class, and by the end, the families who weren't working with us & planning a homebirth had switched to providers who would respect their choices and work hard to give them the best possible experience, whatever that might be. 7 more babies to be born gently as possible----GOAL! I also didn't get a ticket driving like a bat out of hell to Logan to (just) catch a baby, so on the midwifery front, it's all good, if busy.