Nursing School & Being a Doula

There's so much reading and memorizing that I feel as though nursing school is kicking my butt... However, so far I have passed every skills test on the first try, gotten 100% on my first two lab quizzes (the third one I messed up on, but so did almost everyone...luckily lab quizzes count for very, very little), and I got a 90% on my first exam!!!!! (The mean score on that first test was 80%.) I am really psyched, especially since the professor doesn't like me so much. See, I have to miss lab for the Jewish holidays and they had to make special arrangements for me to make up the lab time on other days. So that kind of turned the whole department against me. Then, when all heck broke loose earlier this week, I had to leave class right after the exam on Monday in order to get home to take care of the kids. She noticed I was gone and made a comment to the whole class today about "people leaving class early and thinking they don't notice". Yeah, I know that was totally directed right at me...but it was either that or my 2 1/2 year old twins are now in charge of the baby...not happening, not safe and illegal! Anyhoo, she can now eat it seeing as I got a fantastic score on the exam. I'm just going to prove her wrong all semester so she realizes that I'm a fantastic student. (I remind myself of my sister and a certain incident with a high school English teacher...ahh the memories!)

Now then, as for all heck breaking loose... Our fantastic day care provider is currently pregnant with twins and unexpectedly went on bed rest Monday morning. I had someone covering her for a few hours in the morning, but she was scheduled to come in to work in the late morning. But then she got admitted to the hospital! Oooooops! Our babysitter for the morning had a class (that she missed), so she couldn't stay too late, which is why I had to rush like mad to get home right after the test. Anyway, we found someone that evening to take over for our pregnant day care woman...who worked for a day and then said she got another job offer and was taking it. So she basically told us at 6pm that she could not work the following morning. OMG!!!!! That is not cool in the ultimate sense. So Shmuel had to stay home from work, pissing off his boss - who basically told him he is REQUIRED to come into work tomorrow or else. So we spent half the day today interviewing new candidates and B"H found someone who fits the bill. She has an agreement with us that we need at least a week's notice if she finds a new job, and we'll give her the same if we find a live-in.

Speaking about pregnant women, I had my first experience as a doula last Friday! My very first client gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, and it was one of the most amazing experiences in my life. If I had any doubts about my choice of careers, they were all put to rest. I actually teared up when the baby was born, and I didn't even cry when my own daughter was put on my chest! It was so beautiful. If you are pregnant and live in Boston or know someone who is pregnant and lives in Boston, send me an email and I'll tell you all about what I can do to help during your birth. :-)

Kid Pictures

Whenever my sister and brother-in-law come to visit, they always take tons of amazing pictures of the kids. I feel completely lazy in that I rarely ever take pictures of them, but anyway... Here's the album of select pictures from the visit, for those of you who don't read my brother-in-law's blog.

Before you enjoy these pictures, I just have to say that the second picture in the album took my breath away. Why, you might ask? Because my son is my husband's identical twin, apparently... Seriously, I need to scan and upload some of my hubby's pics from when he was a little boy and you'll do a double take as well.

Twins and Shoes

My kids are the funniest, cutest kids around. The preface to this movie is that Dovid was asking Chana to take off his socks and shoes. She got one shoe off and then left the room. Dovid was just sitting, waiting for her to come back and finish the job. I knew this was going to be a "Kodak Moment," so I taped and was not disappointed. This video was taken on my phone, so it's not the best quality, but I know you'll like it anyway. Enjoy!

Video For Your Enjoyment

I can't believe it's been over 2 weeks since my last post. I've just been so busy doing nothing interesting that my blogs have been totally neglected. In any case, my mom is here for a visit with Ron and she brought with her a video she found stashed away in the house. It's a VHS that begins with a chorus concert from 1995. The conductor was my favorite teacher of all time, and I was super excited to get to see this. I burned it onto a DVD, converted it to mpeg and have uploaded it to YouTube for your viewing pleasure. I'm sure you'll be able to find me since I'm the shortest kid...and I'm standing in the back row!

T-Mobile...Not The Cell Phone Company

That's my husband's joke, actually. He likes to refer to Tzipora as "T-Mobile" when she's moving around. And she's been doing a lot of that lately! No, she can't really crawl yet, but she scootches in circles on her tummy, and sometimes she'll even scootch backwards a little bit. I remember that Dovid scootched backwards on his tummy before he started going forwards, so I know it's just another step in the right direction. She also has begun to launch herself out of her Bumbo seat. I had her on the floor in her Bumbo earlier today and she had nearly turned herself around trying to reach something that was also on the floor...until she actually tumbled out of the seat onto her stomach. It looked perfectly orchestrated, she didn't hurt herself at all (she literally went right onto her tummy from the seat), and she was only moderately surprised that she found herself on the floor all of a sudden. It was really funny, although now I have to keep a *very* good watch on her in that seat, even when it's on the floor.

During this Bumbo seat mishap, I also noticed that she's getting the idea of object permanence, since she was looking to retrieve something that had fallen behind her.

Tzipora has also been making some Baby-Led Weaning progress. She's definitely eating some solids, as noted by her new poo consistency which always has little bits of whatever she's eaten in them, and she's getting loads better at putting food from the tray into her mouth...even if it means bending her head all the way to the tray and shoveling it in. lol I just need to think of some more good soft foods for her to try, since she still doesn't have any teeth. Some of the ones we've tried are cooked carrots, sweet potato and spaghetti squash. Any ideas for me?

As for the twins, their newest milestone is sitting at the table for meals. They're still in their booster seats, but instead of eating off of their tray they now sit right up at the table and have plates! They did really well on their first try of this, and I am so proud of them. They really are growing up!

Hippo Birdie Two Ewes...

Well, really Hippo Birdie Two Mees, but that's beside the point. Today's my birthday...YIKES! Another year has gone by, and I don't know where the time went. It's been a crazy year with having the baby and being in school, but I've still managed to keep my 4.0 average. :-) We can't celebrate my birthday today because the fast day of Tisha B'Av starts tonight, and for the past 8 days we've been in a type of mourning because of the upcoming fast day. So my present (and cake) will just have to wait. Although my hubby was sweet enough to bake brownies for Shabbos in honor of my upcoming birthday. :-D What a guy! Speaking of such guy, here's a picture of something I consider to be my birthday present...

Déjà vu

Here are all of the random things that have been going on lately:

First off, I'm really sorry I've been so bad about posting lately, but things got entirely messed up when the person who was supposed to be coming to live with us bailed. What a disaster! So we're still looking for someone to come and live with us...preferably someone who is honest and won't run away without saying goodbye.

As for the déjà vu, I have mastitis. :-( At the moment it doesn't seem to be as bad as when I had it with the twins, but it stinks nonetheless. I'm on antibiotics and will be taking tylenol round-the-clock to keep the chills and aches at bay. My mother-in-law is here this week, so she's a bit help and is teaching the twins to whisper because I'm not feeling well. It's super cute.

I finished my microbiology class on Tuesday evening, so I'm officially done for the summer. I'm almost 100% positive that I've pulled off another A, so I'm one class closer to valedictorian. :-) If I become valedictorian in two years, I will make sure that someone video tapes it so I can show you my speech.

I took my doula training class last week, so now all I need to do is attend births and I can get certified!! So if you live in the Boston area and are pregnant, get in touch with me so we can work together. :-) I have a whole doula bag full of labor supplies, and I'm also in the process of becoming Hypno-Doula certified with Hypnobabies. That means that I will be certified to work with women who are doing childbirth hypnosis of any type.

Tzipora had a visit at the Harvard Developmental Research Lab yesterday where they put on this cool electrode hat to measure the electrical impulses on her scalp while she watched a video screen. The study has to do with numbers and how infants process them. Isn't she a cutie?

So, now that you're all updated on my world, what's going on in yours?