No Updates in 4 Months???

Where have I been? What have I been doing?

Good questions! I will try to fill in the 4 month gap with this post.

Since the start of 2012, I have been swamped with finishing my Master's in Nurse Midwifery and preparing for my husband's return in April from a 6 month deployment.  I have also been quite busy growing a little baby.  While this does not take much effort on my part, it is quite exhausting!  

So just a quick run down of what has happened since I fell off of blogging in late January...

January

Found out the sex of the baby at 11 weeks (hard not to find out when you know what you are looking at and ultrasound machines abound at your work place!) and shared with husband and sister (having a gender reveal baby shower, so keeping it a surprise until then); had a great scan at 12.1 weeks; announced on FB and to friends that we were expecting a baby in August.

12.1 wks

FB Announcement - our dogs wearing "I'm Going to Be a Big Brother/Sister" shirts

February

Shopped at my first Just Between Friends (JBF) sale with my sister and bought heaps of baby clothes and other supplies for such great deals; finished my last full month of midwifery clinicals - feeling more and more confident by the day; felt the baby move for the first time (so exciting!); had a 16.1 weeks scan that we skyped with my husband in Afghanistan, the baby is still growing well and doing great!

16.1 wks

March

Caught my 59th baby (wahoo!) and completed over 1000 clinical hours including seeing 637 patients; graduated magna cum laude with my Master's in Nurse Midwifery; spent a week interviewing with a physician/midwifery group for a prospective job; began to work on all the house projects and baby's room; purchased the remainder of large baby needs and created two registries; had a 22.1 week scan and all was still normal with great growth (due to IVF with ICSI and AMA, there are concerns for IUGR - intrauterine growth restriction and fetal demise or stillbirth).

22.1 wks

22.1 wks - look at those lips!

April

Completed all of the organising/purging/cleaning of every room in the house; painted both the baby's room and master bedroom; completed the baby's room (yay!); welcomed my husband home from a 6 month deployment (so nice to have my best friend back); received the job I had interviewed for in March and they agreed to allow me to work part time/2 days a week + call (such great news!); went on a reunion spa holiday with my husband for the weekend and was upgraded to a top floor, 3 room suite due to his deployment (a wonderfully rejuvenating and lovely time); began Bradley Method Childbirthing classes for my husband to learn about birthing and how to support me in labor (he has no clue what to expect!); began studying for my boards.

May

Passed my boards!!!! (what a relief - I am beyond excited!), now officially a Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM); had a 28.1 wks scan - first one my husband could be present for and the lovely techs threw in some 3D views for us which were amazing - it's finally all becoming real for my husband since he missed out on the 1st half of the pregnancy; all is still going well with the baby weighing in at about 3#/1360g/67th percentile and everything else (amniotic fluid, anatomy, etc.) is all looking good; working on getting credentialed at the hospital which involves a lengthy contract and application process and getting a NPI (national provider identification) and DEA number in order to be reimbursed by medicaid/care and be able to write prescriptions respectively (the process typically takes up to 3 months, which puts me at the birth of our first child and then I am taking 12 weeks off for maternity leave, so it looks like at this point I will not start working until November.  Hopefully I can keep my knowledge and skills up in the meantime!); trying to find things to do for the next three months with no job and no studies to keep me occupied (maybe I will be better with keeping up with the blog?); started knitting a baby blanket; beginning prenatal yoga classes next week.

28.1 wks 3D profile

28.1 wks hand moving across face, yawning

Looking forward at June

Finishing the house; meeting with our doula to prepare for birth; finishing our Bradley Method Childbirthing class; another growth scan; going to the annual ACNM (American College of Nurse Midwifery) conference in Long Beach, CA (our babymoon!); husband having surgery to fix his varicocele in hope that we can get pregnant spontaneously in the future; maternity pictures; gender reveal baby shower!