bake-a-thon '07

Our new house has 2 ktichens: a clean kitchen, visible to any "company" and a dirty kitchen where the "helpers"/student cooking team for that week actually cooks. The day before the fall'05 class left the philippines for good, we made so.much.food. Crazy and oh-so-good Indian dishes fed approx. the 30 people we had over for dinner that night. plUS. an afternoon/evening worth of baked goods for them to take as snacks on the plane! It was so fun, and such a good way to officially break in our kitchen.
Heather and Lois basically did the whole dinner by themselves, although i was there, helping. Lois told me how to make chai tea from scratch...then i fell asleep on the couch and forgot about it! haha, good thing Lois was on top of it nOT burning.

and THIS is Hannah (an intern that is here for 3 weeks) and Jenny, a classmate, making cream-filled sugar cookies. Jenny is a master baker. She also made 3 loaves of banana bread that day. Tiff made oatmeal fudge bars and I made best-ever cream cheese brownies and chocolate chip-peanut butter-coffee cookies.


Once again, the computers come out, and spaces are claimed for doing homework in and amongst clinical, birthroom, class, cooktime, and playtime. We've actually had it pretty easy this past month...but they've already warned us that once we're back from our break the "break" is over and the intense workload will resume as per usual.

Alexis Joy Patricia Konkle

tying the knot..
to my dear Marianne and Graham ~AND~ Christine and Brad:
(a few "friends" who chose to have their weddings in my absence :P what, the world doesn't revolve around the phils?)
as you both know, however surreal it might seem right now, yOU'rE gEttIng mArrIEd sOOn! and, yes...I will not be there. That is the reason for this post. I just want to say what an example of love (the truest and purest love a human is capable of) you have both been to me. It has been incredible to watch your relationships grow and blOssOm into what will soon be forever and always, til death do you part. YEE! i'm so excited for you both. maybe we can set up a webcam the day of..?



Christine: haha, i'm SURE you remember this pic (taken on our road trip to rochester last spring..) And how we were all talking about marriage. and blah blah :) I knew you'd appreciate this bench pic! (does Brad even knOW about this yet?!) haha. You're suppOSED to tell your husband EvErything, right?! :P


And Marianne! I don't have a pic of you and Graham (sorry!) but this pic should suffice. Your wedding is SO SOON. maybe too soon. "nEvEr lEt go" of advance. haah, i was first. You're lucky to be marrying such a upright, caring, yet oH-so-cool guy. You know he'll take such great care of you. yeah. i'm jealous :P IT's THIS WEEKEND!! YEE.

CONGRATULATIONS and good LUCK to you both! and yes. that's a REAL TRUE knot in an umbilical cord. Sometimes the baby somersaults so much that he tangles the cord while inside the uterus...pretty cool.

thIS is the biggEST welcome in the whole enTIRE world. dear Alexis Konkle, born just 3 hours ago July 10th, 2007. lOVe your aunt Jenna

We took a fairy boat across the channel with our tour bus, this could have been my favourite part of the day :P

THis is us eating lunch before the descent..
As I said earlier, I went rappelling on saturday with the same group of ppl who swam across the channel with me. Laura also came (thank goodness). We got to the island around 9am, although they were at our house waiting to pick us up before 7am. Nothing ever happens fast in the philippines!

Our whole group..13 girls and 2 boys
We actually got to rappel around 2pm.. it was nuts though because out of the 120' drop we only "rappelled" for the first 20'.. after that the cliff cut in and we were left hanging/sliding down the rope into the gorge. It was an amazing site! and SO worth the $2 i payed to go.






ON the way dOWN!

After everyone had a chance to rappel down (and climb back up..) WE hiked for over an hour (there and back) to Higamat falls. I mention the hour hike, not because that in itself is some kind of feat but because this all happened late saturday afternoon, and both Laura and I were in a 5K race in the morning.. needless to say, I was trying to conserve as much energy as possible.

hOUsE wArmIng pArtY!!

We had a house warming party last night to give thanks for all of the recent blessings poured over us and to dedicate our new dormitory. Old, new, and newer students, directors, teachers, supervisors, helpers, and everyone kids came over to sing and pray and explore our new home. As you can see from the pictures, it was quite a party - and although the house is big and spacious, the front living room hardly seemed to hold our team of people at Mercy Maternity Clinic. The practice and mission is expanding!

that was tricky! hahha.. nice work.

It's been almost a week since my last post, and so much has happened I was avoiding this blog because there's too much to say. We're all settled into the orange house (and by "we" i mean all 20 of us) - some of the graduating girls have moms and friends here for graduation so the house is packed. But it is clean, the fridge is stocked, and i really don't mind living with so many girls.

to the left..

I just got off an amaazing night shift and am now sitting on our gREAt balcony enjoying the light rain and the sounds only noticed in the quiet of an early morning. THe pictures I've uploaded are taken from my seat, only standing, and are the views from our balcony!
I had 2 of my continuities deliver their babies this week - one of which was very surprising when the ultrasound results said it was a little girl and instead a little boy popped out! The father looked to me to confirm what he was actually seeing, ahaha, and inquired "it's a boy? ...really?" The second one I wouldn't have made to the birth if we hadn't of moved so close to the clinic.. she came in at 4:55 am and i ran over at that time and delivered her baby in my pjs at precisely 5:06 am. Both women did amazingly well - all so strong yet amazingly gentle new moms. SPEAKing of which, a new student arrived who's married with 2 kids (Naomi). She was on shift last night and i got to sleep with her 6 mth old little, white, baby boy, Jordan. And. I want one :P

and the right.

Other than that, homework continues to get done. I'm going rappelling with a group on saturday on Samal island, which should be incredible. And have signed up for a 5k milo race on sunday. My director Krys is a crazy runner and she is doing the 1/2 marathon (21k) on sunday. She ALmost convinced me to do it but, really, I've never run that far in my life. so 5k lang.

ANd. it IS july 5th. so birthday wishes are in order.

UNder 1 roof.

For the first time in history, Newlifes fall'06 classmates will be living together in the orange house..just TWO doors down from the clinic. It's a crazy time right now, as old students are leaving, interns are coming and going, and sOme of us go home for a holiday. BUT, sept'07 will see a new batch of students to start this program. At that point I believe EIGHTEEN girls will all be living at the orange house. It should be interesting! The beautiful picture you see above are my classmates: Charity, me, Lois, Tiffany, Jenny, and Laura (from left to right).

renovations started late last week. The birthroom needed a paint job and it was decided that while we had a vacant house two doors down (the new orange house that we will move into on SATURDAY!), we'd make the main floor of the orange house Mercy's birthroom until the paint was complete and fumes had had a chance to dissipate.

so THIS is the very first picture of our new house, only the birthroom is in full swing at this point. I had the priviledge of attending the first birth in this house. YOu can see the make-shift cubicles set up. IT's been and inSANE week! (with an average of 4-5 births a day). I've got dayshift friday morning at which point we'll put Mercy's birthroom back in order. The MOVING TRUCK is coming saturday morning at 8am!

..ready...stEAdy..

Our IV in-service, a class some have been dreading since the fall, was yesterday afternoon. We had a week to complete the assignment, and learn what to do (and what NOt to do) when inserting an intravenous line into somebody's vein.




.











Yesterday was the practical exam - and we got as many tries as your partner could stand to successfully insert the cannula. oH my. I have a big bruise on my hand as I type this, thankfully my partner, Jenny, only needed one poke! [hey Laura, can you feel the pressure with all of us staring down your needle there?!]














Yeahh, they say i have "great veins" (some were eyeing them up before the class..). i actually WATChed jenny put this needle into my hand. I let Tiff practice on me a while ago also. I truly do have an appreciation for our women who don't even flinch as we stick'em with these needles. The whole contraction bit might be somewhat of a distraction, but i do believe the filipinas have a super high pain tolerance.

I was one of the last to go, because I was on shift at the time and busy down in the birthroom but I was sUPerr nervous. Even though I've successfully inserted a handful of IVs prior to this class, THIS time was on my dear friend, Jenny (the nerves also could have been from tiff's comment "jenna, you better get this in on the first try because i've heard you're a pro..)(hmm. i don't think "pros" shake as much as i was poking jenny) But I got it in, first try, thank the Lord.



Group shot. My class, with our fearless teachers (they'd probably be able to insert IVs in their OWN hands)

cross channel swim -

if you have a world map handy, go to the southern-most island of the philippines (Mindanao) and look for Davao City (just left of the top of the inlet at the bottom of the island). You should also see another, much smaller, island named Samal.
This morning I, along with a bunch of people I didn't know, swam across the channel to the island of Samal. Laura knew a girl that was planning on going and gave me her contact information. She picked me up this morning at 5:30 am and we were in the water by 6:30 (it always takes pretty long to get organized here). You can see in this first picture, as Joan and I start the swim, our final destination in the background.
I think it's approximately 2km...but maybe that was just someone throwing that out there. Maybe it was 2 miles. It wasn't that far. and only took about 35 minutes. It was pretty easy actually, I barely had to kick - i guess i'm used to sinking in fresh water..swimming across Sunset Bay

FALL '06 SILVER anniversary!

It's official: we've all caught 25 babies (or more) and have helped to bring Mercy Maternity Center's count up past 11500! We decided as a class that once we all reached 25 handles, we'd go out to celebrate. so YESterday we went and got a class photo taken at the mall, then went to the Crocodile farm/zoo and hung out there until heading across town to a sweet japanese restaurant for dinner. After our amazing dinner we all came back here for a sleepover.

We held a PYTHon that was as long as both Laura and I combined (we measured by lying beside it..) and little crocodiles. It was kinda funny because the staff working there were nUts. They'd just shove an animal into the hands of anyone willing to take it, and of course, tons of pictures would follow. I guess there were something like over 300 crocodiles living there, and they were breeding them also. This zoo also had monkeys, and orangutangs, turtles, tigers, bunnies, birds, etc.

THis guy was my favourite. He'd make smacking sounds with his incredibly huge lips...and he was so smart. AND he could do the splits with ease.


THis restaurant we ate at is now my favourite. Tsuri, I think it's called. There are 2 tables that surround a grill, and we were fortunate enough to claim one. So our chef made all of our meals right in front of us...it was amazing. We have all been keeping track of our numbers in birth books, and we brought them to recount "best ofs..", "how manys..", "biggest EBLs..", and so on.

better is one day in His courts, than thOUsandsss elsewhere.

my whole life.
anywhere and everywhere i go.
they're always there.

girls.

or, should I say, WOMEN of God who encourage, strengthen, laugh with me.. I truly can't do anything on my own, and i'm not good at abiding in the Lord daily, and He knows this! And always provides extra support, through amazing females, to help me along the way. tonITE was no exception. Tiff and Laura and I had such a good chat/prayer time. totally spontaneous. yet completely orchestrated. I don't ever say much of "this sort of thing" on this blog...too personal? don't want to offend? or be rejected? but whatever. this is what's on my heart. and it's overFLOWinggg and needs to spill out soMEWhere.

we are MOVING!
YEE!! To the big orange mAnsIOn two doors down from the clinic.. although, it might not fEEl like such a mansion with 17 other girls living there but. it should be fun none the less. We get use of the building july 1st, but want to paint the birthroom. thErEfore, we will use the main floor of that big empty house as our birthroom for the first week of july while the clinic gets a fresh coat of paint. We get to move in aftEr that...quite POSSibly with the smell of amniotic fluid lingering in the study. i'm one for change. my mother can attest to this, as I've lived in every possible room of our house back home and was CONstantly changing the room I did have around. I'd lock myself in my room for an evening, make the switch, and then surprise her with the finished product. I cannot wAIt for a change of scenery. and this house has an amazing balcony that would accomodate a hammock quIte nicely!

Afghanistan has the second highest maternal death rate at 1900 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births ~

For the past 2 weeks we, as a student body, have had the priviledge of hosting Sharon - a previous intern at Mercy Maternity Clinic who now lives and works in Afghanistan. This link will take you to her blog [http://www.xanga.com/moshdeh] where you can read her thoughts on her trip to the Philippines, as well as more of what she does with life. After 2 grueling student groups (haha, they weren't ALL that bad) Matt, our director, had us raising hands to show interest in pioneering a new clinic starting up on the outskirts of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. Together, with Sharon in the lead, my school Newlife wants to send 4 or 5 midwives there :| Matt is going to start a new sending agency for the missionaries/students he has here to be able to send them out into the world to do good work.

oh MY.

He keeps saying, you've gotta go where God is working...Sharon is an incredible individual who has been a missionary in Afghanistan for quite sometime, working in the hospital there, heading up divisions of the hospital not yet established, etc. I can't ever imagine being so strong as to do something like that. [good thing God uses the weak and disabled..] ANYways. this is what has been filling my thoughts lately. Afghanistan is in serious need of caring midwives. Please pray for this whole situation. They're setting up a little exploratory excursion on oct/nov. to acutally go into the country, be submersed in the culture, and pick a spot for the clinic. They want it to be up and running by Sept.'08 (how conVENient...i'll have jUSt graduated!) I most likely will not be going this fall - money doesn't seem to grow on palm trees quite the same as thoses maples back home. But it's fun to daydream!

three nightshifts..

my supervisor, Mayflor, is sick in the hospital with something, and as such, they needed to switch some shifts around. I ended up with nightshift sunday night/tuesday night/thursday night...mer. Sunday night I delivered Lovely's son (detailed in the previous post), tuesday night I was lucky enough to have a continuity, Analyn Aninon, give birth to her first son. [And tonight's the last of my shifts for this week...3 for 3?]

I took Analyn on as a continuity because early in her pregnancy, last october, she had an ultrasound done saying she had partial placenta previa. This is when the placenta implants itself over the opening of the uterus (the cervix). [just let me know when these stories become too involved]. "Partial" obviously means it was only part way over the cervix, and because it was so early in the pregnancy, it has a good chance of moving as the uterus grows. I wanted to follow the case, hoping to get to do or see or learn something.

Analyn, 27, texted me around 5:30 am tuesday morning. The text said, "Jenna gud a.m ngsakit n ang tiyan nagawasan nko dugo pero gamay lng.analyn aninon" which means, "Good morning, Jenna. There's a pain in my abdomen and blood has come out of me, but a little only.." I texted her back saying that it would be best if she could wait until prenatals (because she was scheduled to come to the clinic at 8 am for a prenatal check-up anyways). She said she could wait, and that contractions were only 1/2 hr. apart.

She came to prenatals and I got to visit with her briefly (there were 60-something woman out that day needing prenatal care). I sent her home with a smile after explaining to her in detail all the signs and symptoms she would experience inthe near future, and when she should come back to the clinic. At 8:42 pm that night she texted me again, "Gen, gudpm wer are you? im going 2 mercy bcoz its very pain." I was at student group at the time, but had planned on going to the clinic afterward anyhow because my shift started at 10pm.

I met her at Mercy, and checked her in. Everything was basically normal except for the blood. Obviously, there is going to be some blood in the last stages of labour, and that's normal, but there was more than what I am used to seeing at that point, and I was extra sensitive because of the partial placenta previa (even though she had another ultrasound at 36 wks saying it had moved and was fine, to which I was slIGHtly disappointed (that's bad, I know) but it was turning out to be yet another normal delivery)...She gave birth at 11:56pm, and everything went so well. Analyn did SO great, and I worried for nothing, or so I thought.

When it came time for the placenta to come out, it wouldn't. We intervened a little, but the placenta still only came partially out, the rest was still attached to the uterus, which is not good, because she'll keep bleeding. We were forced to transport her to the hospital. I went and saw her yesterday, she is doing well, but hasn't had a chance to hang out with her baby yet.

Bia Diamond Gajudo

This is a pretty cool birth story.
Last May 23, 18 year old Bia Diamond (nickname: Lovely) came to the clinic to have her baby. I sent her home that day because she was experiencing false labor pains. It sucks when that happens because I get all hyped up about delivering someone's baby and then have to send them home with only wishes and prayers of a good labor. Because I'm not at the clinic ALL the time, I never know who'll be having a baby on my shift.
Last night I was on nightshift, and was changing into my scrubs as I listened to the another midwife show a woman (just arriving) to a cubicle. Upon reviewing her chart, I realized I had sent her home and got really excited that she was back on MY shift. I went into the cubicle she was waiting in and said..."LOVEly, do you remember me?" and she gives me this huge smile and goes "Yes, ma'am Jenna".

YEE! So fun. Unfortunately, she had a urinary tract infection AND blood pressure of 150/90 which causes my supervisor to want to transport her to the hospital. Neither Lovely nor I wanted this. I was taking her vitals and she goes "I'm so, so nervous" [i'd say...I couldn't even imagine having a baby at 18]. I asked if she wanted her boyfriend to come in but she said no because he was more scared than she was! haha. Blood pressure can go up if the woman is anxious about something.

I tried my best to divert her attention away from the impending labour, set up camp beside her, and just starting talking to her, about her life, how she got to this point, etc. It was amazing. I found out she met her HUSBAND (not boyfriend) in college, four hours from Davao, got pregnant after knowing him for 3 months, and moved here to his hometown to marry and start a life together. So, this poor girl has to move away from home, halfway through her pregnancy, to share quarters with a strange family, with no friends (no WONder she had high bp). She did say, though, that his mother-in-law was kind :)

Oh, another thing, she was Muslim. I'm not quite sure what that all means, but decided it was ok to pray with her - ask God for a good labor and delivery, and to help lower her bp so that she could stay at our clinic instead of being transported to the hospital. SO then, i recheck her bp and it was only 120/70. whoa. sweet eh.

So, she laboured all night, her husband came in and ended up being SUCh a big support for her. I think he massaged her lower back for 2 hours straight (after I showed him how)! We were all so tired. But, she was strong and ended up delivering a beauitful baby boy at 5:15am this morning. I just can't describe how perfect it all played out. It was amazing.

dad, i miss you.

may 31st was/is WORLD NO TOBACCO DAY.

but toDAY is june FIRST for me..and we all know what thAt means!
june 1st is?...iS?...IS? the beginning of jUne!! and soon it'll be the beginning of july. and august will follow (yes, its as simple as reciting the months of the year in order) and thEN it'll be september. The beginning of september is just a few short months away. and i.cannot.wAIt! (sorry about that..)

farewEll dear jEnn.

Jennjo has been our "housemom", supervisor, teacher, and friend since arriving here in the Philippines nine months ago (NINE months...where does the time go?!) is moving back to the states in THREE days. She graduated from Newlife back 2 years ago and stayed on an extra two years to serve the Lord by volunteering at my school and at the clinic. She basically HANDled most student affairs while the directors Matt and Krys were off on furlough for 6 months (AND she's delivered 256 babies). and NOW, she's leaving us...on to bigger and better! Jenn is looking forward to starting up her own birthing clinic in Seattle, to serve the Somolian refugee community there.

To commemorate and celebrate her time here we got family pictures taken at a nearby mall (this is a quirky thing about the Phils, group professional pics are where its at).

and THese beautiful ladiesss are the girls i've been living with. From left to right their names are: Jennjo, me, Heather, and Carmen (top), Laura, Tiffany, Elisabeth and Krystal (bottom)

the "dead shift"

ate ana showing tiffany how to insert an IV...into a blown up glove, a little bit of practice
finding a good, straight vein (of which, i have plENty) My dear Tiffany was bored during the first shift we EvEr worked together, although, there wasn't any labors so we weren't actually WORKing and she got bored and asked if she could stick me with a needle and practice inserting IVs. I have this whole tough guy facade to keep up in the phils, so I had to give in like I wasn't scared and take her inexperience.
aaaand. finally inserting it into the back of my hand. I'll spare you the pics of my face when it was actually IN...(too bad the first pic was ACTually taken last, why the practice poke came AFter the real deal in my hand i'll never knoww)..no back flow?! take it out. take it out.

it's not a contESt..

or anything, but jenny was bugging my about having more blog entries than me (which was met with a bunch of surprised faces, because EvErYonE knows i'm an excellent, up-to-date blogger :P) She ALso argues she writes nice long stories, while i just post a pic and write a little blurb. mer mer...i'll give you a stORY!

Last shift a labor waddled in with 210/120 blood pressure, +4 edema, pre-mature at only 36 weeks and 2 days, fully dilated and ready to push. Protocol says we transport with such pre-eclamptic signs. It was Heathers labour, but i assisted by giving an IV before we rushed her to the hospital, sirens still ringing as we transferred her to a stretcher.
The public hospital (DMC) has always made us cringe at the thought of bringing our patients there...but, it's all we have to work with. We wheeled her into the ob-gyne room to be assessed by the doctora. It.was.Awful.. they took off her dress, covered her with a little rag, injected her with meds (that was a good thing), and THEN started preparing her for a c-section (injecting local anesthetic into both sides of her butt, shaving her tummy and such). I was holding her hand AND the curtain, trying to give the 22 year old SOME sense of privacy.
THEN...oh gracious. She looks up at me and hands me a piece of gauze...
i hesitated, but took it from her, thinking it was probably dirty and diseased.
I spotted the sick, blood-stained garbage can a few feet away and threw it in from where I was standing.

so then, the nurse asks her something and she points to me. Somewhere in between her tugging on my arm and the doctors talking to her in visayan I realized she wanted the piece of gauze she gave me back. The labouring girl looks up at me and opened her mouth to reveal a BIG gap, where her 4 front teeth used to be...AHHhh.. the doctor asks me "where are her dentures?" I only had a split second to decide what was better: play the dumb white girl, or confess I carelessly discarded them. I reply "OH MY GOSH! I thought it was garbage.." as we all look over to the garbage can.
hahah. The doctor and nurses all start laughing, someone said "3 points", i.was.mortified...the poor girl! Heather still had her gloves on, so she went to retrieve the teeth. WOW...she handed them back to me, and I passed them off to the girls mother. Hopefully they washed them thoroughly before putting them back in!!, last I saw of her she was being wheeled off to the OR.

bRUNo.

My friend Aaron bought a DOG on the weekend, a mix of terriers. He isn't taking it home until Wednesday and so I convinced him to let me take him home instead of keeping him at office. I HAVE A PUPPY! and i'm in love. Bruno's more of a little cuddly teddybear than a dog. and he follows me everywhere. and sleeps by my feet when i'm doing my homework. i'm not going to want to give him up in a couple of days..

This shower was for Kuki, the preggo one in the middle! Due in a couple of months, our church threw a shower for her. I was talking to her father about how a normal 'church baby shower' would go back in vineland (both boys AND girls) because he was feeling left out of the fun...actually, he was just hanging around for the food. But we made sure all the boys milling around the church had their fill (there was an inSANE amount of food, as always). Me and Leah (the girl who just got married) lead games and whatnot.

an annonymous sponsor 'from the states' gave the clinic money for us to enjoy a pizza party! YEE. one, two, three.four.five (as sung by lou bega) there was TONS of pizza..from pizza hut, no less. Pizza Hut's slogan right now here in the philippines is "HATE LATE?" haha, however many minutes delivery of its free. I laugh everytime i see it somewhere...that hasn't made its way from north america, has it? Here are mOSt of our filipina preceptors, ready to feast on an afternoon snack!

there's no place like home!

haha. so i JUSt caught myself acting e.x.ac.t.ly like my father.
we have cherry trees in our front yard, and it the spring/summer the birds like to eat them ALL before their ripe and ready to be picked. Dad has tried EVERYthing to deter the birds (for example, nets, tin plates, streamers, and yes, even that ugly scarecrow...all the kids at school made fun of me! haha. j/k) but alas, we never get to eat off our own trees. Over the years he's given up. The only thing he does NOW is open his bedroom window and clap and yell and try to scare them off that way. haahh.
How am I just like him?
WELL. i was sitting at my computer and looked up to see a RAT crawling along our wall in the backyard. So, i went to the window (which is PERManently open) and started hissing, clapping, and yelling at the rat to try and scare it away. haah. The girls I live with were like "what. are you DOing?"
To which I replied "scaring a rat. obviously."


another cRAZy thing that's been happening around our house lately...one morning we woke up to find GOLDFISH in the ditch infront of our house! haha. Elizabeth, a swiss-german carpenter, now midwife, quite talented, can do/make ANYthing built a trap and caught a few. THese boys are trying to catch more with a little net (a net that reminds me of the cottage)

my highschool musical

i was looking forward to this PLAY for so so long!
saturday night our directors (Matt and Krys) daughter, Jessica, had a ballerina part in a production of
MY Highschool Musical. (is that movie big in ontario? because it SURE is here..)
i was looking forward to some grade-school action acting...but alas, the they lip-sinked the whole thing! ahhaha
kinda funny..i gUEss thats normal for plays here.
it was still so good.
Jessica is the little girl in the last pic, in the front..

another nightshift

i was first up last night. A labour came in at 11pm with a ragggging UTI, that kind of thing is not only VERy painful in labour but also dangerous for the baby so I took her to the hospital (in the bRANd new ambulance!). Another girl came in around 1am, but it was her first time giving birth and she was only in the beginning stages of labour, and only 1cm so I sent her home to rest and wait until contractions were more regular. JUST as she was leaving another walks in (just before 2am) she, again, was just starting her labour, but was also 36 weeks and 2 days along. At the clinic we don't deliver under 37 weeks because usually the baby requires more assistance than we can give it when its so young. So we went back to the hospital with yet another transport. I went back to bed around 3am..

Just before endorsements a labour came in at 5:45 and Jennjo showed her to the CR (the bathroom) to pee and wash up before checking her in. I saw Jennjo then at the calendar figuring out her dates (she was 36 weeks and 1 day..) when ALL OF A SUDDEN we hear her moaning, and kind of crying out. We both walk past the midwife sitting area, and around the corner to see what the heck was going on. She was kind of bent over holding tight her duster (a little dress girls wear around the house, and to be comfortable, and in labour) and kind of squatting a bit. Jennjo starts saying "eiow otong! eiow otong!" "stop pushing. stop pushing." and THEN... SROM all over the mat just outside the CR! I run back into the birthroom to grab gloves, but there were not only the midwives on NIGHTshift, but ALSO midwives from DAYshift trying to help. so i just gave my gloves away and watched as two girls picked her up to get her to a bed. i belIEVE the baby's head was out somewhere by the couch, and the body came out just as they got her onto a bed (the duster becoming a perfect sized hammock for the baby). There were like 6 midwives wanting to assess the baby, and start free flow oxygen, and trying to chart the events. so I, with my sleep-crusted eyes, just went and grabbed the mop to clean up the trail of amniotic fluid from the CR to the cubicle. Both mom and baby were good. And the birth added the spARk of excitement my shift had been lacking!

[yes, there have been other stories of CR births... baby's out while the mother was on the toilet. WE're always there though, we haven't dropped one yet! i promise.]

the ORANGe HOUse!!

this has been a "current event" for sometIME now in my little world in Obrero...this house is located just one house down from Mercy Maternity Clinic (the white 3-story building in the background) and was built back in october/november. So, we all watch this MONsterous house go up, and it just so happens that the owners are the same people who 'we' rent the clinic from. AND, they're planning on immigrating to Canada!! AND Matt is currently negotiating with them to possibly rent this house FOR THE STUDENTS! YEE. This is SUPER exciting because i have not had the chance to live with ALL the girls in my class because we were separated into two homes as soon as we arrived back in september. This brand, new PALACE would allow All of the students to live together under one roof. Needless to say, we've been praying for a loong while about this opportunity, and NOW it looks like it's just around the corner!