Pilgrims at Oak Ridge

Whenever Lucy hears the toaster click she comes trotting into the kitchen with great expectations. This is somewhat my fault. I always give her a piece of the crust when I make a piece of toast. And being the good Pavlovian dog that she is, she begins salivating at the click of the toaster. I feel like its the right thing to do. After all, the word "companion" comes from two Latin words, 'com' meaning 'with,' and 'pan' meaning 'bread.' Therefore, a companion is one with whom you share your bread. Lucy is my faithful canine companion, therefore, I give her the crust of my bread. I think Lucy appreciates the fact that I respect a good etymology.

When Aubrey and I go to bed we each put our cell phones on our nightstands. She brings hers in case one of her patients goes into labor and a baby is born. I bring mine in case somebody dies. This week its been my phone ringing. Twice. We've lost two stalwarts of our church community this week. The first was a sweet old lady, 95 years old. I don't think anybody can remember anything about our church without thinking of her. She lived in the manse for a long time, always was cleaning the sanctuary, teaching Sunday school, singing in the choir, and could give the best historical tours of the graveyard. We gave her a glorious homegoing celebration yesterday. One of her life verses was Psalm 84:10, "For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness." Then today an 89 year old gentleman went to be with Jesus. He had lived in Cross Hill since before the beginnin...

I'm 32 weeks today. That's a lot of weeks. This whole pregnancy I've found myself mentally counting down to different milestones.... 12 weeks - made it out of the first trimester. 20 weeks....halfway there. 24 weeks.... our baby would have a chance at survival. Today I had the thought that if our baby was born soon, not only would he or she have a chance at survival, but would most likely do really well. It was a comforting thought. (But if my baby is listening, stay where you are!! We'd like you to cook a little longer. That was not an invitation.) All that said, I thought I should finally put up a belly shot. For whatever reason, I just haven't been big into taking belly shots. But here it is.... in all its glory.

Being on medicine means less time for blogging, so it's going to have to be short today. 1. It's amazing how much less stressful it is when I take just a little time to meal plan. And how much more delicious. Tonight's dinner: Panko-crusted salmon and roasted brussel sprouts . It was delicious. And even Jeff ate all his brussel sprouts. (So you know they were good.) 2. I did some actual sewing for the baby: 3 bibs and 2 burp cloths. And figured out exactly how I'm going to make the bumpers and the crib skirt. I'm feeling a little more like maybe I'll actually get the sewing finished before his or her arrival. And I got registered! Mom and I went on Saturday and picked out some stuff at the enormous and somewhat overwhelming babies r us. It's like I'm finally starting to believe that I'm going to be bringing a baby home in 8 weeks. 3. I was (praise the Lord!!) off this weekend. It was wonderful. And I came back in today and one of my more frustrating...

So I take care of lots and lots of alcoholics. Because of their usual poor health, they get admitted frequently with seizures, pancreatitis, bleeding ulcers, etc. They certainly make for some interesting interactions. Here's the actual conversation I had with one of the alcoholic gentlemen I currently have on my service: Me: How are you feeling? Him: I feel good. Me: Well, we have to give you one more dose of the IV vitamin tomorrow, but then you'll be able to go home. Him: I am home. Me, thinking he misheard: No, we're going to send you home tomorrow. Him: No, I'm at home right now. Me: Um...sir... no, you're in a hospital right now. He looks very confused and slowly looks all around the room, checking out his surroundings, deeply pondering his location. Him: You're telling me I'm in a hospital right now? Me: yes, sir, you're in Greenwood in the hospital. You've been here for 6 days. Him: I've been here for 6 days?? But yesterday, my cousin came...

I think we might have an early bird. I woke up this morning around 5am, well before my 6am alarm. As I tossed and turned and tried to get back to sleep, the baby woke up. For the next 30 or 45 minutes, all the baby did was wiggle, squirm, kick, and hiccup. It felt like there was some kind of dance party going on in there. I quickly gave up trying to sleep. I'm beginning to envision lots of early in the morning feedings. I can't wait.

My wonderful brother-and-sister-in-law got me a great new cookbook for Christmas. (yes, this is Jeff writing, and yes I do like cookbooks. Laugh it up...) Its by Alton Brown, and is another expression of our Food Network junkyism. I've cooked two things out of it so far, and both of them have been exceptional. I'm thinking about cooking everything in the whole book. Maybe giving Julie and Julia a run for their money. Well... probably not. But I did entertain the thought, especially given that the first thing I cooked was the first recipe in the book. It was a recipe for steak. Its pretty simple, not a lot of ingredients, but a special technique. You sear the steak on a cast-iron skillet on each side, to form a delicious little crust, then finish it in the oven to acquire the desired doneness. It was really great, much better than any steak I've cooked. Perfectly pink in the middle with a nice seared flavor on the outside. The only setback was the prodigious a...

I feel like I'm drowning in patients right now. January is apparently a very popular time to get sick. Ever since starting residency, I've tried to be positive and avoid complaining. I mean, I've always figured that I chose this profession, I'm here to learn, and since I have to be here, I might as well be happy about it. (Or at least try my best to be happy.) I'm having a really hard time. I had a long, busy call on saturday, and was back on day call today - when we had 4 or 5 admissions, including two that went to the ICU. I actually rejoiced when one of the patients we were supposed to admit got so mad when I was talking to him that he decided he wanted to leave. (To my credit, he didn't really need to come in, is very manipulative, and addicted to pain medicines, making him one of the most frustrating patients I've ever taken care of.) All I wanted to do today was grumble and be annoyed with the ER doctors for giving us patient after patient. Then one of...

Grandma and her four daughters posing for the paparazzi. Uncle Jerry having fun in the kitchen. Aunt Elizabeth (Grandma's older sister), Grandma and Aunt Harriet (Grandma's sister-in-law). Cousins Victoria and Ally Cousin Vince.

I started my last month of inpatient medicine today. I enjoy inpatient, I really do, but the first day on always makes me feel sluggish and like I don't know anything. Hopefully the long, exhausting day that was today is not an indication of how it's going to be every day this rotation. Medicine is definitely going to be harder, though, 30 weeks pregnant during January, when everyone seems to get sick. Right now all I can think is that I'm going to enjoy my bath tonight. And that I only have 27 more days of medicine.

A few of my favorites from the party!

A few more favorite photos....

It was a quick trip to New Jersey/York, and we got back home yesterday. We had a good time, and are already talking about how we would like to go back sometime. The purpose of the trip was to attend my Grandmother's 90th birthday party, which went off without a hitch Saturday night. But we squeezed in a few other activities as well. Mom and Dad picked us up at the airport, and after dropping our bags at the hotel, we headed out for lunch at Bobby's Burger Palace . As Food Network junkies, Aubrey and I were excited about going to one of Bobby Flay's restaurants, and this one turned out to be about a half mile from our hotel. The burgers were delicious. Dad, however, eyed the sweet potato fries with some suspicion. Saturday morning the four of us (Mom, Dad, Aubrey and I) took the bus into New York city. We walked hither and yon (as they do NOT say in New York), all throughout midtown Manhattan. Here we are in Central Park. I gawked at the tall buildings around Times Squ...

We landed in New Jersey today - the flight was short and smooth and on time. It doesn't get much better than that. AND we could even see the empire state building as we were coming down. It was really cool. I learned just how much Jeff loves me because he could have had a seat on the exit row (but not me due to being pregnant) but he said he's rather sit by me than on the exit row. Now that's love. Tonight we got to spend some time with Jeff's grandmother and some aunts and uncles and cousins. Tomorrow's the big day - going into the city in the morning, then coming back here for the big 90th birthday celebration tomorrow night. Lots of pictures to come later!

There are lots of things I love about our hospital. One of them is something the hospital does for all babies born at the hospital. They make a medallion with the baby's footprint and hang it on the wall. Pink for girls, blue for boys. I walk by these walls almost every day and sometimes stop to admire them. I love finding the names of babies I delivered up there. I'm excited that our baby will one day have a sweet footprint up there, too. Here you can see John Owen Reinhardt - a baby of another friend that I delivered this past July. You notice that some of the medallions are silver and some are gold. The silver ones just have the baby's name and birthday. The gold ones have both the baby's birthday, and the death day. These are for babies who died. I think this is part of why part of me still struggles to be too excited about this baby. There are too many reminders around that things do not always end happily. And I'm a worrier, so I waste lots of mental energy t...

I had another doctor's appointment yesterday. My doctor, who was at our clinic having a check up for her absolutely adorable baby , graciously offered to check up on me while she there. I got her to do an ultrasound because I wanted to see if the baby was head down. I was pretty sure the baby was, because I get kicked a lot up by my ribs on the right side. The baby was head down, with the back laying on my left side, which is exactly what I thought when I tried to do Leopold's on myself. It was a treat to see the baby again. I haven't had an ultrasound or ultrasounded myself in over two months. (Now that's self control, folks. Too bad I don't have any when it comes to chocolate.) We got a great look at the face. I could even see some fuzz coming off the head. The head, by the way, measures 2-3 weeks AHEAD of the rest of the baby, which is measuring right in the 50th percentile. The head?? Measuring in the 95th percentile. Yikes! I wasn't too surprised, though...

As a resident, my new year starts every July, so I have tended to do a lot more reflection then. It's sort of nice, actually, to have several times each year to think about what has gone on in your life, and what you have to look forward to. Now, at the beginning of 2010, I'm definitely looking forward to what this year has to offer. This past July I thought a lot about how glad I was that my second year of residency was over. Second year was tough - not because of anything at work, but because of numerous sadnesses and frustrations of things we were dealing with at home. We had our first pregnancy, our first miscarriage, numerous troubles with licensure, the continuing struggles of infertility, and our first (and hopefully last?) experience with infertility treatments. Then we found out we were pregnant on July 15. Pregnancy after miscarriage makes it sort of difficult to be happy at first. But our tentative excitement has grown with each kick and hiccup I feel this baby make....