5 days left

So, I am now down to 5 days to go. Can I say it went by quickly? Yes and no. There were times when every hour was difficult and passed slowly and times that were wonderful and felt not like work at all. It's 2:00am and I am first on for a birth right now and it feels just fine.

The deal with being first on (if you get to keep the birth, but that is a whole other story) is that you have to stay with your client until 2 hours postpartum and have your paperwork as far as it can be and then you can turn it over to the person who relieves you at the end of your shift. The best possible scenario would be that your client delivers her placenta at 4:00 and you begin your PP vitals then; two hours later you have your paperwork as far as you can take it (including birth certificate and photo stickers) and then when the next first on shows up at 6:00 you can hand your client over to them to discharge. Awesome when it was your birth... sucky when you are the new first on and you have to finish vitals, discharge them, clean the room, and do the laundry.

If you are first on and you have had a client in labor but your shift ends she must be imminent in order for you to keep her as a primary... if not you must turn her over to the next first on. This can completely SUCK if you needed to count that birth, especially if you have done a lot of labor work with her. But, what goes around comes around here and soon enough someone will be turning a birth over to you when their shift ends.

Back to leaving soon... I'm really really going to miss the people here. A'Maya is awesome, I have learned so much from her without even really realizing that she's teaching me. And the resident I would completely stalk into being my best friend if we lived anywhere near each other... I'm probably going to miss her the most. The other interns too, we have (what I firmly believe to be) the best group possible; everyone is hilarious and hard working and we're all genuinely happy for each other when things go well and worried when things seem off... I love these women.

I have a BRUTAL week of shifts ahead of me thanks to the awesome A'Maya trying to make sure I get what I need. It's going to be hellacious though; on Monday I work 24 hours straight, then a couple of first on days and a first on at night that goes directly into a first on day so that means I will work from 6pm-6am and then directly into 6am-6pm again that night... it's going to be hallucination levels of exhaustion.

I just made really bad coffee. If you are in any way a coffee aficionado bring your own coffee and press.