One year

One year ago today......

I married my best friend! Happy first anniversary to the one who makes me laugh on a daily basis, supports me in all I do, and that I love with all my heart.

Friday Quick Takes

1. Today is my last day in St. Louis. I've gotten to do so many amazing things (delivering lots of babies obv. trumps everything), learn and see tons (vacuum and forceps deliveries, very high risk pregnancies, lots of ultrasounds, etc.), and meet so many great people...but yesterday was a heavy day. I went with the resident to do an ultrasound on a high risk patient. I put the ultrasound probe on her belly but try as I might I couldn't find a heartbeat. The resident tried then to no avail. When we gave her the news, the patient was sobbing that heartbreaking way that I think only happens when a parent loses a child (the last time that I saw it was in Haiti, when a dad lost his little daughter to diptheria). We had to induce her to deliver her no-longer-living baby. The second patient was less tragic; an older mother pregnant with a baby with Down's syndrome. She was admitted to the hospital for decreased baby movement, and the first complex ultrasound we did was not very reassuring. Later in the day, we came back to repeat the ultrasound and the baby was moving everywhere. The look on the mom's face as she watched her baby move on the ultrasound screen was beautiful. She told me then how she had prayed so hard all through her pregnancy for this baby, and that she was going to name him Jaden: Hebrew for "God hears." 

I love OB.

2. Stephen and I exchanged anniversary gifts last weekend since we will be apart for our one year anniversary this Saturday. He gave me this beautiful watch:

3. And I gave him (us) this awesome tent. Some of our best times together have been camping, and I can't wait to use it. This tent is also 9 pounds versus the one we've been borrowing that weighs twice that (and was NOT conducive to backpacking, which we found out the hard way).

4. One thing I will miss about St. Louis is St. Louis Bread Co., which is actually the original Panera Bread. I think knowing that St. Louis founded Panera Bread was almost enough to convince Stephen to move here for residency; he loves Panera. It also tasted especially good after our four mile run last Saturday:

5. And another thing that I will miss about St. Louis is the beautiful little lake I found to run around. It's just about 4 miles around which is a perfect distance for me now. I have to admit though that I did not run this week in the 100 degree St. Louis weather, which I will not miss when I get back to Michigan. 

Sunset after running around the lake:

6. I went to the outlet mall one night this week and even though I love them, I am kind of embarrassed about my two purchases. The first was this sweater from J. Crew Factory:

I swore that I would never wear a shirt with a goofy collar when I saw this shirt at the retail store last year. But it grew on me, and then I tried it on at the outlet, and now here I am with my peter pan collar tee.

The second purchase was these shoes:

My sister actually purchased a pair of Sperry's a few years ago and I kept telling her they were Grandpa shoes. A few months later, Sperry's got really popular (which my sister made sure I knew after making fun of her Grandpa shoes). Now I conformed bought some. But they are really comfy...versatile...and sort of cute?

I kind of feel like a traitor for both of my purchases. But no regrets.

7. I've been wanting to do the Color Me Rad 5K forEVAH. Apparently they spray these random colors at you while you are running and it just looks ridiculously fun. I found one in Madison this weekend, so I'll be stopping on my way back from St. Louis to run it with a friend. I can't wait.

Happy weekend! Linkin' it up with Jen.

Weekend outfits and more on life decisions...

 I got a taste of what residency will be like today. Stephen came to the hospital around 11 a.m. to say goodbye after an altogether too short visit to St. Louis. We had planned to meet in the hospital cafeteria for a quick lunch before his drive back to Michigan and another two week stretch apart. Unfortunately, I got caught up in back-to-back deliveries and poor Stephen waited almost an hour and half for me to run down to the cafeteria for approximately 5 minutes and a quick kiss goodbye...

 Being apart is hard. I honestly don't want to start another away rotation next Monday. This next rotation is emergency medicine, and I feel like it's still important for me to go and make sure I'm making the right career decision. As much as a I love OB with all my heart, emergency medicine was my first love after two years spent as an ER nurse before med school, and what I thought I came to med school to do. Now that I've realized that OB/GYN is my passion, I still think I owe it to ER to give it a month rotation and make sure I'm making the right decision. Sidenote that it would be much easier on our future family (shiftwork and no call) but I know what's most important is that I do what I'm called to do.

Date night outfit numero uno (also my mass outfit): all J. Crew except for the shoes

Date night outfit numero dos: J. Crew polka dot blazer and these lovely comfy shoes

Stephen and I spent the weekend doing different things around St. Louis. We went for a four mile run around a little lake outside of St. Louis (still proud that our Michigan thermostats could run that far in the St. Louis heat), ate at St. Louis Bread Co. (a.k.a. the original Panera bread), had dinner at a St. Louis brewery, saw the St. Louis zoo (SO fun..and free!), and celebrated our first anniversary at the Cheesecake Factory.

Linking up with Fine Linen and Purple//Plane Pretty//Style Elixir//Pleated Poppy

Five favorites...and a flying baby

Linking up with Hallie for Five Favorites:

1. The flying baby: Lest you think that I am exaggerating by the title, let me assure you that I am not. Right now I can absolutely not imagine any crazier delivery than the one that happened yesterday. The laboring mom was a resident patient, and since she had already undergone two successful vaginal deliveries, the residents let me do the delivery pretty much solo. Normally when I deliver the resident patients, the chief resident stands next to me in case of emergency, but like I said this one was just so 'easy' that they deemed it unnecessary. The mom's first big push let me mostly but not completely deliver the baby's head, and then came the second push. The baby shot out like a cannonball with momentum that I never dreamed any newly emerging baby could have. I somehow managed to catch the baby mid-air (and off to the side) and stood in complete shock holding the slippery new babe safely in my arms, while the watching nurses/resident/attending doc let out a huge gasp and then collective sigh of relief. The attending doc claimed that he has never seen a baby fly out so fast. I am now known as the med-student-who-caught-the-flying-baby (so thankful it's not the-med-student-who-dropped-the-flying-baby). Craziest.delivery.ever.

2. Loving your work: I realized yesterday that while I did not feel at all like getting out of bed at 5:30 a.m. (it was painful), the day just got better and better during my shift on labor and delivery. I was contemplating driving home how great it is to love your work, and how important it is to choose a profession that makes getting up in the morning worth it and each day meaningful (especially when that profession requires 80 hour work weeks, night call, and 24 hour shifts).

3. This outfit: Of course it's a cheater since I'm in scrubs every day here (outfit pics taken before I left for St. Louis). I wore this for Stephen and I's last dinner date: floral scarf from Zara, a bright blazer from J. Crew, my favorite shoes, and trusty pixie pants from J. Crew Factory (which now come in maternity from the retail store...and I do not not need them, I promise).

4. Our anniversary: Our first anniversary is August 31, but since we won't be together next weekend, we are going to celebrate this weekend when Stephen visits. I had no idea what to get him for an anniversary gift, but I'm pretty excited on what I found (not sharing yet in the off chance that he reads this post...)

5. Stephen coming to visit this weekend: Enough said.

Blazer: J. Crew

Tunic: Splendid via 6pm.com

Ponte pants: J. Crew Factory

Scarf: Zara

Shoes: same as always from Madewell

Also linking up with the Pleated Poppy, Agi, and Tara/Bonnie.

Sweatshirt dress

I was honestly dreading being off this weekend because without the craziness of labor and delivery, I knew that I would have more time to think about missing Stephen. It was so much better than I thought it would be though: I spent Friday with my cousins at their lake house an hour away and then when I was driving back to St. Louis last night, I got a text from one of the OB residents asking if I wanted to get together for dinner (this resident also happens to be the daughter of this OB/GYN physician). We had the best time talking about OB/GYN residency, NFP and Napro technology, being Catholic, and life...

Dress: Madewell

Belt: Gap

This is a little bit of a 'cheater' outfit since the pictures are from when I wore it to work a couple weeks ago, but it is what I wore to mass today. This dress may be the most versatile item in my closet: the clinic with hose and flats, casual with a jean jacket or a cardi and a fun necklace, summer with a colored belt and sandals, winter with boots, a sweater, and tights...

How I wore it last:

Linking up with Fine Linen and Purple.

Fall style//an outfit//OB rotation updates//Tanzania

Joining Jen (and Tara and Alissa) for my usual Friday-now-Saturday randomness.

1. I've really missed posting outfits but things have just been too cray cray lately with my OB rotation and the myriad of other things away electives and residency applications entail. I'm going to *try* to do better this week. This was my date night outfit last week in Chicago, and while I'm usually anti-bathroom mirror pics, I really liked this outfit. I originally discovered the shoes via Lisa (she's one of my definite style idols) and then found them on clearance here (bonus that they are the most comfy brand ever, Clarks). I just can't resist a good wedge.

Shirt and cut-offs: J. Crew Factory (old)

Shoes: Clarks

Necklace: J. Crew

2. I guest posted this week on fall fashion for Olivia (you really should check out her super cute blog and gorgeous wedding dress). Here's a sneak preview:

You can read the rest of the post here.

3. I finally watched the Bachelorette finale and there were many tears (I'm slightly ashamed that I cried during a Bachelorette finale but obviously not ashamed enough not to share it on le blog). It really was the best finale ever in my opinion (or else I was just really emotional that night) and I cannot stop swooning over her dress (I think it would be a gorgeous wedding dress in ivory).

4. Labor and delivery was busy busy again this week and I've been having dreams every night about doing ultrasounds (which I'm learning, slowly but surely), checking cervixes (or is it cervices?), delivering babies (!), placentas, and suturing up tears post-delivery (which I did for the first time this week). Despite the crazy dreams, it's been great. When I was talking to one of the residents about how much I love labor and delivery, she told me that not everyone feels that way so I probably am meant to do OB/GYN...which I think I knew already.

5. I mentioned the hospital cafeteria sushi last week:

This week I got brave enough to try it. Twice. I think twice was pushing my luck because this was the conversation that ensued:

6. I started doing a 10K training program a couple months ago, and Stephen and I are thinking about doing this run next weekend when he comes to visit St. Louis. I'd really love to do this one but none of the dates work. Although a marathon is still on my bucket list, right now I'm only halfway to a 10K and have a love/hate relationship with running: usually love (it's such a good stress reliever and I always feel great afterward) but yesterday it was definitely hate...

7. This week, Stephen and I finalized our medical mission trip to Tanzania for October. We'll be going with a retired OB/GYN and volunteering at a rural Catholic hospital that has no physicians right now. My last medical mission was to Haiti two years ago, and I've so missed being able to volunteer: my experiences in Haiti and Ecuador before medical school largely motivated me to become a doctor. We can't wait for October.

Happy weekend!

Le weekend

Why did this weekend go by so fast? It wasn't so bad leaving Stephen last weekend since I knew that I would see him in a week, but saying goodbye today was a lot harder (there were definitely tears on my end). The only thing that consoled me was knowing that when I got back to St. Louis tonight, I would get to have dinner at Grace's with a bunch of the NFP OB residents and Katrina.

Chicago was wonderful though. We went to the Shedd Aquarium, finally watched the Bachelorette finale (although I fell asleep during both attempts to watch it...), and hung out at our favorite place to stay (free omelettes in the morning and happy hour at night). And I got to wear this perfect summer skirt.

Jacket: J. Crew via Ebay

Skirt: J. Crew

Shoes: Madewell

Chicago skyline//Shedd Aquarium//nerdy 3D glasses//dinner at P.F. Changs

Linking up with Fine Linen and Purple for What I Wore Sunday and with Jenni.

Friday musings...

Joining Jen for another round.

1. First things first, I found these incredible heels on sale at Zara for $29.99. I'm not a heels girl (I only own two other pairs) but I am a leopard-print girl (and yes, it is a neutral...because Rachel Zoe says so). These heels are only just over two inches high and comfy as far as heels go. They are also kind of reminiscent of these absurdly priced J. Crew ones (but I like mine better).

2. Now on to the actual important things that happened this week. Last week is still a blur of clinic and exams and packing and residency applications and sleep deprivation. Last Sunday morning, I woke up completely spent and wondering how I was going to drive myself 11+ hours to St. Louis for my rotation starting Monday. Well God knows, and as I was walking out the door to leave, my mom called saying that she had found a one-way ticket back to Michigan with her travel miles and she was going to help me drive me to St. Louis. It still kind of makes me tear up thinking about it...

3. And this gorgeous sunset was towards the end of our drive...I sort of felt like it was a sign of what lies ahead as I start my month of OB-GYN at Mercy and make big life decisions between OB/GYN and emergency medicine...

4. As for St. Louis, it's been a busy week and given me a glimpse into the life of an OB/GYN resident. I knew that the hours were bad and they really were as bad as I imagined. A little ironic, but we had a lecture on resident fatigue this week with the OB/GYN program director. Basically it gave tips on surviving (one slide included all the caffeine products available: chocolate-covered coffee beans win for potency and have you ever heard of these?) and reaffirmed that residents really are fatigued (at levels almost equivalent to people with narcolepsy...scary). Also they spend very, very little of their time sleeping or with family/friends (surprise, surprise). 

5. But onto the positive: my rotation is focused on intrapartum care (i.e. births) and I've really enjoyed working with the women on Labor and Delivery. Each patient's experience is so unique and I just love being a part of it. I did a solo delivery last night (sort of accidentally, apparently the attending physician thought that I was a resident...but all's well that ends well) and I'm still on a high...

6. I'm still a little weirded out that the hospital cafeteria here has sushi...but at the same time I really want to try it.

7. Stephen and I are meeting halfway this weekend just outside of Chicago. This week apart hasn't been that bad since I've known that we would see each other this weekend, but I'm dreading the next few weeks (and the thought of not being together on our first anniversary). For now though, I'm just happy that we get to spend the weekend together. 

Super cheesy pic of us that I love, love, love

Happy Friday!

Life lessons and a pig roast...

Dress: J. Crew Factory

Cardi: J. Crew

Belt: Gap

So even though it's Monday, this is what I wore Sunday (or at least what I wore to mass Saturday night). I also wore this to my parents' neighbor's pigroast that same night, the annual summer event where they invite half the town. Clearly I need to learn how to prioritize, since I spent the night before I left for St. Louis at the neighborhood pigroast when I was not nearly done packing to leave the next morning for two months. But I made it, and life is short, and the pig was good...

This dress has become my favorite summer dress because it's so comfy and versatile (and striped). It works just as well at the beach as it does for church with a cardi or even for work...and I'll be trying it with a chambray shirt and boots this fall.

So I made it to St. Louis, although I admit that last week was one of the most stressful in a long time between multiple exams, assignments, packing to leave and move, etc. Somehow good always ends up coming out of time like these though, and I realized how lucky I am to have the support that I do. Through all last week's craziness, Stephen was his usual kind/loving/supportive self, one of my best friends moved a bunch of my things over to our new house by herself while I was packing, and my crazy wonderful mother decided yesterday morning to drive with me to St. Louis because I was so tired and fly back to Michigan with a one-way ticket. So yes, I feel totally undeservedly loved.

And quickly, my first day on my obstetrics rotation here was good. The labor/delivery units here are crazy busy and the residents are super nice. I got to (mostly) do one delivery and learned a bunch of stuff on my very first day...I'm sure there is lots more to come.