march

Another month down. Next month I'll be on Neurology for the first half of the month, then research through June. Neuro will be my last clinical rotation of residency. It finally dawned on me today that at this moment I know enough internal medicine to start practicing independently. From this point, as far as internal medicine, it will be "lifelong learning", self-directed. It seems like residency is an endless grind, going from busy month to another different, busy month, but suddenly here I am at the end.

red robin

Red Robin burgers with Nate and Angie. Angie looks like she has an atomic balloon. Today was a relaxing weekend day. It's nice having both days off on the weekend! Doesn't normally happen as a resident. A couple of days ago I was disappointed to find that the cat had scratched up the top of the dresser already. He was up there and now there are definite scratch marks. The wood is very soft, probably pine. I guess you get what you pay for. I'm trying to keep Jack out of the den to avoid any further damage. But it is a cheap piece of furniture. Hopefully it will hold up to regular use.

registry

I registered at Babies R Us! So far the only things we have put on there are the crib bedding. We chose a tools and trucks theme. I think it's very cute. It's a very masculine theme. I looked at some of the gender neutral themes- peas in a pod, stars, patterns, and they were not jumping out to me like this set did. Doug approves. He'll say yes to anything with tools in it. Hopefully the kid will like tools and trucks when he is old enough to have an opinion.

In other news, there was a blizzard today in the foothills, and it took Doug more than two hours to get home. My drive was slow but not bad.

ob visit

I had this month's OB visit today. It went well. Good fetal heart tones, and appropriate fundal height. I passed my glucola test. I did put on more weight than I was supposed to this month, but last month I lost weight, so I think I'm just making up for that.

nesting

I bought the Colgate Classica I crib mattress recommended in Baby Bargains. I also put the changing pad on the dresser to see how it looks, and it fits perfectly! I can tell that I am nesting. I want to get the baby's area all set up. I am feeling this urge to set up more than Doug is. I know, it's early, I'm only six months! But the next fourteen weeks will go by fast and I want to be ready in case I deliver early. I signed up for a newborn parenting class for next month, seeing as I have never changed a diaper. Doug said he will go too. I'm sure we'll be diapering and bathing baby dolls and hearing about other common sense things that most people don't have to take a class for. However, I need the class.

dresser

and many, many hours later-

26 weeks

LA

Back from LA. The GPS unit on the rental car was a lifesaver. I lost count of how many different freeways I had to get on to go from Torrance to Duarte. It would say "in point eight miles, exit right, then stay left" and I just did what it said and it got me where I needed to go. Still, LA driving was very stressful. There are random curves and dips in the road on the freeway, and sudden slowdowns. Everybody is driving over the speed limit. I didn't get into any serious traffic, thankfully. Other than getting from place to place for the interviews, I didn't do any additional driving or sightseeing. I didn't want to drive any more than I had to. When I returned my rental car, I had driven 102 miles. Here are a couple of pictures I took at City of Hope.

LA

I am off to LA for my final two interviews. I am really not looking forward to the 100 miles of LA city driving that I will have to do out there. This will be five interviews for me. I don't know how people do 10, 15, 20. I'm done.

crib

We put together the crib today. It did turn out to be one of the recalled Storkcraft cribs, but it came with the replacement parts. The box was pretty beat up, but the pieces were fine. I did scratch one of the rails while we were putting it together. Doug had some comments about the way the crib was supposed to be put together, specifically, "an engineer did not design this crib." I like the color, and it seems pretty sturdy- as stable as the other cribs we looked at at Babies R Us. We will keep this crib.

traveling

It's good to be home. I'm getting tired of traveling. I got back from Houston last night. It was a quick trip- they had a tour Friday night and dinner with a couple of current fellows, and then the interviews Saturday morning. I was done by one, and had a few extra hours to burn, so I went to the Museum of Natural Science and saw the butterfly center. They have a huge greenhouse that's filled with butterflies, and you're in there with them. It was nice, but I got too hot in the greenhouse. The place was also swarming with kids. My flight was not the best. There was a guy who was about seven feet tall in the seat behind me, and I could feel his knees digging in to my low back. I didn't turn around and complain about it, because what is he going to do, get shorter?

25 weeks

I will be 25 weeks tomorrow, Angie will be 21 weeks.

post-call

I'm post-call from the VA today. I have gotten my post-call nap and am feeling much more lively than several hours ago. I was supposedly done with call, but got called in on jeopardy. That is the resident backup system in case someone is sick and can't work. Well, someone was sick yesterday and I had to cover a night shift. It was ok, but hauling around the hospital all night at 6 months pregnant isn't the most fun. I have another jeopardy shift tomorrow, and really hope I don't get called in, because I'm leaving for my Houston interview Friday morning, and that would be tight if I had to work Thursday night. Not to mention I just took a call last night. We'll see. This is the first time as a resident that I've gotten called in on jeopardy.

seattle

I'm back from Seattle! The interview day at UW/ Fred Hutch went great. It is a very impressive program. I had been a little intimidated because a couple of my interviewers are big names in transplantation. However, everyone was incredibly nice and approachable. I also had a packed social schedule for the weekend. On Thursday, I met up with Lissa and Sara for lunch at the Rainforest Cafe, and I got to meet their kids for the first time! It's amazing how much they look like their parents. I had interview stuff Thursday and Friday. On Friday night, I saw Toshi and Jessica. We went out to a Thai restaurant in West Seattle. We had a couple of tasty tofu dishes, followed by a mango dessert. Then on Saturday morning, I saw my parents. We did the touristy thing, going to the Space Needle and the Experience Music Project. I never went to the EMP when I lived in Seattle. It's a fun museum- kind of a hands on museum not just for kids. The Space Needle had a great view despite it being cloudy. Carrie came up from Portland to see me Saturday afternoon, and we spent time catching up. I hadn't seen her since our wedding! We met up with Janice for dinner. My only regret is that I was not able to go to Beka's baby shower Saturday. Sorry, Beka! I hope you had a great time at your shower!

23 weeks

travel

I have the rest of my Heme/Onc interviews scheduled for this month, so I will be doing a lot of travelling- Seattle this week, Houston next week, and LA the week after that. I'm tired of travelling and I haven't even started yet! Time to put that interview suit to work.

furniture

Last weekend, Doug and I went to Babies R Us and looked at baby furniture. We found a crib and dresser that we liked, but the color of the wood was a little lighter than we would have liked. We then went to a local baby furniture store and didn't find anything remotely what we were looking for, plus everything was extremely expensive. Target didn't have much of a selection. So, after shopping around online and reading lots of customer reviews, I found a crib and dresser that I liked, reasonably priced, with good reviews (for the most part.) Doug thought it looked good too, and left it to my judgement. I ordered them online. Then I went to the Consumer Product Safety Commission website to make sure there wasn't a problem with that crib. And unfortunately, there may be a problem with a support bracket. http://cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09093.html

We will see if our crib is one of the problem cribs once it arrives. It looks like the fix is pretty simple- ask for a replacement bracket online.