Oh me, oh my. I am having a lot of fun. Starting to get the hang of things. Slowly finding my way. I have felt a bit behind but I think I am actually doing alright. Besides being a week behind because of my books being late I believe I could be doing a whole lot worse. I have been able to get the kids in the bed at a decent time so I can have mommy time that turns into study time. And when I am at work I use my break times to read, now that doesn't happen all the time but when I can.
I have been busting out assignments and turning them in and getting graded items back already. Yeah! But I am truly just so tired right now. I just wanted to let everyone know I am doing alright "in school" and looking forward to getting more accomplished. ttfn :)
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Friday, May 16, 2014
History in the Making
Hey y'all,
I have done some homework and I am almost done with week two. It is crazy how fast time fly's! I was just thinking about how far I have come and with all the support I have received, how incredible that is.
I was talking today to a lovely gal that was holding her precious little baby girl, telling her my story and I thought to myself. I have been documenting how excited I am to be having this life changing event taking place but I haven't put any history behind it.
You know, I have wanted to be working somewhere in the birth community since I was nine years old. I seen my first niece born and that has forever changed my life. I remember seeing her make her way into the world ( I love you Sasha!) and hearing the doctor ask who would like to cut the cord and the next thing I remember is walking towards my new little niece, holding the scissors and not knowing actually what had really taken place. Thank the Lord for my mama ( I love you mommy!) she always encouraged me to dream and look towards my future even though, we are not always prepared for what is going to come before us. I told her that day, "mommy, I want to be a doctor and the one that helps babies come out." After that my mom would buy me all kinds of picture books and medical books about childbirth and I couldn't understand the majority of it but it was always fun to learn new things. I remember one time really throwing my mom for a loop and asking her about hermaphrodites and come to find out she ended up knowing one when she was growing up. Really?! Anyhow...
Now, let's fast forward. Finished grade school, passed middle school and just made it through high school. Remember I said you could be getting prepared for your future, but you don't always know what is waiting for you. Well, I barely made it through high school, had some obstacles at home that had my mind in other places besides being completely focused on my studies. Which in the long run I think it was destiny that all the things that happened to me, gave me an empathy that can't be taught.
Then it happens, it is that reminder of a passion not forgotten but lost. I got married and had my first little bun in the oven and wasn't quite sure who I was going to have as my care provider or where I was going to go. I had some friends that had their babies with these midwives (shout out to Heike and Traci...whoop, whoop) and they were just telling my husband and I about the awesome care they received and how, I just had to have my baby there. Now I had heard of midwives and I think I may have looked into them before but not as much as OB/GYNs.
Forging ahead, we went with these awesome midwives and I can truly say my life has never been the same. We had great prenatal care and long conversations, I always felt very informed. Well I didn't get a chance to birth my little guy with them because I ended up having a complication. But the one thing I can for sure remember and something I love one midwife in particular for, was after I had lost my little guy and I was sitting in my hospital room in complete unbelief of what had happened. Heike(midwife) called me and told me how she was morning with me...I can't tell you how much that meant to me. She was my care provider but at that moment she became a life long friend. Now I don't get to see this friend very much but I think of her often and she unknowing to her gives me motivation.
Well that's my story and I'm stickin' to it. I know it jumps around a bit but these are the stepping stones in my life. Huge shout out to all the midwives(mothers) in my life, all of you are important to me and have craved out a step for me to climb on. This world would be lost without a strong woman at the bedside. ttfn :)
I have done some homework and I am almost done with week two. It is crazy how fast time fly's! I was just thinking about how far I have come and with all the support I have received, how incredible that is.
I was talking today to a lovely gal that was holding her precious little baby girl, telling her my story and I thought to myself. I have been documenting how excited I am to be having this life changing event taking place but I haven't put any history behind it.
You know, I have wanted to be working somewhere in the birth community since I was nine years old. I seen my first niece born and that has forever changed my life. I remember seeing her make her way into the world ( I love you Sasha!) and hearing the doctor ask who would like to cut the cord and the next thing I remember is walking towards my new little niece, holding the scissors and not knowing actually what had really taken place. Thank the Lord for my mama ( I love you mommy!) she always encouraged me to dream and look towards my future even though, we are not always prepared for what is going to come before us. I told her that day, "mommy, I want to be a doctor and the one that helps babies come out." After that my mom would buy me all kinds of picture books and medical books about childbirth and I couldn't understand the majority of it but it was always fun to learn new things. I remember one time really throwing my mom for a loop and asking her about hermaphrodites and come to find out she ended up knowing one when she was growing up. Really?! Anyhow...
Now, let's fast forward. Finished grade school, passed middle school and just made it through high school. Remember I said you could be getting prepared for your future, but you don't always know what is waiting for you. Well, I barely made it through high school, had some obstacles at home that had my mind in other places besides being completely focused on my studies. Which in the long run I think it was destiny that all the things that happened to me, gave me an empathy that can't be taught.
Then it happens, it is that reminder of a passion not forgotten but lost. I got married and had my first little bun in the oven and wasn't quite sure who I was going to have as my care provider or where I was going to go. I had some friends that had their babies with these midwives (shout out to Heike and Traci...whoop, whoop) and they were just telling my husband and I about the awesome care they received and how, I just had to have my baby there. Now I had heard of midwives and I think I may have looked into them before but not as much as OB/GYNs.
Forging ahead, we went with these awesome midwives and I can truly say my life has never been the same. We had great prenatal care and long conversations, I always felt very informed. Well I didn't get a chance to birth my little guy with them because I ended up having a complication. But the one thing I can for sure remember and something I love one midwife in particular for, was after I had lost my little guy and I was sitting in my hospital room in complete unbelief of what had happened. Heike(midwife) called me and told me how she was morning with me...I can't tell you how much that meant to me. She was my care provider but at that moment she became a life long friend. Now I don't get to see this friend very much but I think of her often and she unknowing to her gives me motivation.
Well that's my story and I'm stickin' to it. I know it jumps around a bit but these are the stepping stones in my life. Huge shout out to all the midwives(mothers) in my life, all of you are important to me and have craved out a step for me to climb on. This world would be lost without a strong woman at the bedside. ttfn :)
Monday, May 12, 2014
Beautiful Weekend
Now if you read my last post, you will see how my weekend started out sooo awesome. But here are just some cherries on top.
I have been panicking a little because my books are taking forever to get here and they aren't supposed to show up until the 28th of this month which is like a week and a half away. But I came home after my conference had ended and glory be to God, one of my books had came in the mail and it was the one that would have really put my far behind had it come any later.
My little lady had her first birthday and it was on Mother's Day. Which is like super special for me and I believe later for her to...hehe. My family took me down to the beach we walked around had Slurpees, oh yeah and enjoyed the sun. Came home enjoyed each other's company had a nice dinner and then on top of that had some awesome friends come over and have a little birthday celebration for "miss puud."
Also, WE MADE IT! 12 MONTHS NURSING MY YOUNGEST!!! OH YEAH!!! I have always had a goal to be able to nurse my babies up to a year and longer but never made it because I would be blessed with another little one and they would be taking all the goodies from mama. But we are going strong...hehe...Breast is Best! That's right I said it. :) Night y'all ttfn.
MAWS CONFERENCE SPRING 2014
5/9/2014-
I am loving this conference so far. I have met some new people, seen some old friends and really I am not the one to be star struck but I am totally midwife struck.
5/11/2014-
I really should be in the bed right now but I had to let y'all know what is going on. So, here we go...
The day before last I wanted to get into how the conference was going but I just couldn't put the starting of the conference for me in words. I was really at a beautiful loss.
So I get to the conference location Friday night, sit in the car for a minute gather myself because I had been at work, came home took a quick nap after saying hey to family and headed my way over. Walked into the building and I don't know what exactly I was expecting but it was so nice and laid back everyone was really friendly and had little conversations. They had a really lovely spread of different little things to eat and one thing in particular I really enjoyed and it was nettle soup. I have never had that type of soup before but it was the bomb that is for sure and healthy too.
It was so nice I had people coming up to me and asking "Are you Mercedes, I have heard great things about you." Which that was a nice surprise and helped me with my midwife star struck complex...hehe. I even got a chance to speak to a student midwife and it was great but I felt bad I was so excited and happy to be where I was at that while talking to her and telling her my story I started balling. What a drama queen I am, I apologized but that was another thing that was so nice, she really knew where I was coming from and it was just a great moment.
Anyhow moving on. There were some great presentations, I learned sooooo much! It started off with a presentation done by two student midwives that are going for their masters' I believe and they did their project on Washington's Forgotten Midwives, it featured Native-American, Asian-American and African-American Midwives that paved the way here in this state. And well let's just say, wow I was speechless and tearing up during that presentation because you could tell they were passionate about the information they had found and that they really took care and time with what they had learned. I was, no scratch that, I am very happy I was able to attend the first night, almost for that presentation alone. But then on top of that we had this other presenter that came from Detroit and she really put it down on African-Americans and breastfeeding. It was great hearing her talk about how she is making a difference in the community for our precious babies and giving them the, right, start. She even talked about something that I was really interested in and it was Mother-Led groups. Instead of always having an expert come in and teach people, having the community or village drive the group and growing a sisterhood. And this was just the first night, wow right?!
Day Two:
Came in again ready to learn and listen....
Wait, I forgot to tell you guys about the epiphany I had on the way home from Friday night. So they gave everyone a name tag with what your current title is at the conference and mine said Student Midwife. Now it didn't really hit me until I got in the car driving home that I realized. I'm doing it, I am really doing it. Right now my title is student midwife but one day as I work closer to my goal the student part is going to drop off. Wow, that really just blew my mind. You know as you are growing up and your a child, you always think things are going to be so different when I get older like your changing a scene in a movie or something, but no. You don't walk to a new tune or jump into a new world and things don't just all of a sudden change. Somehow you just find yourself somewhere and really things have not changed drastically and being older is no different than being a child, you just now realize that, no means no and yes means no and freedom was a joke and we are all living in a matrix...haha.
Ok, back to day two. Walk in...sit down...get up grab breakfast. Oh and then just by happenstance I meet one of my classmates from MCU. It is kind of ironic to because I am in a distance learning program where people from all over are attending this program so to meet someone was amazing to me and she was really sweet and shared the same passion as me. We had a lovely retired pediatrician come and give a talk and she really opened my eyes to quite a few things that are going on with children and older people, I know that is connected with womb to birth into the early learning stage. It really was great, then we had another women that talked about breaking the trend of institutional racism which was really interesting (please keep in mind there were a lot of speakers but I am just highlighting the ones that stuck out to me). She had just done some exercised and they to me were a little interesting and became a little heated because the subject is a little touchy. Then I think the real highlights of the conference for me was the networking and connecting with other Midwives and Student Midwives, it was great listening to them and being able to ask questions, also really feeling a part of something better than myself. Thank you!
Quotes I enjoyed:
"Children aren't ready to learn until they are socially and emotionally ready."-Dr. Maxine Hayes
"If we don't get things right in the beginning, it won't look right in the middle or the end."-Dr. Maxine Hayes
"Genetics loads the gun but environment pulls the trigger."-Dr. Maxine Hayes
"Resist and avoid people trying to put you in a box."-Benita Horn
I am loving this conference so far. I have met some new people, seen some old friends and really I am not the one to be star struck but I am totally midwife struck.
5/11/2014-
I really should be in the bed right now but I had to let y'all know what is going on. So, here we go...
The day before last I wanted to get into how the conference was going but I just couldn't put the starting of the conference for me in words. I was really at a beautiful loss.
So I get to the conference location Friday night, sit in the car for a minute gather myself because I had been at work, came home took a quick nap after saying hey to family and headed my way over. Walked into the building and I don't know what exactly I was expecting but it was so nice and laid back everyone was really friendly and had little conversations. They had a really lovely spread of different little things to eat and one thing in particular I really enjoyed and it was nettle soup. I have never had that type of soup before but it was the bomb that is for sure and healthy too.
It was so nice I had people coming up to me and asking "Are you Mercedes, I have heard great things about you." Which that was a nice surprise and helped me with my midwife star struck complex...hehe. I even got a chance to speak to a student midwife and it was great but I felt bad I was so excited and happy to be where I was at that while talking to her and telling her my story I started balling. What a drama queen I am, I apologized but that was another thing that was so nice, she really knew where I was coming from and it was just a great moment.
Anyhow moving on. There were some great presentations, I learned sooooo much! It started off with a presentation done by two student midwives that are going for their masters' I believe and they did their project on Washington's Forgotten Midwives, it featured Native-American, Asian-American and African-American Midwives that paved the way here in this state. And well let's just say, wow I was speechless and tearing up during that presentation because you could tell they were passionate about the information they had found and that they really took care and time with what they had learned. I was, no scratch that, I am very happy I was able to attend the first night, almost for that presentation alone. But then on top of that we had this other presenter that came from Detroit and she really put it down on African-Americans and breastfeeding. It was great hearing her talk about how she is making a difference in the community for our precious babies and giving them the, right, start. She even talked about something that I was really interested in and it was Mother-Led groups. Instead of always having an expert come in and teach people, having the community or village drive the group and growing a sisterhood. And this was just the first night, wow right?!
Day Two:
Came in again ready to learn and listen....
Wait, I forgot to tell you guys about the epiphany I had on the way home from Friday night. So they gave everyone a name tag with what your current title is at the conference and mine said Student Midwife. Now it didn't really hit me until I got in the car driving home that I realized. I'm doing it, I am really doing it. Right now my title is student midwife but one day as I work closer to my goal the student part is going to drop off. Wow, that really just blew my mind. You know as you are growing up and your a child, you always think things are going to be so different when I get older like your changing a scene in a movie or something, but no. You don't walk to a new tune or jump into a new world and things don't just all of a sudden change. Somehow you just find yourself somewhere and really things have not changed drastically and being older is no different than being a child, you just now realize that, no means no and yes means no and freedom was a joke and we are all living in a matrix...haha.
Ok, back to day two. Walk in...sit down...get up grab breakfast. Oh and then just by happenstance I meet one of my classmates from MCU. It is kind of ironic to because I am in a distance learning program where people from all over are attending this program so to meet someone was amazing to me and she was really sweet and shared the same passion as me. We had a lovely retired pediatrician come and give a talk and she really opened my eyes to quite a few things that are going on with children and older people, I know that is connected with womb to birth into the early learning stage. It really was great, then we had another women that talked about breaking the trend of institutional racism which was really interesting (please keep in mind there were a lot of speakers but I am just highlighting the ones that stuck out to me). She had just done some exercised and they to me were a little interesting and became a little heated because the subject is a little touchy. Then I think the real highlights of the conference for me was the networking and connecting with other Midwives and Student Midwives, it was great listening to them and being able to ask questions, also really feeling a part of something better than myself. Thank you!
Quotes I enjoyed:
"Children aren't ready to learn until they are socially and emotionally ready."-Dr. Maxine Hayes
"If we don't get things right in the beginning, it won't look right in the middle or the end."-Dr. Maxine Hayes
"Genetics loads the gun but environment pulls the trigger."-Dr. Maxine Hayes
"Resist and avoid people trying to put you in a box."-Benita Horn
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
First Day of School
OMG! I am only on day three of school and I already feel behind. Plus it doesn't help that my books are not here yet. They are in transit which is also causing a bit of stress to me, but they're on the way.I think it is because I am just starting and instead of feeling like I am ahead of the game I feel behind. But that might be a good thing because I don't want to be to confident. I think the key here is keeping a good pace on all my classes and just having realistic expectations, and I am good with that.
So right now I am taking three classes, all together 4.5 credits. Which isn't to bad I'm pretty sure I can handle that and maybe even a little more. Classes I have are BIO 100, PROD 100 and MDWF 100. One is only an introduction to the school and I feel pretty good about that and the others are a little more involved. I am excited to get back into the human body, that was a class I always had fun with because once I cracked open the book, I could use anyone I came in contact with for a nice study tool.
Well I can't spend to much time tonight chit, chatting with y'all. Also trying to apply for some different scholarships right now while I have a little bit of time before my days just become to complicated. Thank you everyone for your constant support!!! ttfn :)
So right now I am taking three classes, all together 4.5 credits. Which isn't to bad I'm pretty sure I can handle that and maybe even a little more. Classes I have are BIO 100, PROD 100 and MDWF 100. One is only an introduction to the school and I feel pretty good about that and the others are a little more involved. I am excited to get back into the human body, that was a class I always had fun with because once I cracked open the book, I could use anyone I came in contact with for a nice study tool.
Well I can't spend to much time tonight chit, chatting with y'all. Also trying to apply for some different scholarships right now while I have a little bit of time before my days just become to complicated. Thank you everyone for your constant support!!! ttfn :)
Thursday, May 1, 2014
Pleasant Surprise
Oh man, I tell you what. Life throws you some curve balls at times, but I sure love it when I get an unexpected homerun. I know I just started my journey but I was expressing that I was a bit concerned about paying my school tuition, when and how I would like to do it. So, I gave my school a call and had been going back and forth with the financial adviser and had that stress alleviated by some clarification. Phew, I am so glad to have had that taken care of. Then my awesome sissy-in-law has been helping me with my teeth and now we have a plan to get me back on track and I am soooo excited about that. Thank you Amber!!! :)
Then out of no where I had the most "Pleasant Surprise" I log on to my Facebook Acct and this wonderful and giving lady offered to sponsor me to the MAWS (Midwives' Association of Washington State) conference that is happening in a couple of weeks. I couldn't be more excited about going however right before that I had to ask one of my co-workers if she would forgive me for not going to this other awesome event at the SIFF film center. She was awesome and gave me her blessing to go to the conference.
I am already thinking about how I would write about my experience but I don't want to get to ahead of myself. I want to make sure I really soak everything in and gain all the knowledge possible. I really can't believe how things have really been falling into place. I feel like I am following my destiny and I am getting blessed for it. Doors that have never opened for me before are now coming wide open.
Thank you sooo much Liz for your passion and blessing me. You are a Midwife in my life, helping me birth this dream. "Pregnant with hope, birthing a dream and raising progression". ttfn :)
Then out of no where I had the most "Pleasant Surprise" I log on to my Facebook Acct and this wonderful and giving lady offered to sponsor me to the MAWS (Midwives' Association of Washington State) conference that is happening in a couple of weeks. I couldn't be more excited about going however right before that I had to ask one of my co-workers if she would forgive me for not going to this other awesome event at the SIFF film center. She was awesome and gave me her blessing to go to the conference.
I am already thinking about how I would write about my experience but I don't want to get to ahead of myself. I want to make sure I really soak everything in and gain all the knowledge possible. I really can't believe how things have really been falling into place. I feel like I am following my destiny and I am getting blessed for it. Doors that have never opened for me before are now coming wide open.
Thank you sooo much Liz for your passion and blessing me. You are a Midwife in my life, helping me birth this dream. "Pregnant with hope, birthing a dream and raising progression". ttfn :)
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