Never ever!

So today is Monday and I'm tired as anything. I couldn't get to sleep last night and then the garbage man woke me up at some ungodly hour. Today it was back to the Special Care Nursery, as they call it, and the hands on the clock just didn't seem to move all day. Last week I had the time of my life following a midwife around for two days. Her name is Kim and she is the midwife for emergency c-sections. I was scheduled to follow her for 10 hours on Thursday, but ended up having such a great time that I went in on Friday, my day off, to follow her around again. Thursday I decided after the very first c-section that I will never, ever, ever have one myself. The surgeon cut a very small line on the woman's lower abdomen, then he put his hands in, and his assistent put her hands in, then they counted to three and pulled so she ripped open. Apparently this way the muscle heals more quickly...? Caitlin? Anyways, they also don't cut as big a snit as they used to, in an effort to replicate a vaginal birth as much as possible. So the doctor really just digs in half-way up the forearm and hauls that little baby out while assistant pushes on Mom's stomach. There is obviously a benefit that Mom doesn't get sliced open more than necessary, but it was all so violent. There were 4 emergencies on Thursday, including a very scared woman who refused to push. I can't go into the details, but she was hysterical. It was shocking, all the chaos in the OR. Anyways, no c-section and no epidural or anything for me. No needles in my spine! The next day I went back and we received twins. It was so fantastic, I got to take the baby from the surgeon and over to the trolleys. There was a surprising amount of splatter during the c-sections, but we were decked out of course, so no problem. I was totally shell-shocked Thursday afternoon, but by Friday afternoon I was devastated that I'd be back in the nursery today. I'm going to see if I can't take a few more study days and hang out with her. There is one more scheduled day that I have with her, but it's first at the end of April... I even got to cut an umbilical cord! And take a blood sample from the umbilical cord! And I got to examine the placenta! Seriously, it made my week, my particularly bad week.