"On the road again......"

.......... "just can't wait to get on the road again........"

With all due respects to Willie Nelson, I think I've been on the road ENOUGH today!!  I will be SOOOO glad when hubby is back home from Georgia and able to help some with running kids to and fro.  My day has been full of driving, driving and more driving.......

8:45 AM -- Drive Morgan to college -- 30 minutes, 15 miles

9:15 AM -- Stopped at Starbucks for a hot chocolate and a muffin; stopped at a gas station and filled up the car; and then.....

9:45 AM -- Hit the road again, this time to meet a client in Alexandria, Virginia -- 1 hour, 38.5 miles

Met with my client at the Starbucks in Alexandria, left there around 12:30 PM, and headed BACK to Columbia to pick up Morgan from school -- another hour of driving, 38.5 more miles on the car.

After picking her up, we headed back home, but needed to make stops at CVS and PetSmart on the way home, so there was another 50 minutes or so, plus 17 or 18 more miles.

Then this evening, we'd promised Bryanna we'd drive up to the restaurant she works at for dinner and let her wait on us........ 28 miles, 45 more minutes of driving....... and then a return trip home.  

Grand total for the day:  nearly FIVE HOURS in the car; 150+ miles on the car; one exhausted mom........

And as of today -- two overdue clients; two more due TODAY; one due TOMORROW; one due sometime next week.  I haven't looked at the April calendar in the last two days; I just can't even THINK about clients due then, even though technically some of them could be in the "birthing zone" as well!!!  I think SOME people need to have babies soon -- and a few need to WAIT!!!!  This could be a busy next week or so.....

So, so, soooooo tired.........

Working as a birth assistant or a midwife is never easy under any circumstances -- long, unpredictable, irregular hours, limited sleep, births full of euphoria, births full of stress.  It's a constant whirlwind of driving, sleepless nights, and extremes in emotions.  It gets hard physically as I get older, and it makes me wonder how much longer I'll be able to do this job.

Just in the last five days:

Thursday AM, I was picking up carpool kids to go to our homeschool co-op (where I also co-teach two classes) when one of the midwives called and said we had a client in labor.  I told her I'd send my partner Lori, since Thursdays are a difficult day for me, and also because I already had a car full of children!!!  Just about the time I got to the co-op classes, the midwife called back and said, "I need somebody there now!!  She's starting to push!  Where are you?"  Fortunately, I was only about 10 miles or so away, so I dropped off the kids, called Lori and told her to head back home, I was taking this one!!  I arrived at 8:38 AM; the midwife arrived at 8:43 AM; the baby arrived at 8:47 AM!!!  Wow.........  followed by a hemorrhage and a baby who needed just a bit of help in getting started.  All really was fine, it just was a long, tiring morning.  And we still had violin lessons that afternoon and other errands to run..... a full, busy day.

Friday, I was supposed to take Morgan to college for her class.  However, she woke up with a migraine and decided to stay in bed.  Fine by me -- I needed some rest and a day without so much running around.  However, that changed when my hubby called in mid-afternoon, said there'd been a change in work schedules, and he would be flying in that evening from Georgia.  While it was nice to hear he was coming home, my house was a disaster, I had an already scheduled six-hour meeting with the midwives the next day (our annual training, OSHA review, practicing emergency drills, etc), plus I'd scheduled Morgan's appointment for the new hairdo -- AND Mackenzie was getting sick.  Didn't matter -- Nelson still wanted to come home.  So I spent the rest of the afternoon/evening cleaning house in preparation for his arrival.

His flight was supposed to leave Atlanta around 10 PM, arrive at BWI shortly before midnight.  However, it had been snowing heavily up north all day long, and the previous leg of his flight had originated in Pittsburgh.  His plane ended up leaving Atlanta nearly an hour and a half late.  There was no way I could sit up and wait for him -- I needed to get up at 7 AM for my meeting, and at this point, he probably wouldn't be arriving home until 1:30 or 2 AM.  When I woke in the AM, he was asleep.  I gave him a quick hug, said goodbye, and told him I'd see him in the evening.  I left for the meeting, came back in the late afternoon, swapped cars with him (got a quick hug!), and took Morgan for her 'do.  As I was coming back, I got a phone call from my partner -- we had TWO clients in labor and we both needed to get going..... sigh........ I got home, swapped cars with Nelson again, and apologized for all the craziness -- but what could I do about it?

The birth I went to turned out to be long, slow, tedious.  I arrived around 8 PM; the midwife, the student midwife and I took turns sitting with the client most of the night and trying to catch catnaps when it was our turn to rest.  I got very little rest, because I was trying to curl up and sleep on a small love seat!!

By mid-morning on Sunday, I knew there was no way I was going to be home before Nelson flew back to Georgia -- his flight was leaving at 1:30, and my client was nowhere close to birthing.  I had to call and regretfully tell him that I wouldn't get to see him, and I hoped he would have a safe flight back to Georgia.  He wasn't too pleased, but what could I do??  Plus Mackenzie was now home alone and getting sicker..... sigh......

My client's labor just kept stalling, and by late afternoon, the decision was made to transfer to the hospital.  The client, her husband, their extended family, the midwife and the student midwife all headed off to the hospital.  I stayed behind to clean the birth center -- a long job, mostly because I was exhausted at this point.

I couldn't sleep in Monday AM -- had to take Morgan to college, so I dropped her off and went to Costco to buy a few necessary items (mostly dog food!!) and do some pricing on possible wedding foods.  During this time, I got a call from the midwife that our client had finally birthed around 2:30 AM (Monday morning) and she'd had a TEN POUND, SEVEN OUNCE baby boy!!  Wow!!!  I also spoke with my client who'd birthed on Thursday about all the nursing troubles she was having.  I tried to offer her some ideas and suggestions -- I hope something will help.

I came back home, did some school work with a now very sick Mackenzie and tried to get some things done around the house.  Tired, tired, tired, moving too slowly.  I took a short nap in the evening, which was the wrong thing to do -- then I couldn't get to sleep at bedtime!!  I stayed up doing things around the house and finally told myself that this was ridiculous around 1:15 AM.  I NEEDED to be in bed.

So of course, what happened?  At 2:30 AM, one of the midwives called me.  She had another client in labor and the birth assistant was sick -- could I come help?  Uh...... yeah, sure, I guess.......... I'm DYING, but I guess that doesn't matter........!!  I drove all the way to Falls Church, VA (nearly 50 minutes non-rush hour) and by the time I arrived, the "labor" had slowed WAY down.  Thankfully, we only stayed a few hours before deciding this wasn't the real thing, and headed back home.  I arrived at 7 AM, and was able to sneak in quietly enough that I didn't disturb the dogs too much.  I just plopped on the sofa and went to sleep for two hours until the dogs and Mackenzie got up.  Later I slept about another hour, and right now, I'm so tired, I can barely see to type!!  I think I'm going to set Mackenzie up with some independent schoolwork and go take another nap......

And I'm back on call again at 10 PM -- pray for me!!!  Oh, to be 25 again.......!!!

Babies, babies, and more babies!!

My partner Lori left for vacation this week. I was more than a bit concerned, because we had FIVE clients due in a 9-day span -- due dates were the 11th, 12th, 15th, 19th and 20th, I believe. However, all but one were first time moms, and they usually tend to go overdue, so Lori thought that it wouldn't be TOO bad while she was gone..... HAH!!

She left Friday afternoon. By Saturday mid-morning, I'd received calls that TWO of our clients might be in labor -- uh-oh, not a good thing. By nighttime, they were both contracting about every 3-4 minutes, and it looked like I needed to make a decision. I could be at one birth or the other, but not both. I called my friend and former partner, Audrey, to see if she'd like to attend one of the births. No good -- the hospital she's working out was SWAMPED with people in labor, and they'd asked her to come in and help on her day off!! (Babies popping out there too!!) I called another birth assistant, but she didn't return my calls. Finally, one of the midwives started helping me make calls, and we managed to find someone who could go to the other birth at the birth center.

Around 11:45, the midwife called me back, and said that she hoped she hadn't made a bad call, as the 2nd client had phoned and said it seemed like her labor was slowing down. At that point, I really didn't care. I figured I'd go to sleep and they'd call me when they needed me. So I was absolutely shocked to be awakened by a call at 12:25: "Hey, Pam, this is J....... the baby is OUT and we can't reach the midwife.... what do we do?" Holy cow -- is this a JOKE?? Not funny!!!

But it was true! The client had tried to lay down for a while, but couldn't get comfortable; got up and walked around a bit, then decided she needed to use the bathroom -- and 10 minutes later gave birth to a cute little baby girl!!! Unbelievable birth for a first-time mom!!

The midwife and I arrived within the 1/2 hour, checked on everyone, cleaned things up, made sure all was well, and helped with breastfeeding before leaving around 4:30 AM.

While there, the midwife told me that my first client had gone to the birth center, been checked and was only 2 cms., so they sent her back home. I called the client's husband on my way home to check in and told him I'd be available for them now. So I was surprised (and not very pleased) to hear later that the clients returned to the center around 6:30 AM, and the midwife had the back-up attend instead of calling me in. I hope the client was OK with working with a birth assistant she'd never met before......

It turned out to be an extremely long, drawn-out birth, and it was probably a good thing I didn't go. The baby was not born until 5 AM Monday, meaning she'd been in labor over 30 hours. The baby's head was positioned very crookedly (called "asynclitic") and it took a lot of position changes and a lot of labor to get her head to move. However, ultimately, it did, and the client gave birth at the center to an 8 lb., 9 oz. baby girl!! Good for her!! I hear she's quite proud of herself, as she should be -- what a good job!

So on Tuesday at 3 AM, my phone rang again -- this time from the clients having baby #2. They wanted to give me a heads-up that she might be in labor. Good -- I'm going right back to sleep until you call again, thank you!! Around 5 AM,, they called again, said labor had continued, and the midwife wanted to get there before the AM rush hour traffic. So a quick shower, change my clothes, grab my bags, and I'm on my way!! I arrived around 6:30 AM, and we had a cute little baby boy at 10:30 AM! Nice, easy, straight-forward birth with clients who were very self-sufficient!! What a nice way to begin a day!!

So the total is 3 babies in 58 hours -- not bad!! Now, if at least one or both of the remaining October clients will wait until Lori returns.....

~~~

"I'm leavin'....... on a jet plane!"

I'm heading out tomorrow AM for Atlanta, Georgia for the annual DONA conference (Doulas of North America) ! I am really looking forward to hearing all the great speakers, and what will be even more fun -- getting to meet all these wonderful women from around the world. I went to the conference three years ago in Denver, Colorado and had a BLAST!!

This year, I'm bringing my hubby and my youngest daughter along. They're going to be seeing the sights of Atlanta. They've already made plans for the Olympic Centennial Park, the World of Coca-Cola, and the Georgia Aquarium. Supposedly, the aquarium has a whale shark (which are ENORMOUS!!) and several beluga whales -- Mackenzie will be in HEAVEN!! It should be a lot of fun for them!

And next year -- I hear the conference is in Albuquerque, New Mexico -- I hope I can pull that one off, too. I've only been to New Mexico once in my life, and I was only around 13 years old at the time! Of course, other things may interfere with that plan (like a rumored family wedding next year..... hint, hint.....!), but we'll cross that bridge later!!

'Bye for now!

~~

Taxes are so taxing.......

My yearly rant about how complicated income taxes are is just a bit louder this year. I will freely admit that part of the problem is usually my lousy bookkeeping during the year. This requires several hours of time digging out and categorizing all the receipts, calculating all the mileage for my business, and all those kinds of things before I can actually start the tax preparation.

This year, however, tax preparation has hit a new low. And at least part of it is the fault of TurboTax. I've done our taxes using TurboTax for probably at least 8 or 9 years, so I'm not new to this program at all. As soon as I started using this year's version, I realized it wasn't as user-friendly as it had been in years past. It was harder to navigate through the options, harder to go back and review some area you'd already worked on, and just seemed generally more difficult to understand.

But I kept on plowing through and thought I was nearly done by Monday. Some of TurboTax's figures didn't look quite right to me, especially the credits for college expenses, which seemed rather low. However, TurboTax knows better than me, right??? Or so I thought.....

On Tuesday night, I remembered one more small donation we'd made -- only $100 -- so I plugged that figure in and went to bed. Wednesday morning (yes, the 15th -- I was really pushing that deadline!!), I hit the "print" button, and up popped a message saying my return showed five errors...... sigh....... One was just a needed notation for the $100 addition; two others were minor things; and then up came the education tax credit with two errors. I couldn't figure out what on earth was going on, so I decided to get back into the program in-depth and try to figure out what the problem was. As I was reviewing the "interview" (TurboTax asks bunches of questions to help determine your status on each deduction), I found that TurboTax, for some strange, unknown and totally random reason, had marked both of my older daughters as having received convictions for drug use, possession or trafficking!! WHAT???? Where on earth did it come up with that crazy idea??

Now I was getting angry and frustrated. It was already noon on tax day, and I was still fighting with this stupid program -- I just wanted it to be OVER. I unclicked the "drug convictions" boxes and re-ran the error check. And all of a sudden, my tax refund went from $400 to over $2,300! Again, WHAT???? How did that happen? How do I know if it's right or wrong? I ccouldn't file THAT -- I wouldn't even be able to sleep knowing that I filed that kind of paperwork, possibly in error.

So what happened after those hours and hours and hours of work and frustration??? We ended up filing extensions of time! How ridiculous is that?

I know my taxes are a bit more complicated than many people's, because of having two kids in college, plus a small home business. However, there's no reason on earth that it should take HOURS of my limited time, incredible aggravation and 30 pages of returns and "supporting documentation" to file income taxes, especially for a tax refund. I heard on the radio yesterday that it took the "average tax payer" 26 hours to prepare their taxes this year. Something is really wrong with a system like this, when the average person, trying to be honest and do the right thing, can't relax and file their taxes without feeling like it's possible they've made a huge mistake somewhere along the line and that the government will "get them" in the future.

I think I need to join those people who were at those "Tea Party" protests on Wednesday!! Yes, I'm fed up with how much we're being taxed, but I'm even MORE fed up with a system so complicated, inept and convoluted.

Just my rant for the day.......

(And with my hubby's permission, I am NOT even going to think about taxes again for at least one week! Maybe by then, I will have calmed down a bit and can work on the taxes again a bit more rationally.)

Until then, I wish you many happy "returns"!!! (oh, yes, I'm feeling very "punny"!!)