Labor and Delivery Nursing

I have been working as an RN on Landstuhl's Labor and Delivery ward for almost 4 months now. I love it! I remember seeing my first delivery in nursing school and how it brought tears to my eyes. Even after being a part of countless births, that kind of amazement still hasn't left me. There is something about witnessing life coming into the world, that leaves you in a state of complete awe and wondering how anyone could not believe in God.

I love watching the interaction of the parents during the labor. You can really tell how strong a couple is, during this crucial time. Most of the time, the husband is coaching his wife, encouraging her and offering his support. The wife will want to be holding his hand every step of the way and will often look at him in her moments of weakness, to gain strength. Then, when the baby is delivered, my absolute favorite moment is looking at the parents' expressions when they see their child for the first time. I always have tears in my eyes when dads start crying. It's always hard when the dad is deployed downrange. We have a webcam and after the delivery, we can connect to the dad's unit in Iraq or Afghanistan so they can see their child for the first time on the camera. Sometimes, it's a number of months before the dad can make it back on R and R (time off) to see their wife and child.

Of course, there are deliveries that are not as smooth or as joyous. I've been a part of a few deliveries where there were genetic anomolies with the infants, one delivery of a stillborn and one neonatal resuscitation (chest compressions and all). Kurt says there are nights I still talk in my sleep, running through the events of that resuscitation all over again.

A labor and delivery nurse has to be alert to every subtle change in the fetal heart rate and the mother's condition or we could miss something huge such as an abruption or fetal distress. Throughout labor and during the delivery, things can go wrong very quickly and we have to be ready to intervene. I also perform cervical and speculum exams, triage calls on the phone, circulate for c-sections in the OR, offer constant support, encouragement and coaching during the labor process and do teaching after the delivery and help transition the newborns in the first few minutes of life... some days you really have to "have your skates on" because it can get really busy. We have had to go on divert numerous times because we run out of beds and can't take any more patients. We then have to send them to other hospitals on the German economy.

I am blessed to work with such a great medical team. The nurses, doctors, techs and midwives on our floor are so impressive in their critical thinking and how they handle situations and patient care. They really are an amazing team to be a part of.

I am on night shifts now... so even though I have tonight off, I'm back tomorrow night, so I just keep to the nightshift schedule. It's 0330 and Kurt is sound asleep in the next room. He's so adorable when he's asleep. Sometimes I love just laying there awake beside him just to watch him sleep (this whole marriage thing will make you sappy like that). We just went 2 and a half days without seeing each other because we were working opposite shifts. We don't exactly have Walmarts, coffee shops or grocery stores that are open 24 hours in Germany either. It'll be at least another month before I'll be back on dayshift.

All in all , I love what I do. I didn't ever picture myself being a labor and delivery nurse but now that I'm here, I don't ever want to leave it.

Paris

We took the ICE train and went to Paris for the weekend. It was great! Beforehand, we made a list of all the things we wanted to do while we were there and we were able to do each one: Climb the Eiffel Tower, have a picnic in Champ de Mars Park, get Kurt a Hard Rock Cafe Paris shirt, eat duck, walk along the Seine River, visit Notre Dame Cathedral, eat crepes for breakfast and lunch, shop along Rue des Champ-Elyees, eat pastries and creme brulee, visit the Louvre, and go to Ile Sainte- Louis. Ahhhh, what a weekend! It rained both Friday and Sunday... but that didn't stop us!The Louvre Museum. You enter through a glass pyramid and go underground to get to the museum. Very impressive museum... for the first two hours. It was enormous and we didn't end up seeing the whole thing. However, we did see the Mona Lisa!Notre Dame Cathedral:

This is the restaurant we ate duck at:

There are creperies all through Paris... here I am with my nutella, banana and almond crepe:

Sampling the pastries:

We spoiled our taste buds on this trip. On our last day, as we were enjoying creme brulee and espresso, Kurt made the comment "Well, we'll be taking a few extra pounds home with us... that's kind of like a souvenir, isn't it?" :)

We walked from our hotel at Gare de l'Est to the Eiffel Tower which was basically on the other side of the city. It was a pretty walk because we walked along the Seine River but by the time we got there and then climbed to the top of the tower, we were both extremely wore out!

Here we are at the top of the Eiffel Tower:

Here is what we did right afterwards:

We got a variety of cheese, meats and crackers and had a picnic under the Eiffel Tower. Here is Kurt opening our bottle of French wine:

We stayed to watch the sunset. The Eiffel Tower at dusk

The tower was beautiful at night when they had it all lit up: That brings us to the end of our romantic, weekend retreat to Paris... "au revoir!"

Sky Diving!!!!

I took Kurt sky diving for his birthday present this year (how am I ever going to top that one?!) It was amazing!!!! We jumped tandem from 14,000 feet, so we had our instructor harnessed to our back. Kurt and I went up seperately since we each wanted video and as you'll see, the plane was too small to get two videographers on board with both of us and our tandom guides. When you first stand on the edge of the open door and look down you can feel your heart wanting to beat out of your chest! Then you step one foot out on the platform and then roll out... it was amazing!! At first, you feel like you're tumbling... then, you level out and you just feel a lot of pressure from the air on your body and face with land very, very far away. I got to fall through the clouds at one point which was also pretty sweet - a cool mist and you can't see anything but you know you are moving very fast! Then, when the instructor pulls the parachute, everything is still and all you hear is the parachute blowing in the wind and you can see for miles... it was awesome!!!

Our instructor Christian, loading his and Kurt's parachute... we didn't want to distract him for obvious reasons!

Kurt getting geared up...

Kurt walking out to board the plane...

Kurt, after his parachute opened...

Kurt, Christian and our videographer, Albert after their jump!

Connie's turn! Here I'm getting into my harness... Here I am boarded onto our little one propeller plane...

Gliding after my parachute opened...

Christian and I after our jump!We did it!!!!! We had video taken during the sky dive and it should arrive in the mail, sometime late next week... so I'll try and figure out how to put it on the blog so you can see us make the big jump! Wa-hoo!!! What a ride!!!