Intense Indonesia

I had the privelege of going back to Indonesia for 3 weeks during our Christmas vacation. It was a very intense time as I was the only student for all but the last 4 days and ended up doing 20 births in that time. I saw a lot of VBACs, waterbirths, got to suture more, and learned a lot in addition to what I learned last time. My Indonesian is improving and by the time we left I was piecing together sentences... so much easier than Thai! I got to do quite a few Primary births and am actually almost done with the clinical side to my apprenticeship (more on this in a separate post).

I got to meet Stacy. I first found out about this birth center from her over two years ago and we both were back for our second time, overlapping by a few days. It was like sisters chattering as fast as we could to make up for the little time we had. Plans are underway to see each other when we visit the USA in June/July.

We got to spend Christmas with "family" and Christmas lunch ended up with about 200 people! Our children enjoyed the time, especially Isaiah with all of the dirt, rice paddies, chickens, and dogs. Even though I was very busy, there were no births on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Years Eve, or New Years Day, so I could actually enjoy the holidays! I did get to catch the first two babies of the year :)

We didn't take as many pictures this time, but I'll post a few when I get a chance. It's also January and time for my yearly update on my midwifery progress and goals.