Rotations: the next step

Well, Joel found out where he is going to be for his rotations in his third (and fourth) year.
Drum Roll Please...

St. John Oakland (Detroit Metro)

This means that we are moving away from Des Moines. To be honest, we are more disappointed than we thought we would be. We have really grown to like Des Moines. Here are some of the reasons that we had hoped to be in Des Moines for at least his third year:

1. The friends we have made here through DMU and church.
2. We will miss our church here and the small group we are a part of.
   
3. We are house-sitting so we are saving a lot of money on housing. Plus we have a three story, three bedroom house, so we have a lot of space.
4. I love my job. I like what I do and I knew that after I had the baby my supervisor would have worked with me and would be flexible so that I could go back to work on my terms.
5. We don't think we will ever live in IA again, so why not stay another year.

On the other hand, we are excited about the opportunity. Although, Des Moines was Joel's first choice, he did get his second choice and his top choice in MI. Here are some of the reasons we are excited about the move:

1. We used to live outside of Detroit, so it won't be like starting over. We have friends there.
2. We loved our church that we went to, so we can go back to that church. Here are some thoughts of why I am excited about our church there: WE made some great friends and some pseudo family there; we are actually still members at Dearborn Christian Fellowship; I am excited to have our baby baptized there; I had a great experience helping with the youth group there and am excited to get involved again.
3. We will be a lot closer to family, which will be very nice seeing as we have a little one on the way.
4. Educationally this will be great. He is sort of thinking he wants to do neurology and this hospital system has a the top neurology residency in MI. So, if he continues to want to do this, I think working in this hospital system for rotations will give him a little advantage two years from now.
5. It is also nice, because Joel will not have to go far away from home to do some rotations. So, he will always be living with us. Whereas if he was in Des Moines, there are probably still months he would either have a long commute to rotation sites or even do some of the rotations out of state and move away from us.

So, there are both good and bad things about moving back to Detroit. I am a little stressed over the cons of the move, so I do ask for your prayers. Here are some requests:

1. I am planning on trying to find a job. Pray that if it is God's will find a job despite being quite pregnant at the time I am looking and going to be starting. (I plan on saying that I could be available by May, so that I can get three months under my belt at a job before leaving on maternity leave. I have a friend that said I can stay with her since we probably wouldn't move till after June 17--Joel's board date.) Pray that I find a job that is flexible and one that I enjoy.
   
2. Pray for housing. Pray that we find something affordable and that we like. We are toying with the idea of buying. Pray for guidance and wisdom in what we should do. Pray that we find a good location and a good neighborhood.
3. Pray for the logistics of having a baby due on July 23 with rotations starting early August, which means moving when I am 7-9 months pregnant. If I would leave my job early and move to MI earlier, I need to find health insurance. This should be easy to do--if I don't have a job I plan on applying for medicaid/WIC to help with the pregnancy. The other logistics that I am a little stressed over is medical care. I will be in IA for the majority of the pregnancy. I am going to get to know doctors here in IA that probably won't deliver my baby. So, pray that if we move before the baby comes, I find a good doctor right away and I feel comfortable with him/her delivering my baby.

Those are the items that kept me up a little last night, so I would truly appreciate all your prayers. Now, I trust that God will provide. I was very scared/anxious to move to Detroit the first time and to move to Des Moines. God provided for us in each of these moves. So, I know he will here as well. We think we maybe could have put in for an exception and stayed in Des Moines, due to continuing medical care but we didn't. (FYI they were a lot more generous with their exceptions this year.) We decided to leave it in God's hands and he is leading us back to MI. So, although I have some anxiety, I know it will all work out.

Well, we plan on making the most of our time left in Des Moines. I am sure we will be back since DMU is here. (He already told me there is a week of tests he will need to be back for at some point and there is always graduation.) So any good suggestions of what we need to do in the next 5-7 months here in Des Moines?

My New Project

So, I am so excited for the next knitting project I am working on! I think it was two years ago that my brother-in-law got me a knitting magazine for Christmas. I was just beginning to knit and had not done too many exciting projects. Since that time I joined a knitting club, which is a sub group of the spouse/significant other group I am a part of for DMU. I have learned a little more about reading patterns and purling. I have made several hats, a scarf and leg warmers in the last two years. None of those last items were ever for me. (Okay, my first project was a scarf for me, but it was my first knitting ever, so it isn't that magnificent.) I decided it was about time to make myself something nice. That brings me back to the magazine my brother-in-law got for me. On the front was an amazing red scarf that I knew I had to have (and make)! The picture on the right is from the cover of the magazine (Vogue Knitting).

I am so excited about it and it is probably one of the more complicated projects I have done. What you do is knit a 2 inch band in the round and then split it into 6 cords. I then have to knit each cord to measure 90 inches! That is taller than me! After I knit all the cords, I am going to braid the 6 cords. Then I combine all the stitches and knit another band in the round for 2 inches. It will take me awhile, but I am looking forward to seeing and wearing the end product. I got a lot of extra yarn so I could make matching mittens and hat with it. I think it will look great with my gray coat. To the left is a picture of what I have done so far. (Sorry for the quality, it is from my cell phone.)

I really enjoy Thursdays, because that is when I go to knitting club. Tracy asked me about this club on Facebook, so I thought I would explain a little about it. Knitting Club is actually a sub-group I am a part of with SAA. SAA is the group for spouses/sig. others of medical students at DMU. I really appreciate being a part of SAA. I have made some pretty amazing friends through the group and it makes me feel like I am more of a part of Joel's educational experience, since I am part of a school club. So, one of the sub-groups is a knitting group. We meet every Thursday night and knit and talk! We have covered so many topics during our knitting sessions. It is also the time I truly devote to what ever project I am working on since I don't always pick it up other times during the week out of lack of time or laziness. (For instance, I really should have been working on it yesterday when I watched LOST for 2 hours, but alas I had to fold laundry and after that was done I just lounged on the couch watching the season premiere, which by the way was awesome!) I am going to miss my knitting club when we move away from Des Moines, but I really don't think it would be too hard to get involved in another one or start one up. First, I know the yarn stores here have knitting groups (or crochet or both!) Second, all you really need to do is find some friends who like to knit (or crochet) and set a time with them to get together to work on your projects. Third, it could easily be something a church could set up for yarn lovers. My church in Dearborn actually would hold a craft night once a month and a bunch of women would come with their different projects--scrap booking, beading, quilting. I took my yarn and needles and knit away. It was way fun. It is such a great way to spend some quality time with friends and get some projects done at the same time.

(PS. You'd think I would want to make a baby blanket or something. I have commissioned Aunt Leah to do that for us while they are in Honduras. My next big project after my scarf maybe will be hand knit Christmas stockings--although it may be a few years, since the scarf is going to require a total of 544 inches knitting. Haha)

172 bpm only means our baby is healthy!

Julie takes no credit for this post

--Joel

Gender-related differences in fetal heart rate during first trimester.
McKenna DS, Ventolini G, Neiger R, Downing C.
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Wright State University, Dayton, OH 45409-2902, USA.
OBJECTIVE: Many expecting parents wish to ascertain fetal gender early in pregnancy. Our goal was to determine whether fetal heart rate (FHR) of males and females during the first trimester is significantly different. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From November 1997 to February 2003 we enrolled pregnant women with singleton gestations who underwent obstetric sonography at less than 14 weeks of gestational age. Indications for the sonographic study included first-trimester bleeding, uncertain gestational dating, poor obstetrical history, and aneuploidy screening by nuchal translucency. The sonographic studies were performed by a single sonographer and reviewed by the first author. The FHR was determined by m-mode. All subjects underwent second-trimester sonography at 18.0-24.0 weeks' gestation by the same team, and fetal gender was recorded. Multiple gestations, miscarriages and pregnancies with uncertain fetal gender were excluded. Sonographically assigned fetal gender was confirmed at delivery. RESULTS: Of the 966 first-trimester studies performed, 477 met the inclusion criteria. Of these, 244 (51%) were female and 233 (49%) were males. There were no statistical differences in mean maternal age, gravidity, parity, and mean gestational age at the time of the first study (9.0 +/- 2.3 weeks for female fetuses and 9.0 +/- 2.3 weeks for males, p = 0.7). The average female FHR was 151.7 +/- 22.7 bpm and male FHR was154.9 +/- 22.8 bpm (p = 0.13). DISCUSSION: Contrary to beliefs commonly held by many pregnant women and their families, there are no significant differences between male and female FHR during the first trimester. (c) 2006 S. Karger AG, Basel

Blueberry

Blueberry is the name we gave our baby. Here is the story:

We told Joel's older brother and sister-in-law over Thanksgiving, because they were not going to be in MI for Christmas and we didn't know when we would see them in person again in the next nine months. So, yes it was rather early, but we appreciated all their prayers! They also did an excellent job keeping Blueberry secret until we told the rest of family and our friends. Okay, back to the story about Blueberry's name. When we told them about the baby it was about the size of a blueberry. So, the whole weekend JP would say things like "protect your blueberry", "does blueberry like this?" etc. The name stuck, so it is now called Blueberry. :)

Here are two frequently asked questions answered:

First, how are you feeling?
Blueberry is treating me very well. I have been blessed with very good genes. My mom and my sister both had pretty easy pregnancies and so far I am like that. (I had heard that some of it is genetic, so thanks mom!) I really have had no morning sickness. I have been tired though. Joel likes to call it a very efficient parasite (in a loving way). He learned that from a professor, but I have to say my little parasite hasn't been hurting me too much.

Second, are you going to find out what you are having?
Joel's response: Hello! We are having a baby.
My response: We are not going to find out the gender. We want to be surprised.

Okay, to end Joel and I are very excited. And we appreciate all your congratulations and we ask for continued prayer for this pregnancy. It was so much fun telling our families over Christmas and they were all so surprised and excited for us. (Although, my mom is a little disappointed we don't live closer. I am too, but that is one reason we have this blog!)