Residency News...

Ok so today Emilee and I found where we will be living next year...get ready...wait for it...are you sitting down?...Birmingham, Alabama (cue banjo music). Any time Emilee and I mention the residency to friends and family they always have a lot of questions about it. I'll try to answer some of the common ones we get:

1. Where is it? Birmingham, Alabama, but more specifically it's at the University of Alabama-Birmingham. UAB has an optometry school and the residency is affiliated through that school. I will be spending most of my time there as well as other practices throughout Birmingham.

2. What type of residency is it? It is an accredited "Cornea and Contact Lens" residency. I will spend the majority of my time seeing contact lens patients and those with corneal disorders or infections.

3. How long is it? One year.

4. Is the residency required? Nope.

5. Then why in the world would you do it? To get specialized training in the area of contact lenses (more on this later)

6. Gross. How can you stand to go school for another year? I'm not really going to an additional year of school. As a resident, I will have already graduated from optometry school and earned my degree as doctor. This is my chance to specialize in a specific area which will open up more opportunities later in my career.

7. How much is it going to cost to you? Nothing, in fact I'll be a paid resident. However I'll be paid 1/2-1/3 of what I would have normally made if I started working with a practice after graduation. Completing the residency will pay for itself in the long run though.

8. Prescribing contact lenses sounds easy, why do you need to do a residency? The majority of contact lens patients are relatively easy fits. There is a small percentage of patients who require specialty hard contact lenses for certain corneal diseases. These patients have no choice but to wear hard contact lenses and require a doctor who is trained in fitting them in these specialty lenses.

9. Has the baby been born yet? No, but he keeps scissor kicking Emilee in the ribs.

Anyway, We're excited to move to Birmingham this summer with our little family. Where we'll end up after the residency is anyone's guess.

On Bedrest: May As Well Blog About it!

Ok, so as some of you may have read on facebook, I am now on bedrest. I am 36 weeks and already dialated to 4 centimeters, 90% effaced. Blah, blah....it all just means I could go into labor, like, tomorrow, but no big deal. Except that I am getting Cheated out of 4 weeks of preparation for like, the biggest day of my life!

I had this great plan. It was all worked out. I was going to my last day of work this Friday. I was going to have a all-day birthing class at the hospital on Saturday. I was even going to teach Sharing time on Sunday. Was going to enjoy a really nice baby shower on March 14th put on by my good friends Molly and Barbara, and was going to generally enjoy three weeks of freedom and preparation until the baby decided to come perfectly, and ideally, on his Sunday due date of March 28, 2010. And then Steve would have his Spring Break all that next week where we would optimize bonding time and enjoy a liesurely introduction of the baby into the world with both mom & dad home full-time. Steve's mom would arrive March 30th to help with the baby and maybe some meals--life would be good.

Reality is I don't think he's going to wait that long! And of course, my doctor is on vacation, and I don't really like the one who is on-call, meanwhile. Steve has two really busy weeks of school this and next week, including ranking his residency choices by this Friday's deadline....

My desk at work is still a disaster and waiting for me to tie up tons of loose ends and clear it off for the next employee who sits there....

And, well, I guess that's life. Hope I make it a little longer, but if not, we'll still be so excited to meet this new little baby boy that is so eager to join us here.