Between Births

Its been a while since I"ve written on our blog..

The past week, I had a 12 day period where I attended 47 hours of labor/birth with women. A total of 3 births in the almost 2 weeks period. The length of births is never predictable...my 3rd birth was a first time mom who delivered in just about 3 hours from the time we got to the hospital. An "average" time for first time births is 12 hours, so the speed of this one surprised everyone! When I got the call Friday evening and left for the hospital, Patrick said, "I'll see you sometime Sunday!". To his surprise, I was home by 9:30PM that night and we were able to watch a video before going to bed!

Also, the date of delivery is never predictable. Babies can arrive 2 weeks early, or 2 weeks "later" than their expected due date! Right now I don't have any doula clients for 1 month, so I won't be bringing my cell phone with me nearly as much. It will be good to have some time off from being on-call before the next spurt of births in the second week of May. Katie and I have 4 clients total in the second week of May (2 each)! Wowsers! What was happening 9 months ago??? Streak of REALLY bad weather in Kodiak? Position of the moon? :)

Between births, I"ve learned to take good care of myself and get lots of kid time on my down time. It means making sure I have either a walk, spinning class or 30 minutes of yoga built into the day. It also means short cat naps as needed, which the kids understand and Patrick helps enforce the quiet time. Being in several caregiver roles, (between physical therapy and doula work and mommy-hood) its so important to take care of myself, otherwise I will burn out. I find that my work energizes me, and when I come through the door at the end of the day, I am very excited to see the kids and to relax, hang out, read with them, do puzzles, etc.

This past week, I realized that my physical therapy case load is so busy that I have to refer people to other clinics...I don't have any openings for new clients for 1 month! Since I am doing physical therapy for only 15 hours a week, I have to limit new clients so I have plenty of appt spots for current clients. It is hard for me to turn people away-I have a "I want to help everyone" attitude. I have to limit appts to keep time for myself and family. Plus, with the doula work, there are hours snuck into my week with prenatal appts, post-partum visits and the labors themselves.

Almost a year and half since I opened my business, I really couldn't be happier. I really enjoy working for myself and feel like I"m filling a needed niche in the community. A small health clinic with focus on individual care.

Also-I FINALLY thought of a motto!

A Balanced Approach- Grounded in Health

I have been trying to think of a motto for some time now and it finally came to me the other day. It seems perfect since I have a tree logo...grounded with the roots. And it encompasses all the different aspects of my business.

A new website is in the works (thanks to the fabulous work of Amy Johnson!)...probably just a few more weeks before its done. It'll have pictures and better narrative of all the services offered.

Zoya