This is a story that I think anyone who has cared for a young child will appreciate. Just after 2:00 this morning (after going to bed at 1:00- I have a huge test tomorrow) I had a dream that I got punched in the back of the head by a raccoon. Then I had the strangest feeling that the covers were taken from off my body and I woke up 2 steps away from the bed with a strong sense of needing to check on Suvi. I was a bit confused so I said, "What am I doing?" and April told me, "Go check on Suvi she made a noise." I kind of thought that since she was no longer making a noise I shouldn't go in there in case I woke her up and she didn't want to go back to sleep, but I was really sleepy so I went on in and checked on her. She was fine. But I woke her up. I think April took over at that point, all I remember is blackness and then getting up at 3:30 and 4:30 to go see if Suvi was ok, but the 4:30 experience had a surprise- April was already in there holding her! She beat me to it! Someday Suvi will have no more teeth to get. She will not be cutting 4 or 8 teeth at a time for weeks on end and we will get to sleep all night long. Although with my luck that will happen first year of residency and it won't matter. Oh well. Gotta go prep for tomorrow's tests (that's right, testS, ugh). Wish me luck! And look for a post in the near future about what happened this afternoon when Suvi helped me put the dishes away!

Wow, so I was going to write this post the day I finished my last final of my first semester of medical school. Now it's the last day of vacation before second semester. Time does fly. So here's the big news: I passed all my classes! All of them! Even before any curve! Even Neuroanatomy (which I needed a B on the final to pass) I did it! I made it through my first semester! I am so excited!  Now my goal is to improve my grades. I think I can do it- I learned how to learn last semester, now I hope I can apply that this semester.

The first semester of medical school is kind of like the first time you get hit by a car, only stretched out over 20 weeks. It's not a lot of fun. Someday it will be worth it, though. Thanks to the training I'm getting now, someday I'll save lives for a living. That will be worth any amount of work I have to put in.

Now for what's happened since the test. The day after the test I went with Max, Dan, and Caleb (and Max's friend Cam) to Snowshoe, WV to go snowboarding for 3 days. It was awesome! I got over my fear of the terrain park that's plagued me since I broke my ankle 6 years ago. I did the boxes, the rails- including the rainbow rail, the ramps, the table top, and even the big air ramp! I'm cured! It was a lot of fun, but I was excited to get home to April and Suvi.

Since the WV trip I've stayed up late every night and slept in. And on the days I can't sleep in because Suvi gets up- I take a nap. I read 4 novels, watched movies and TV shows, gone walking and running and skating with April and Suvi, played video games- it has been amazing. And to top if off Celeste got to come for Christmas! It was so nice to have family here for my favorite holiday, we even got to skype with April's family and saw Isaac and Sarah who are still on their missions! Then Jennifer Shafer came to visit. She just went home this morning. I have really needed this vacation. I just hope my brain reset itself enough to get into a higher gear for learning this semester. I'm actually getting kind of excited for school to start up again. Don't tell me that I said that when the first round of tests gets here though. I'll deny it.

Ok, this post has had no flow or order or theme or organization to it, but I guess that's how it's going to be. Maybe I'll be able to keep up better once the new year starts, or maybe I'll just find a way to get April to do it. Either way I hope we have more consistent updates from now on. Merry Christmas and happy New Year to everyone!

Almost There!

Yesterday was the last day of my first semester of medical school! Wahoo! It turns out that medical school is really hard. Definitely one of the hardest things I've done. My brain feels like it's been training for an Iron Man triathlon and been helping a professional boxer by being a punching bag at the same time. It's been pretty cool though- I'm definitely smarter now than I was in July. It's a strange feeling. I have learned a LOT this semester. Looking back I realized that we covered as much of glycolysis in one hour that we covered last year in biochem at BYU in like 10 lectures. It's pretty intense, and from what I understand it only gets harder from here on out. BUT! Someday I will be a doctor and I will save lives for a living. That will make it all worth it. Ok, I promise a nice long reflective post after finals, but right now I need to cram for finals. So I bid you adieu!

I have good news! I didn't die yesterday! It was pretty close, but it didn't happen. Why you ask? Let me tell you. Yesterday was our most recent block exam. We were tested on all of cellular metabolism (glycolysis, gluconeogenesis, glycogen synthesis and degredation, TCA, ETC, oxidative phosphorylation (which is turns out is different from ETC), and an extra lecture thrown in just on pyruvate dehydrogenase for good measure), nutrition, the abdominal cavity, pelvic floor, male and female reproductive systems, then we had half of our neuroanatomy class tested yesterday at the same time (surface anatomy of the brain, spinothalamic tract, corticospinal tract, medial lemniscus/ dorsal columns, olfaction, gustation, vestibular, auditory, and the "basics" of how neurons work that ended up being 3 times more information in one lecture than I got in 4 years of studying related things in undergrad). It was rough.Grades will be posted in a few days and I just hope I passed. It turns out that medical school is really hard. Like really hard. 

On the up side, last week we had our first OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Exam) in EPC (Essentials of Patient Care). That's the "real doctor stuff" class. We had actors come in who had been trained to exhibit symptoms like a real patient and we got to take a history, do a focused physical exam, make a diagnosis, and prescribe a treatment. It was awesome. Another thing I really like is OPP (Osteopathic Principles and Practice), which is the class that is the difference between MD programs and DO programs. That class is getting really cool now that we've learned enough to actually do things. April gets really bad headaches and I've fixed them a couple of times now. It's awesome. I love OMM! OMM is Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine, we learn OMM in OPP class. Just to clarify the terminology. There are a lot of acronyms in med school. Sometimes they seem just as hard to keep track of as the exam material. 

I haven't seen Suvi much this past week since I've been on campus studying until 11 or 12 or 1 every night. Because of this, I understand better how much everyone wants to see pictures of her more often. So here are some pics of Suvi!!!

Suvi dressing herself.

April sent this to me Sunday night while I was studying with the caption "We love you!" It helped me study hard because I remembered why I'm here.

Suvi has hair! In order to show this off April gave her a mohawk for church a couple of weeks ago.

Look she has a bow on her head!

She found the bow.

Look at that face!

One small section of one lecture from the last test. Ugh!

Suvi playing with a leaf.

Early morning before MedWAR- a Medical Wilderness Adventure Race that I coordinated all of the volunteers for. It was pretty awesome.

The view from the parking lot at DCOM. I love my school! (now that the last test is over)

I love her crooked grin!

Suvi is a lion, April is a witch, and I am wearing my whole wardrobe. (Narnia!)

Suvi's amazing Halloween costume that April made from scratch.

This is from when my mom came to visit.

Ok, so there are a few pictures of Suvi and I will try to post again soon, but I don't have much in the way of time for anything so I'm mostly going to pressure April to post something soon. Have a great day!

Hey everybody! It's been a crazy few months but I have some exciting news, however first you need some back-story. I've been in med school for about 3 months now and it's true what they say: it's really hard. I've learned a lot of stuff and I'm not sure exactly how to explain it but I think I can feel myself getting smarter. Like when you work out at the gym a lot and you can feel yourself getting stronger, except I've been working out my brain so I'm getting smarter. It' weird and frustrating and cool all at the same time- just like med school! The thing is this takes a lot of time and I haven't been around as much as I was before school started, so I've been worried that I'm missing out on all the cool Suvi related stuff that's going on. But! This morning I learned that I have nothing to fear. I was cleaning up the kitchen while Suvi played and April napped (she spent quite a bit of last night up with Suvi because she's an amazing mom and needed some sleep this morning) and I noticed that Suvi was being quiet in the next room. Not usually a great sign. So I go to investigate and what do I find? Suvi has found my skateboards and is standing on one of them. Like this:

You may notice that I dressed her in her most punk rock outfit too. She's still just like me even though I'm not around as much as I want to be. I guess it's just part of that special daddy-daughter bond. Life is awesome.

Suvi's Birthday!

So my baby is a year old today!

I honestly am having a hard time wrapping my head around it. So instead of doing some mind bending I think I am just going to flash back to one year ago today and reminisce on Suvi's birth story. After all it is her "birth" day anniversary! So one year ago yesterday. was Labor day! And surprise I went into labor on Labor day! So we spent the day with my family and had a BBQ and ate yummy food. I had a few contractions but they were spaced far apart so i didn't think anything of them. We went home and the Jepsons came over and we played Monkey scrabble, and I had a few more contractions. We went to bed that night at about 11ish. And Ben fell asleep quickly and   I laid in bed and was uncomfortable, so I got up and went out to the living room and put on the "Big Bang Theory" and laid on the couch, and it turned out that I really was in labor and the contractions got more and more intense and closer together. But I was still dozing in between until about 4 am when they were really picking up. I was timing them and when they were between 3-5 minutes apart I finally went in and woke up Ben.  He was so confused when i went into the bedroom and told him that we needed to go to the hospital. I had let him sleep through all of the laboring at home, which he later told me was something that he wanted to help me get through. But I think it was better for both of us that he slept and i didn't get frustrated with him trying to be helpful. Maybe with the next one we can try it together. Anyways we headed to the hospital, which was a 20 minute drive. We went up to the maternity floor and it was nice and quite, it was just after 5 when we got there. So they took me in and checked to see how far that I was dilated. I was just praying that I was far enough along that they would keep me. I really did not want to get sent home. And I was dilated to a 5 so I got to stay. They took me in and got my IV started and all the monitors set up and by that time it was almost 6. They asked me how I felt and if I wanted an epidural. And I always said that I would go as long as I could without it and then I would get an epidural, but when they asked I was at that point where I would be much happier with it. So I said yes and the NA came on at 6 so i was his very first patient of the morning. When it started working I was a happy "in labor" camper! I called work and told them I wasn't going to be in that day I was a little busy having a baby. Ben was great all through everything. Except he keep eating yummy smelling things near me. But after I got the epidural I actually took a nap for a little while.  The Dr came in and checked me about 8ish and broke my water, at that point I was at about a 7. I was progressing along but Suvi's heart beat started to slow down with every contraction, so they put the little heart monitor on her head. At about noon the nurse checked me and I was at a 9. But it was only about 15 minutes later I got super uncomfortable, and I felt like I needed to push, so I had Ben get the nurse and she checked me again, and I was fully dilated and so she called the Dr, and we did some practice pushes. The Dr. got there quickly and from that point everything was pretty much a whirlwind. Her heart beat was still dropping so the Dr. wanted to get her out quickly, so I got an episiotomy and then I pushed a couple time and Ben said he could see brown hair, and I was so confused, our baby couldn't have brown hair! But I think i might have forgot that it was coming out of me, I was kinda under a little bit of stress. So I pushed for 5 minutes and at 12:48 pm our little Suvi was born. Ben cut the cord. And the Dr. asked us if we had any guesses on the weight, we were clueless, but he guessed 7 lbs 9 oz. and that is exactly what she was! We had a good doctor! She was a little blue, but they gave her some oxygen and she pinked right up. She was perfect and has been ever since! Happy Birthday Suvi!

Suvi took her first steps today! It was awesome! My sister Celeste is in town visiting for just a couple of days, I was home from my crazy class/ study schedule, and we were all in the room! It was awesome! Suvi has officially started walking- and it happened during the Olympics! I think this is a portent of things to come.

So while I'm here I think I'll bring people up to speed on what's up with the med school journey. I've been drowning in info since my second day. It's not hard stuff it's just the sheer volume of it. It turns out that med school is hard! But! We found some really nice people to be friends with and a bunch of really nice people we could be friends with. I've got a great study group. I even have a consistent daily schedule that involves keeping up with classes and spending time with my family. Things are going pretty good. Well, I need to get back to studying- it's only 11:30 PM so I'm not done yet. I will try to post on here from time to time though.