Yummy papayas!! I usually buy a bag of them at the market for 80 pesos!!
Auntie Cecil's clinic. Her dad, mom and niece. They are so short I feel like a giant!! But they are so sweet!!!
Checking up on Rockell and baby Razal!

Baby Updates

These are some of my friends from the Baptist Church. They took me out for lunch last Sunday!
Baby Simon, can you see how yellow he is?? :(
Rafel, Baby Simon's mom, wasn't cleaning his umbilical cord properly!! So we had to show her again!
This is where baby Simon lives!! One burnt out room!! They have no money! The mother-in-law gives the family of 6 food so they can eat!!!!
This is Ritchel and baby Axcel. The first baby I helped deliver!! Both are doing great!

So no more births yet:( But we have traveled to check up on the babies that I helped to deliver. Baby Simon is a little bit yellow. He might have a slight bit of jaundice. So we are keeping an eye on him. Baby Axcel is doing good. Gaining weight. He just has a bit of a rash. I think its just heat rash. He's gaining weight and him and mom are doing good. We got several new patients from that area because they saw that the baby is doing good! I've been doing a lot of prenatals!! And a lot of reading on some of the different medical things that I've come accross.

One of my friends got me a ticket to go to Sonic Flood, so I went to their concert with some of my friends from the Baptist church. It was good but Chris Tomlin was better! I think it was a bit crazy for my conservative Baptist friends!! lol Today I went to the Vineyard church here! It was really good!! I love the worship still at the Vineyard!! Felt just like home! But then I got a text from the Pastor at the Baptist church wondering if I was sick!! lol Nice to know that people care about me and miss me!! So I'm going to attend their young peoples service at the Baptist church this afternoon. I'm going to try and download some pictures if it works this time.

I miss you all!! Keep the emails coming cuz I love to read about how you are doing at home!! I've been a bit homesick for the first time this last week:(

Love and Prayers

Sherina

Baby Simon:)

Baby Simon's Mom, Rafel. I brushed her hair and put it up out of the way.
Baby Simon, minute old!! Starting to turn color!! He was so blue!!
Don't we look tired!! lol Ya, it was an exhausting birth!
Isn't he cute?! Ya, I think it's upside down! But took so long to load so I'll just leave it!
Cuddle time! My fav!!

Ok so I'm going to try to keep this short and sweet!! LOL Ya right!! Well, I'll try to cut out some of the gross details! lol So another miracle happened in the wee hours of this morning!! Baby Simon was born! It was the scariest delivery so far! (In the 3 that I've seen!! lol) The mom gave up pushing at one point and his head was stuck and he wasn't breathing! But we encouraged her! Quite aggressively, and helped to guide his shoulders out! My instinct is to cuddle the babies and quiet their cries but I know that its healthy for them to cry. Helps to clear any fluid they might have in their lungs! So after some crying, I get to cuddle them!! Baby Simon's mom, Rafel, was the second pregnant mom I met here! She is the one who's blood pressure has been a bit high. It was 150/100 for most of her labor. It would go down temperarily when she would drink water, but then go back up. And she was in labor for about 36 hours!! So I didn't sleep last night!! I'm pretty tired right now!! I think after I write this email I will go try and have a nap cuz we have one more pregnant mom that's due anytime! Miss you all!! Lots of love, Sherina

Second Birth!!

Baby Razal!
I held him lots!
And lots!
He was just too cute!!
Couldn't put him down! lol

Cutting the umbilical cord.
Checking the hips for any clicking sound during the neonatal exam.
Cleaning him up.

Putting eye ointment in. Giving him a Vitamin K injection:(

So Monday, August, 4th I assisted in my second birth!! I think it was just as exciting as the first one! It was mid morning and I was out back doing a mound of laundry when, Rockell arrived in labor. Her mom, brother-in-law and nephew all came with her. Her brother-in-law stayed outside but the young boy was inside the whole time! She lied down on the bed and tried to be so brave but every time a contraction came she would grab the edge of the bed and cry. She looked so young and alone and her mother was doing nothing to comfort her so I sat beside her and took her hand and she squeezed it every time there was a contraction. Auntie Imelda told her how to breathe threw them so she and I would breathe together. If she forgot I would start breathing to remind her. Her labor progressed very quickly and it wasn’t long til she was sitting on the birthing chair pushing! One concern we had is that her blood pressure was very low-88/60! She was so weak that she had a hard time pushing and at one point said she couldn’t do it! But we encouraged her and she did do it!! It was only me and Auntie Imelda to deliver the baby as DJ hadn’t yet come back from taking someone to the other clinic on a different island. So I was much more involved this time, although I still don’t feel like I know what I’m doing! If I was by myself I think I would still be quite scared! Lol The water hadn’t broken yet and this time instead of getting peed on, every time she pushed she had a bit of a bowel movement!:( The smell was so bad that I had to tell myself just to deal with it. Then the water broke and splashed all over the floor! And then the baby’s head appeared, and one more push and the baby was out! Another baby boy! I had to help clamp the umbilical cord and cut it. I took the baby and dried him off and got him cleaned up. I clamped his cord close to his belly button and cut it. Then got cotton with baby oil and wiped off all the blood and slime and a bit of poo!:( Gross! But babies are too precious to care what they are covered in!! lol He opened his eyes right away and was very alert. He kept wanting to look around and see everything and he looked at me quite a bit! It felt like such an honor to be the first thing the baby sees when he opens his eyes! I did the entire neonatal exam! I even put the ointment in his eyes and gave him an injection of Vitamin K in his thigh. Then after he had been fully examined and cleaned up we gave him to his mom to breastfeed. Then came the job of cleaning everything else up! That’s the not so fun part! When I checked on the mom and baby a little bit later, I saw that the mom was asleep and the baby was moving around and kept kicking off his blanket. So I picked him up and held him close and cuddled and sang to him for over an hour. Until the mom woke up and then I gave the baby back so she could feed him again. I think I held the baby almost the entire time he was here while the mom was resting. Seven hours after the birth, the mom and baby went home, escorted by some younger siblings and the grandma. They bundled the baby up and set out in the dark in the pouring rain to their house. I think I described their house in one of my first emails. This was the first place I went after arriving here. Rockel was the first pregnant mom that I got to meet. So cool that I got to be the one to help deliver her baby.
Today, a day after the birth, DJ and I went to go check up on mom and baby. They are a bit worried about the baby as there is a slight chance that the baby might have swallowed some pooL So they are advising her to take him to the clinic to get some antibiotics. Then today I found out that the mom is concerned because she doesn’t have any milk! I explained about colostrum, and how it is thicker, yellow and sticky and is what the breast milk is for the first 3 days. I told her that its very healthy for the baby and that colostrum is full of antibodies to help the baby fight off infections and diseases. I also told her that the more the baby sucks, the more milk will be produced. I was sad to hear that she had been giving the baby a bottle! I hope that she really took what I told her to heart and that she’ll keep breastfeeding!
I really need to learn Tagalog because I find it so challenging to not understand what is being said. And it doesn’t get translated to me very often. And if it does and I ask some questions because I’m trying to understand, then people get a bit frustrated and tell me that it’s not important! So I’m trying to pick which questions I think are really important and just ask those! Like today for example: we had a pregnant lady and her husband come to see us. It was the first time that we had met them and I was asked to do the medical history and first prenatal check up. But the lady, Sonia, doesn’t seem to understand English so I keep looking at DJ to translate for me! And some questions Sonia just didn’t seem to want to answer so then her husband would answer for her. I was getting a bit frustrated because Sonia was going on and on about some things and I was supposed to be taking down all the notes but nothing was being translated to me. So then I would ask only to be told that the answer was no. None of the details were translated!! So annoying! I decided to quietly hum a worship song and kept smiling sweetly at Sonia to get rid of my frustrations! In the end I think she really appreciated our help. But I still think that it would be so helpful to learn more Tagalog!! I’m not sure how to go about doing that! I try to ask lots of questions and I’m constantly asking how to say things in Tagalog and then I write them down and try to repeat them as often as I can. I’m going to see if any of the young people that I’ve met at the Baptist Church next door, want to teach me for fun! That seems to be my main challenge right now! That and I’ve started not being able to fall asleep and then waking up in the middle of the night after only sleeping a few hours! I was sleeping on the same schedule and didn’t seem to suffer any jet lag my first week here that I thought I wouldn’t have a problem sleeping. Maybe it’s just a weird week and it will pass! At least I’m feeling a lot better! Thank you so much to all of you who have been praying for me!! I can totally feel the support and encouragements from ‘home’!
So we are waiting for one more mom who’s due anytime! Then they aren’t expecting any births for about a month! The next mom is Rafel. Her and her family are the ones who live in the slum area that burned down! We went to visit her again today because she was supposed to have come last week for another check up but she never showed up! Probably because of all the rain and stormy weather! People don’t like to go out then. We convinced her to come to the clinic today. I was shocked again at the place where they live! I really can’t understand how anyone could live like that! But I know that they are doing the best that they can! I think some of her neighbors were surprised to see a foreign person visiting her and quite a crowd gathered outside the doorway of her place. One of the guys there was holding a cute, young girl and tried to tell me that I could have her! The poor thing was probably so confused because (I think it was her dad) was telling her that I was her mommy!! I just smiled at her and told the dad I couldn’t possible take her cuz he would miss her too much!! The sad thing is that I think a lot of people there would give their kids up just like that!
So Rafel did come tonight and her blood pressure is still too high!! She has supposed to have been on a strict protein diet and to have been drinking lots of water! I gave her a glass, finished the exam and then took it again and it was much better! But if it doesn’t stay down we are going to have to send her to the hospital to deliverL She’s praying it stays down cuz I don’t think she can afford it! And maybe also cuz she likes us?! Lol
Well, I think I’ve probably sufficiently bored most of you by now!! Lol If this is too much info but you’d still like to get an idea of my week, then just check out my blog. I’ll put up the pics of the new baby!!:) He’s so cute!! His name is Razal!!
Lots of Love,
Sherina

A less exciting week

This girl was so cute with her colorful umbrella and huge eyes!! She kept calling me auntie!
Once I started taking pictures, the kids just kepting wanting more and more! I think they're a little lacking in attention!
These 3 girls were 'my girls'!! Hope I can see them again!
They stood right outside the truck til I left! Even tho it was pouring rain!
Big kids and little kids wanted to get a picture with me!

Me and Karen at the Passion Conference.
My young fan club at the concert! They kept walking by me all night saying something that my friends translated for me, meant Barbie! Silly boys!! They were so excited to take a picture with me! For such a large city, I sure haven't seen very many western people!
The conference was really good!
Chris Tomlin did most of the worship.
Me and boyfriend!! Just kidding, mom!! A street vendor outside the concert. We were waiting in a long line for almost 5 hours before we got in so had to do something to pass the time! lol

So, this week has been really boring compared to my first week here! And on top of that I've been a bit sick:( Caught a really bad cold from one of the patients last week so I've been feeling really miserable! Doesn't seem right to have a cold in such a hot climate!! lol Since being sick I have found out some interesting beliefs the Filipino's have in regards to being sick. First they think I'm sick because I was out in the rain! And I'm not supposed to eat mango when I'm sick cuz it will make my throat itchy!! The Philippines has amazing mangos so I usually eat at least one everyday!! I tried to say that I didn't think that would happen to me! And if I exercise and I'm all hot and sweaty, I have to wait til I cool down before I can shower!! So gross!! All I wanna do is have a cold shower! But I'm trying to listen to what they tell me as much as possible! This week has also been slower because of the weather. It's been really stormy here!! Thunder, lightening, strong winds and lots and lots of rain!! When the weather's like this people don't like to go outside. So the Friday morning clinic got cancelled and we had fewer than normal patients visiting us at our place. One lady, Rafel, is due soon and has really high blood pressure. She has no money to deliver in the hospital but with her health the way it is, the midwives are hesitant to deliver her baby at our place. I'm a bit concerned about her. I just pray for her and if we haven't heard from her by Monday, then I will see if we can go track her down! So the most exciting part of my week was the weekend. Friday night I went to the Passion conference that was being held here in Manila. I'd never heard of it before but its been going on since 1997. Right now they are in the middle of a world tour, going to major cities all around the world. They will be in Vancouver at the end of Oct I think. Chris Tomlin was the main worship leader. And there was a really good speaker too. Lui Gigliano (not sure how to spell his name!!). There were 8,000 people there. Mostly all Filipinos!! We worshipped together, and prayed together and you could really feel God's presence there! It was powerful! I'm really glad that I had the opportunity to be there! Then on Saturday afternoon I got the opportunity to go to a nearby mountain village with some people from the Baptist church that I've been going to. They have a children's ministry there with about 150 kids. They teach them songs, Bible stories and feed them. It was really neat to go and see all the kids! And they really seemed to like seeing me too!! I think I have some new friends. I hope I can go back and see them again!!:)Well, that's about all for this week. I'll try to put some pics up on my blog of the concert and the kids. Hopefully I'll be feeling better next week and I'll have some more exciting things to write about!Love and Prayers, Sherina