SUMMERRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can you tell I'm just the tiniest bit excited?  I'm finished with my last block exam of the year, and I did so much better on it than all of the other ones.  I think the key was no neuro, the best biochem teacher in the school writing most of the questions, and Physio having endocrine as a part of it.  We also had tons of practice problems that were actually representative of the test.....  isn't it weird how when that happens, that everyone does so much better?  I love my Medical School class, everyone seems to genuinely care about each other, maybe one day I'll learn all of their names.......  That would require more people to come to school each day though.  Apparently next year our schedule is only allowed to have 17 hours of lecture in it at the most, this makes us lose ICM week, but I think it'd be worth it, if we get each afternoon off, like we are supposed to have.

I went out to eat with a great group of friends tonight, it was a delicious hibachi place, so tasty and so much fun.  I get into this funny conversation with a friend, she remembers nursing at 18 mos old.....  I plan on continuing with Alice until she is 2, and then slowly weaning her off.  Which should be easy since that will be 3rd year, and she will probably forget my name during the surgery rotation (I already want to do that one first).   I'm continuitng my goal to educate my fellow medical students about breastfeeding. 

Here are the current misconceptions I have heard:

 When they can eat food they should stop:  I hope this will be remedied during some class, or rotation, but babies start food around 6 mos, we started Alice off on table food, I think steak was her second food, or maybe brocolli was...  not sure.  The AAP recommends babies be fed until at least 1 yr, the WHO recommends at least 2.  I think the world wide average is actually 3 or 4. 


They are too old when they can ask for it.....  Babies ask for it the second they are born, they make this uh, hu, uh, hu sound.  It sounds completely different from a cry, At a LLL I heard every baby under 2 mos make the same sounds to get fed.  Instant happiness.  At one year, Alice makes a sign for milk, and requests num, num.  She loves to eat, and everything is num-num to her, including the rocks outside, which she calls, YUM!  I certainly do not think a 1 year old is too old to be nursing.

The random things we have learned about in school tell us just how important having a healthy gut flora is to the digestion of food, we don't want all those..  firmicuites?  Right?  You can tell just how much I learned during C and K's crazy method of biochem instruction.  Basically those type of bacteria break food down so it is absorbed by the gut more readily, and actually contributes to obesity.  They have tried fecal transplants in rats, and it has been successful at establishing a healthy gut flora.  I wonder how many people would be willing to do this........

The other one is the way people think nursing here takes tons of time.... 
I'm going to bet they have never tried to put a screaming baby to bed at 3 am when they have a quiz at 8 am the next day.  I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get the rest I need to succeed and give Alice a better life.  This does not include letting her scream herself to sleep.  Though if I sleep in a different room, it takes her a while to wake Elliott up and she will put herself back to sleep about 50% of the time.

I'm so glad that it is summer time, and that I get to enjoy  my lovely, sweet and precious daughter.