Clinic day one

Day one at the clinic was very nice. Everyone working here is so friendly and welcoming. They are really delightful. Most (well all) of the clinic visits were done in Dutch, so I admit to wishing that I had studied up on some vocabulary. The visits are short compared to the Canadian appointments I’m used to ~ 10-15 minutes, but strangely things don’t feel rushed. I got to do a number of belly checks and meet a few people who will be due over the time I’m here. They all said I am welcome to come to their births. Sweet! The morning started early at 8 am and normally there is a coffee break midmorning but my midwife admits she talks a bit too much, so we had tea in the office and kept going with the visits. We were done in the early afternoon. Then I got to meet another one of the midwives who was on call and we went together to a client’s home who was 36 weeks +3 days and having some regular contractions. She is too early in her pregnancy for the midwives to do the delivery so we had to check what was going on. It turns out she’s not in labour so we were able to head home. I also got my cell phone organized so I am officially on call. Overall, it’s going well except for the past 2 nights I’ve woken up at about 2 in the morning and then toss and turn until I have to get up at 6:45. That really stinks because I really want to sleep. It’s been cool here and rainy the past days but smells really nice with all the lilac bushes blooming and other flowers whose names I don’t know. One day I will take some photos of the gardens around here - there are some serious green thumbs at work. Today the sun is shining!
So now it's actually the end of clinic day number two (and it's only 1pm). There is a clinic meeting right now with all of the owners, so I'm out in the front making use of the internet. Not sure what the rest of the day holds but the sun is still shining so maybe a walk and trip to the grocery store to get some fruit.