Benjamin watches me like a hawk whenever I eat. It is sheer AMAZEMENT to him. I like to be sure to eat lots of snacks throughout the day so that he has adequate opportunities to observe eating. (Wait, I shouldn’t have to make excuses…a breastfeeding momma needs her calories, right?) If he is fussy and nothing else will soothe him, all I have to do is pop big mouthfuls of food and he will just stare with curiosity.
Today he took it a step further. While I took bites of my arugula salad, he kept holding his own mouth wide open. When it was clear I wasn’t going to share, he started trying to insert his entire fist into his mouth. At one point he even choked himself and had to cough it back out. If there is ever a sign that a baby is ready to start experimenting with solids, this must be it. We were planning to wait until closer to the six month mark to start him on rice cereal, but since he’s past four months and clearly eager to figure out this eating thing, we might try giving it a go sooner.
Lately, I keep catching myself with my mouth wide open too, metaphorically speaking. My next big milestone is not eating solids (haha!), but starting medical school. I’ve been getting more antsy about starting lately. Don’t get me wrong, I am savoring every minute of this year and sometimes wish it would stretch on forever. But I’m also ready. I’m itching to think about, talk about, & write about medicine.
So when my friend Ashley, a second year OB/Gyn resident, came to visit on Sunday, I just couldn’t get enough. Ash is on a Maternal-Fetal Medicine rotation in nearby Harrisburg, so she drove over to B-more for an all-day visit. While it was great to catch up in many ways, picking her brain and hearing about the types of cases she sees was possibly my favorite part.
Why else is medicine on my mind? Well, last night was the 1-year anniversary of finding out I got into the University of Michigan Med School! Oct 15th at midnight is when medical schools can legally tell the first batch of applicants that they’ve been accepted, and Michigan makes a VERY big deal out of it. Around 11:55pm, when I realized the exact anniversary of my acceptance was about to happen, I started to feel that same nervous knot in my stomach that I felt exactly one year ago. As the minutes ticked closer to midnight, I thought about all of my future classmates who were about to find out the life-changing news and I wondered what creative trick Michigan had up its sleeve this year to inform them of their acceptance. Then, at the stroke of midnight, I pressed play on the video that changed my life 365 days ago. I sat there watching it again, mouth wide open.
scrubs & sippy cups 