Hello From Afghanistan

The plan was to have a blog didicated to my time in Afghanistan.  However, for some unknown reason it dosn't work.  So I'll resort to this blog to update people. 
I've been in Afghanistan since May.  It was quite a trip.  I left Alaska on the 12th, and went to Kazakstan with a stop in Germany.  Kazakstan was interesting.  It's part of the former Soviet Block.  Everything was written in Russian off the base, so it was a little diffrent.  Compared to Alaska, it was HOT. 
We arrived at 3:10 in the morning and had to find our bags.  It's not like a regular airliner where you have a crew to do it for you, you are the crew.  Then we had a series of briefings on the local rules.  I was only there for a toatal of 39 hours, but it was kind of fun.
Then I flew by C-130 to Kandahar Air Field (KAF), Afghanistan.  I found a whole new meaning of hot.  It is layed out in the most akward plan known to man.  I had to take a bus to get to the cafateria.  It was so spread out, and I had to walk miles to get anywhere.  The nice thing, was the USO.  It is a nice tent with a hardwood floor.  Strange, I know.  There I could make free 20 minute phonecalls.  I could also watch the Sharks play, which increased my overall motivation...until they lost. 
I was there for a week and a half until we moved to our FOB (Forward Oporating Base).  Our FOB was run by Canadians.  (They were so upset after Vancouver lost to Boston)  The Canadians had moved into the area six months before we took it from them.  So they didn't care much about improving the infostructure.  That being said, nothing was done.  I'm a Medical Services Officer, so my main concern was an adaquate aid station.  They had a tent with no A/C that was cluttered and laid out in the most stupid manner known to man.  As they were leaving, we added a second tent.  We couldn't get the exact tent we wanted, so we took two old tents, put a layer of insolation in between them and bam! an insulated tent.  We then found some A/C units and installed them.  We added two rooms for our Doctor and my Platoon Sergeant. 
As the Canadians left, we took over their tent and divided it so we could use the first tent for trauma, and the second tent for sick call and storage.  It worked out well.
So now we're in maintanance phase, which is nice.  We are ordering medicine for the future as opposed to ordering stuff we needed to use that day. 
My job, is to track all US soldiers that are hurt/sick.  Whether it's enemy inflicted or not.  We have nine diffrent locations, so it's a tall order.  I enjoy it, but working seven days a week is starting to wear on me. 

For pictures, check out Facebook.

An Update

We are in the lower 48 for a few weeks, while Derek is in Afghanistan (for about a year). Roy (my little bro) got married last weekend and we've been spending time with family. Derek is building things from nothing and staying fairly busy. We talk a few times a month and communicate via Facebook fairly regularly. It's certainly not my dream situation, but it could be worse...

Here are some pics from my side:

Recent Pictures

The Story

*Disclaimer: If you do not like to hear people's labor and delivery stories, don't read this post. If you don't like to hear stories of women who have easy labor and delivery, you probably shouldn't read it, either...

On Monday, January 3rd, I went to the hospital at 6:30 am for an amniocentisis. They are done routinely here, if the doctors plan to induce you before 39 weeks. By some miracle, the first IV they put in worked and all appeared to be going smoothly -- except that this baby was our most active in the womb. As they were prepared to draw the fluid, the baby kicked and almost hit the needle with his knee. The doctor moved the needle rather suddenly, and I about passed out. At the same time (probably due to my lack of oxygen) the baby's heart rate dropped from the 140s to the 60s. It stayed down for about a minute. (It felt like forever.) They rushed me to the OR and prepped for an emergency c-section. Thankfully, when they got the monitors back up, the baby was fine, so they proceeded with the amnio, instead. The second time they were ready to draw fluid, the baby tried to get the needle with his head. Luckily, third time's the charm and I went home with only 5 needles (2 numbing and 3 amnio) stuck in my belly...

Tuesday night, the doctor called to tell me that the results were in and we were clear to start the induction. Could I come in now? Because I know how this hospital works (10 rooms, dozens of pregnant women due to pop at any given moment, routine inductions obviously come as last priority), I said we'd be in as soon as we could make arrangements for our other kids.

We arrived at the hospital around 8:30pm. After another successful IV, my pit was started at 9:20. I was 2cm dilated and about 50% effaced. By midnight I was 5cm dilated and still 50% effaced. I promised the doctor I could give him half an hour's warning before the baby actually came. Forty-five minutes later I finally started feeling the contractions pretty strong and I felt like vomiting, so I asked for anti-nausea meds. They checked me, because they were all excited thinking I was in transition. I was 6cm dilated and 90% effaced. I was still walking and talking and feeling pretty good. I decided that I was going to have one baby without the pain and suffering, so I asked if I could still get an epidural. The doctor replied, "It's never too late for pain management." Derek was standing in the background making comments like, "The baby will come before the epidural does." None of us believed him. By now, it was nearly 1 am.

Over the next few minutes, the nurse started another bag of whatever fluids they give you and was adjusting things to be ready for the anesthesiologist. I went to the bathroom one last time, since I figured I wouldn't be able to walk for a while. Then I started pushing. At first I didn't even realize what I was doing, but Derek did. I knew something was up when he jumped up out of his chair to stand at the end of the bed. Meanwhile the nurse was too busy with other things to notice what I was doing. Derek told her the baby was coming. She kind of blew him off, then looked at me and asked if I felt like pushing. I sort of moaned a yes as I pushed and breathed (that made her happy). Derek suggested calling the doctor. She decided to check me first. When she hit the baby's head, she called the doctor. When he walked in, the baby was crowning, and Derek contemplated asking if it was too late for pain management now, but he resisted. I was thinking how ticked off I was that my pain was not managed. A couple of contractions later, at 1:20am, Daniel screamed his delight at the new world he was part of.

Epilogue: Once the baby was pronounced healthy and passed off, the doctor's first comment to me was, "That was not half an hour." What can I say? I was just glad the pain was now managed. And I was relieved that it hadn't required any large needles.

Daniel Roy Curtis Is Here

Born at 1:20 on the 5th of January, Daniel weighs 8 LBS 4 OZ and is 19 inches long, Jenn and baby are doing great and are expected to be home in the morning.

Our summer honeymoon

Derek and I went to DC for his little brother, Trevor's, wedding in August, then we spent a few days in New York. It was fun, but I admit, I thought way more about the kids I left in Alaska than I had hoped to:)

Our second baby is turning 8!

Janina has a birthday tomorrow. I can't believe she's already old enough to be baptized. Unless her baby brother messes up our plans, she'll be baptized New Year's Day. I think that's pretty cool:)

Probably because I'm about to have my last baby, I've found myself reflecting on my other kids' births and all that's changed since we began this journey. It's hard to believe I'm the mother of six kids -- in 9 1/2 years. We've lived in 9 houses in 2 countries -- 4 states. My kids have seen almost as much of the world as I have. I never imagined raising them like this, but I can't imagine not doing it now.

I'm scatter-brained and it's late, so I'll cease rambling now, but I am excited to see what the future holds for my little ones!