Finally!

Today was the big exam day. For those of you that don't know, I've been studying for close to a year now to take the exam to become an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC). If you don't work in the health care field, you probably don't have a clue what that means, but basically it's the highest certification possible in the field of lactation.

In order to qualify to take the exam, I had to obtain over 1,000 hours of working with moms and babies, and training staff in breastfeeding (this was in addition to meeting certain education background and continuing education requirements). I've been studying for most of this past year; obviously from my education and work experience I already had a good background, but some studying was necessary to bone up on maternal/infant pathology, drug interactions, specialized medical equipment, etc.

I won't get the exam results until October, and I don't want to jinx anything, but I'm cautiously optimistic about how things went. One of the first things I did afterward was go to a bookstore! It's been a long time since I've allowed myself to read anything other than study materials :)

And, just because blog entries without pictures aren't as interesting, here's one of Jack I took a couple months ago and never posted. He was at a birthday party and had just finished a cupcake.