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This has been a really bad week so far.

There, I said it.

My work has been extremely frustrating over the past few days. For those of you who don't know, I work in a biomedical research lab. My job, for the most part, is to run experiments and gather data which my boss then puts into papers for publication and grant proposals.

Normally my job is really enjoyable. I have the satisfaction of finishing work everyday, while still having infinite possiblities on the horizon. Sometimes experiments don't give the results you would expect, but that's ok, because sometimes what you expect isn't reality.

Our goal is to get to the bottom of what's really happening in the body and use that information to help heal people who are sick.

However.

Sometimes you get really exciting data that supports the hypothesis -- yay! This makes for a great day.

But then, you have to repeat the experiment and show that the data is reproducible.

It's not enough to show it once (that could be a fluke) we need to show it several times.

Enter my bad week.

I gathered a lot of great data over the past few weeks. Everyone in the lab was excited over where this project was headed, so I started this week by repeating those experiments.

That's when all hell broke loose.

None of my data came back the same. In fact, most of the experiments simply didn't work at all. As in, I got useless data.

This is so frustrating, but it does happen at times. The problem this week was that it happened over and over again. I'm feeling useless and unproductive. My boss declared me to be "in a slump" which, while true, still hurt my feelings.

I know that I'm a little extra sensitive these days, but I've always been the type of person who wants to please the people in charge. Not being able to do this makes me a lot more sad than angry.

Then, as if day after day of this wasn't enough, our childbirth education class got cancelled last night because the instructor was sick. While I appreciate them not exposing us all to whatever she has, don't they have a sub?? Pregnant women are kind of the definition of "people on a schedule." I can't wait forever to finish this series and really want to keep on track.

As "blah" as my week has been so far, I hate to post just complaints.

Some good things have been happening too.

For one, I was able to figure out the system for getting baby bean a pediatrician. The man who was highly recommended to me is accepting new patients and we're on his list! I have to wait until after the birth to sign up officially, but that should be easy.

That's a big thing off my "to-do" list.

Another great thing is that the camcorder Drew and I ordered finally arrived! We're picking it up this Sunday, so next week I should have some fun videos to post. Baby W has been moving like crazy and I really want to capture some of it before he gets wedged in there too tight.

As frustrated and sad as I may feel this week, I'm trying to keep it all in perspective. I have a healthy baby on the way and family/friends who love me. Things aren't so bad.