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Back to the grind.
It was lovely, nearly three weeks off work, the return was inevitable and luckily fairly quiet for the first day. The pace has picked up since the Bank Holiday, but is not yet manic. Oh for a car with air-con though, my little motor heats up beautifully during the day so that by the afternoon I am like a damp cloth, I could be more graphic but I shall spare the more sensitive from the mental image that would conjure up. Everyone seems to be having Boys at the moment, including Derbydave and Gill, who had Ashley during the week.
The house continues to be revamped and is starting to look more like a home and less like a bomb-site. Completion can not come soon enough. I miss so many of my home comforts, my PC being one of the main ones. It's so frustrating, I only get to blog and read entries etc on a very intermittent basis and it's the same with my E-Mail, as a result of this I missed meeting Stroppy's tube crew, which I'm really cross about, and I keep missing out on things on E-Bay. Still havn't got a double buggy.
Popped over to see my girls and the grandchildren yesterday and on the side in the kitchen was a pregnancy testing kit. When I asked Jack's Mummy what it was for (obvious really) she replied that she hadn't used it. I delved no further. I expect I'll know soon enough, she's already been asking me about hiring a birthing pool for a homebirth.
At the moment there is a helicopter circling almost directly overhead, I can resist no longer, I'm going to have to go and investigate.
Wishes can come true
The new kitchen is in! I observed to Hubby that it's a shame they were not replacing the sink as I wished I could have a brushed chrome effect one. Hubby pointed out that we were already spending out quite a lot and so I would have to bide my time until we could afford it. This came as no great surprise so I wasn't hugely disappointed. So, there I am in the middle of clinic yesterday when my work mobile rings with a 121. I answer it to be greeted with Hubby saying 'Phone me as soon as you get this, it's urgent.' Terrible scenarios flew through my mind, the grandchildren, my parents, his Mother, you name it I pictured it. As soon as my patient had left I phoned home. 'What?'. 'They just went to put the sink in, and its cracked.' Yes. I punched the air with glee (yes, I am that sad) and when asked what sink I wanted to replace it with I didn't have to pause for thought, I'm getting my brushed chrome one. So you see, wishes can come true.
The wallpapering is finished. The carpets go down a week on Thursday. They inspect the cooker this week ( I wish I could have a stainless steel one. I couldn't be that lucky - could I?). I have compiled a really scary list of everything need to buy, from a pastry brush through to a fridge. The dishwasher manufacturer has STILL not inspected the offending item, I shall name and shame them if they carry on ignoring the situation, it's been 12 weeks now.
This weekend is taken up with 30th birthday celebrations. Tonight is my friend's party, the one who helped Jack out into the world. Feels a bit strange as I am going with Jack's Mummy, and I am obviously quite a bit older than everyone else. Promises to be a lively night though. Tomorrow is my best friends (also Jack's Mummy's Godmother) daughters's party, and the birthday girl also happens to be Amy's Mum's best friend., so the whole family are attending that celebration. Looking forward to seeing Jack as he had his hair cut for the first time yesterday, hope all his curls haven't gone.
Work has been hectic as our team are 50% down at the moment. I've quite enjoyed it though as all the people I've been seeing have been lovely. I only have two 'problems' at the moment. One is a lady I looked after last time who feels that she has to phone me at least once a week, last week it was when she was coming back from the West Country with her family, and was stuck in a traffic jam. I'm sure she was just bored and so scrolled through her mobile contacts, saw my name and to relieve her boredom just gave me a ring. The other pain in the backside is a woman who has decided that she won't see my job-share. Sometimes that happens, a clash of personalities and they ask to see another midwife. This time though it is because my job-share suggested to this lady, after consulting with the woman's G.P, that she see a psychiatrist. The women has the closest thing to Munchhausen I have ever encountered. The history she gives leaves you wondering how she is alive. However, when you look at her medical records every investigation, and there are ten's of them, she has had can't find anything wrong. She phones me everyday with some symptom or other. She sees the G.P three times a week, she is 22 weeks pregnant and has been in hospital 3 times, and seen a midwife 12 times. I am really tempted to make the same suggestion as my colleague, but it won't solve anything as she will just refuse to see me. What really troubles me though is what will happen when baby comes? Will her symptoms escalate, or will baby be subjected to Munchhausens by Proxy?
Had a real heart-to-heart with my illness obsessed lady, and nearly bought her home to live with us. Didn't though as last time I did this the family were not impressed. It was many years ago now and the patient in question was a 70 year old giantess who I bought round for Christmas dinner, my 2 year old was terrified, my husband horrified, and the older two were stunned into silence, it was the quietest Christmas dinner - ever. Anyway, back to the present. After a lot of circuiting the domestic violence issue, with her making all sorts of excuses for him, it appears that her husband is a control freak of immense magnitude. I'm no psychiatrist but the impression gained is of a man who feels threatened by the imminent arrival of a competitor for her affections. He doesn't actually physically hurt her ' unless he's very upset and confused', but he definitely mentally abuses her with words and actions. In this situation I am impotent, all I can do is give her the relevant phone numbers, and resist the urge to 1) Hit him 2) Adopt her. I feel really mean now for alluding to her as a 'thorn in my side'.
One of these 
( a labradoodle )
or
Two of these 
???????
My cooker passed it's inspection, just needed a new ignition box as the old one had surcumbed to heat and smoke. The dishwasher manufacturer are saying that the fire was the fault of a component and therefore nothing to do with them - ZANUSSI.
Yesterday I has a lovely homebirth. It was my day off but I felt the lady, A, would benefit from having midwives she knew with her. Last birth was at a local unit, and she was quite traumatised by it, so I suggested that this time round she could have baby at home. I'm not her midwife anymore but she still had my number and had been phoning me for the last 4 weeks, in tears, so I felt responsible for her. Her waters went on Friday at 8am and our policy is that women have to go in and be put on the drip if they havn't given birth within 18 hours ( risk of infection). Conflab with the midwife, V, who helped Jack into the world and also knows this lady and she was quite happy to be on call for A with me. The hospital said she had to go in at 10pm and go on the drip. We discussed this with A who said she wanted to give it 24 hours, and ......... the on-call consultant backed A's informed decision. So at 7am I was sitting in A's front room eating toast and drinking coffee whilst she lounged in a bath. Her contractions were coming thick and fast and what was interesting was watching her movements, she kept tilting her pelvis to the left. I was certain the baby was asynclitic, the baby's head is tilted to the side and so has a hard time coming through the pelvis. Eventually we got her to lie on her side for half an hour whilst I held her leg up and wonders, suddenly baby's head starting appearing. A decided to squat at this point and out came baby, with his head turned the wrong way. Minor drama in that the cord snapped, but I clamped it quickly and baby was fine. A was delighted with her homebirth and V and I have been invited round to celebrate next weekend. When V and I got to the hospital to sort out our equipment we discussed the birth and were really pleased that we had chosen to be with her. 100% certain that if we had called off because we were officially not on-duty she would have been 'invited' in to the hospital, put on a drip and the course of labour would have mirrored her previous experience. Expecting fireworks on Monday though when the managers hear about our escapade.
We are moving back into our little house on 7th October. I'm really excited, but also feel slightly nervous. My qualms are due to a silly event during the week. I had just started shopping in our local superstore when the fire alarms went off, fine, just carried on pushing my trolley around, and then the loud-speaker told us to evacuate as there was a fire, leave your shopping and exit by the fire-exits. I was still okay, dutifully filing out with all the other shoppers. Then the loud-speaker told us it was a false-alarm, we could continue shopping, sorry for any upset etc. I retrieved my trolley, fire-alarm still sounding, started pushing it down the aisles, when this knot tightened in my chest, and I realised I was crying. Luckily I pulled myself together quickly. Thinking about it I have been more emotional since the news that we are moving back in, the decorators were treated to it when I pointed out that you could still see the marks where my cats had tried to escape. I guess that the drawer in my brain that had closed and shielded me from everything has opened slightly and is making me deal with it.
Hysterical laughter
Hubby " Hi love, it's me. There's a problem." (He's on the golf course, what problem could it be? Perhaps his niblick has failed to produce the perfect shot.) " I'm at the house, the boiler has caught fire."
Me (laughs) " Has it caused much damage?"
Hubby " Bit of smoke damage, melted electrics. They phoned me on the golf course. I forgot to pick my ball up."
Me " Okay love. See you later."
Now, apparently it was lucky that the company carrying out the refurb were there, " Your house could have burned down." Was it a coincidence, I wonder, that their electrician was there 'flash' testing the electrics? Oh yes, they definitely remembered to isolate the boiler before they sent 1,000 volts through the system. British Gas will be here shortly, perhaps they can identify why a boiler, which has been working without a problem for the 3 months since the fire, suddenly developed an electrical fault sufficient to melt all the electronics.
The gas man cometh
Ohh Lordy. I've never seen anything like that. What happened to it?
Hopefully, they can repair it. He's here now with an array of electrical components. Fingers crossed.
All our furniture is being moved back into the house today. It's being living in a container on the drive until now, it's getting really exciting.
The weekend was a working one, and boy did we work, everyone is having their babies at the moment. I was first on-call on Saturday and so went into work with a certain degree of trepidation, and I was right to be cautious. I had just filled my diary up with visits to do when the office phone rang, it was Labour Ward saying they were short-staffed and frantic so I was required to work down there until things had calmed down, and then go out and do my work on community. I reappaised my work, put off a booking until Sunday, another midwife picked up two of my visits, but I was still left with 4 visits, two stretch and sweeps and a booking. Off I went onto Labour Ward and started looking after a lady having her third baby. She was coping really well with just gas and air, leaning against the bed. Examined her and found that her cervix was 7cms dilated. Baby's head was slightly high and slightly tilted, her waters hadn't gone yet. I left her waters intact, reasoning that if baby still needed to turn slightly to get it's head down it is easier with the bag of waters providing more moving space. After two hours there was a slight trickle of waters, I was surprised that she still didn't feel like pushing, she was getting fed-up and so I examined her again. There was still a small lip of cervix, baby's head was still quite high, and I could feel the bag of waters. When I reported what I had found she asked that I break her waters, which I did. Thank heavens I had then opened my delivery pack because she started pushing and when I looked I could see the top of baby's head. I asked her partner to push the call button for a second midwife to attend and the woman asked' What's wrong?'. 'Baby's nearly here', I replied. She didn't believe me! When baby has his head out I could see what the problem had been, he had his hand and forearm up behind his head which would have made it difficult for his head to descend. Out came a lovely baby boy. Her other babes had weighed six and a half pounds, little Ross entered the world weighing 9lbs 2ozs, what a difference.
I eventually left the unit at 2.15pm to start my proper job. I finished at 7pm. Of course Saturday impacted on Sunday so I didn't finish until 6.30pm yesteday. I accept no breaks and late finishing as part of my job, but if the staff on Labour Ward had just said 'Thanks for the help' I would have finished the weekend in a much better frame of mind.