midwife's muse

Independance Day

I had a special day, viva the 4th of July. It started well as in the early hours of the morning had a lovely homebirth, even though some people think these should be banned. It was Mum's second baby and she had decided that home was the place to bring number two into the world. Labour was 6 hours, accompanied for the last two hours with that old favourite gas and air. With some hard work baby's head appeared and, whilst waiting for the rest of the body to follow, it started crying. Mum commented that this was pretty surreal, she could hear a baby crying but knew that it wasn't born yet. Once baby had been born we passed Joseph to his Mum and they curled up happily on the sofa together, whilst we tidied up the soggy inco pads, the result of her waters breaking in a rather spectacular manner. When we had checked that all was well she went off and had a bath whilst Dad got to know his new son. Us midwives were also pretty soggy by this stage, the temperature was tropical as we had switched off the fan and closed the windows so that baby didn't get chilled, so we took this opportunity to go out into the garden to cool off. We were disturbed from our revelry by laughter, and turned to see the parents standing by the french doors watching us cavort, it was at 2am. I told them it was a mystical ritual practiced by midwives to rejoice the entry into the world of a new life. I hope their laughter was because they knew I was joking.

9am saw me back at work doing my clinic, luckily only 6 women, lack of sleep and the hot weather was starting to tell. Three home visits, and clearing my paperwork saw me finish work at 3.30pm, wonderful, I could go and see Amy and her Mummy who had just got back from their holiday. They change so much, so quickly. Amy is now really toddling, that lovely stage where they sway along, straight legged with their arms up either side, keeping their balance. Her reaction was the best though. They were just returning from walking to the shops when they saw me coming towards them, Amy frowned then strained forward in her pushchair, huge smile on her face, held her arms out and shouted 'Nan Nan', I was so happy I just wanted to squeeze her. The absolute joy my grandchildren bring to me is inexplicable, I haven't got the words to express it, I am so lucky.

Then the weather broke. Huge hailstones rattled down, lightening split the sky and thunder echoed around the hills. The perfect end to the perfect day. All the more perfect because I now have 2 weeks off work.

Last night Jacks Mummy worked the nightshift so I had Jack for a few hours today so she could have some sleep. (Fingers crossed, all is looking hopeful on the pregnancy front, scan in 2 weeks). We went up to the library, he has inherited his Mummy's love of books, and found some story books about tractors, Having been so good Jack and Nanny were very naughty, we bought some chocolate buttons and ate more than our scheduled 2 each, in fact quite a large number were gone by the time we arrived home, soaked. Well, it started raining, a down pour, but it felt good, so instead of covering up and hurrying home we took our time, stomping in every puddle, and shaking every bush. It's weird how not having to work for a while has such a liberating effect on me. Heaven knows what will happen when I retire. 

5.7.06 19:44