midwife's muse

Here we go again

What a roller-coaster this week is.
The postmortem on MIL was on Thursday and the cause of death was myocardial ischaemia, her heart stopped. We are holding the funeral next Friday at the local crematorium and Hubby is busy making all the arrangements. The funeral directors asked what music he would like, that sent Hubby into a spin as he initially only thought along religious lines and since his Mother came from a Jewish family, then converted to Catholicism and finally became agnostic he was in a quandary. Then he hit upon Glenn Miller, 'Moonlight Serenade' and 'In the Mood', apparently they were the music she did her courting to, so the service will  commence with 'Moonlight Serenade', fairly sombre, and then as the service ends and, if you believe in an afterlife she goes off to be reunited with her first love, 'In the Mood' will cheekily peal out around the crem, then it's all back to our place for food and drink, Mum loved entertaining people and this will be her farewell party.
Friday had been the day when Hubby and I went up see 'The Sound of Music' and then spend the weekend in London. Of course that's had to go on hold but I do believe someone is smiling on us because we were able to change the booking with no hassle as Connie Fisher is not appearing at present, and the theatre are allowing patrons to change bookings for when she returns. We now go in May.
I started in my new patch this week, everything is so different, some good, some bad. My clinics should run more to time as I won't be taking bloods, no forms and bottles to complete also think my mileage is going to be less but the paperwork is even more horrendous, the NHS really does like, and encourage, repetition of tasks.
A few weeks ago I suggested that I might have some good news, well here it is -

Yes, that is two babies! When I mentioned 'good news' before I  knew that Amy's Mummy was pregnant but we didn't want to 'count chickens' so I waited until she had her nuchal scan to talk about it. Thursday was scan-day so we were all waiting to hear from her how it had gone, the last thing we expected was the news that she has twins nestling in there, added to that the information that they are identical and we are all still in a state of shock. I know that whenever I hear that someone is expecting twins I am full of congratulations but to be honest I am so worried that I am not really considering it a blessing at the moment. If you read the report from Fetal Medicine you would be apprehensive as well, they certainly don't pull their  punches, ' I have explained the possible implications of a monochorionic diamniotic (MC/DC) twin pregnancy, including the risk for twin to twin transfusion syndrome (30% of such pregnancies) and severe twin to twin transfusion syndrome (50% of such cases) which might require prenatal intervention. We have also discussed the increased risk of severe preterm delivery before 33 weeks (10%),' and it continues, really cheery stuff. Now I could feel inclined to look on the positive side, which I am trying to do, if it were not for the sad fact that my Sister lost twins due to twin to twin transfusion. It is something which I still remember vividly, and so does my daughter, so we are both extremely cautious about celebrating the two little babies growing inside her. Throwing caution to the wind though, twins, gosh that has got to be hard for the first year or so, add a 2-year old to the equation and life looks as if it could be pretty much all work and no play. They will have to buy a new car, one that will accommodate 3 car seats in the back, and the baby that was going to be much cheaper than the first looks as if it will now end up costing as much, and more. Then there's the identical twins part of it, Daughter has expressed concerns about knowing which is which, Hubby has suggested tattooing them, I favour keeping their ID bracelets on them, other Daughter thinks indelible ink is the answer. The next few months will be a time of high anxiety, numerous scans and multiple hospital visits but hopefully, sometime in August, I will meet my 4th and 5th Grandchildren.

10.3.07 22:15