The miracle of birth

I had an email today from a lady whose baby I welcomed into the world a year ago. Occasionally, I get an email like this out of the blue and it reminds me again of how truly privileged I am to be a midwife. Supporting a mother to birth her baby, seeing the wonder and joy in a woman’s eyes when she holds her child in her arms for the first time is awe-inspiring. It may sound clichéd but birth really is a miracle. On days when I am tired and discouraged, it is good to be reminded of this.

Footprints

I had been considering going to a rather lively local church for their service this evening but after a rather stressful day, felt that I just didn’t have the energy. Enthusiastic worship is a wonderful thing and I love to praise God, but there are days when all you want to do is just crawl into God’s presence and feel His arms holding you close telling you that all will be fine. As the poem Footprints expresses so beautifully, there are days when you are happy to walk alongside God and days when you just need God to carry you.

Barbecues

As the summer solstice was a week ago, we are now officially into the summer, which means that the barbecue season is well and truly underway. In true British fashion, we sat in the garden this evening having a barbecue despite it being cloudy and not very warm. Vik & I were wrapped in fleeces and blankets shivering whilst the men were in T-shirts and trousers (not quite venturing into shorts yet) hovering around the barbecue and enjoying being in control of fire in typical manly fashion. As always, we seemed to have enough food to feed the five thousand.

Keeping busy

It’s been a busy few days since being back at work just with visits, and with a couple of women due it could get busier still. The end of the month is also a busy time for me outside of work as I need to finish putting together the church newsletter and update the website. Normally it doesn’t feel like a last minute rush, but when work is busy as well, I find myself wishing for a few more hours in the day! Today has been one of those days when just finding time to eat feels like an achievement.

French fairytales

I’ve been trying to improve my French so whilst I was in Le Mans, I bought some children’s books to read. I’m currently reading “Le Lion, La Sorcière Blanche et L’Armoire Magique” (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe). I can generally understand the gist of it but I need to read it alongside the English version to help translate the words I’m less familiar with. Sometimes I have to resort to the dictionary though due to slight differences in translation. Normally I read books very quickly, so it makes a change to have to go at a slower pace.

A balancing act

A good work-life balance can be hard to achieve, especially in a job where the hours are unpredictable. It’s important to me to make sure I have time to do the things that I enjoy even when I am on call. Sometimes I go out with friends or to a party and get called away within minutes of arriving; sometimes plans have to be cancelled with relatively little notice. It can be frustrating given that I like to be organised and plan things in advance. Having chosen this way of working, it is just something I have had to accept.

Reasons to be cheerful

I’m back at work again – the next few days look like they will be quite busy with lots of visits already in the diary, and there’ll be a few to add with postnatal visits and new clients. Still, although my holiday is over, there were two things to be happy about this evening - I finally got the results back from my tap exam and was very pleased that I got an “A” and scored 80 (last tap exam was a “B” at 77 so I’ve improved). The other good thing was our team winning the pub quiz this evening.

Abraham and Sarah

Yesterday’s sermon at church focused on Abraham and Sarah leaving their homeland to go where God wanted them to be. It got me thinking about Sarah’s story later on – about God’s promise that she would have a child, despite being past childbearing age. Sarah waited a long time for God’s promise to be fulfilled, and tried to force matters through her servant Hagar. Sometimes when you believe that God has promised something, it is hard to wait and have faith that someday that promise will be fulfilled. The temptation to give God a helping hand can be hard to resist.

Rehearsals

Rehearsals are continuing for the concert with just over four weeks to go. Our usual rehearsal pianist was away today so Jenny and I were taking it in turns to play so that both of us could also manage to rehearse the chorus numbers. I’ve stood in a few times now as rehearsal pianist and have also missed a few rehearsals so I’ve not had much time to learn the choreography. I’m still struggling to pick up the steps. I’m not sure whether to be reassured or concerned that half of the cast also seem to be having similar difficulties.

Musings on the West End

Went to see Marguerite, the new Boublil & Schönberg musical yesterday evening. I enjoyed it, although it wasn’t as good as their previous shows. The theatre was half-empty and we’d had our seats upgraded from upper circle to dress circle. If that was a typical Friday night audience then I suspect that the show will close within a few months. It’s a shame that new shows struggle so much in the West End – it seems that the only shows to do well are revivals (particularly if their star has been picked on national television) or those based on successful films.

Recording session

I have been spending the last couple of days with my family. I went to Butlins yesterday to spend the day with my twin sister, brother-in-law and two gorgeous nieces. My twin and I went to a recording studio to record some songs together. We recorded a short CD last year which sounded reasonably good and enjoyed the experience so thought we would do another. My sister has an amazing voice – it is a shame that she lacks confidence and will only do karaoke after a couple of drinks. Whereas I have the confidence but not such a good voice.

Being a lady of leisure...

I’m making the most of my last few days of holiday and enjoying being a lady of leisure. I went for a massage and pedicure today – my shoulders feel a lot less tense as a result, but the massage wasn’t the most comfortable experience in the world. I remembered to wear flip-flops this time - last time I went for a pedicure, I didn’t think and wore pumps. It meant I had to wander around in polystyrene flip-flops until I found a shoe shop to buy some proper ones. It was one of my more original excuses for buying shoes!

Le Mans

Got back from Le Mans in the early hours of this morning, having had a fantastic (if slightly soggy) weekend. The race was quite interesting this year, particularly as it looked like it was going to be a close thing between Audi and Peugeot towards the end, but Audi won overall (making it their eighth win), and Aston Martin won the GT2 category. Outside the race track, there were a few interesting moments - one of which was selling my French phrase book for 5 euros to a drunken Frenchman who was quite insistent that he wanted to buy it.

Aller au Mans demain

We are going to Le Mans tomorrow for the 24 hour race. Unfortunately, my friend Zoey will not be able to come along as originally planned – she had ordered a new passport as she had lost her old one, and despite the passport office assuring her that it would definitely arrive in time, it has not arrived, which is a shame. I was looking forward to having some female company on a trip that will be somewhat male-dominated (and mostly Michael’s friends). Still, despite this, I am looking forward to going and have been practising my French accordingly. À bientot!

Talking shop

I was asked to give a talk entitled “Midwifery Today” at Tuesday Club at church today. I was a bit nervous about doing so as I haven’t had a lot of practice at giving talks, even if it was a subject I can usually talk about endlessly! I had a 45 minute slot and having made some notes, thought I would fill it, although was quite horrified to find as I was nearing the end that only 10 minutes had passed! Fortunately, the audience had lots of questions which filled the rest of the time so it wasn’t a disaster.

Bumble bees

We have some bumble bees nesting in our balcony wall. I was leaning on the balcony ledge this evening when I noticed a worker bee carrying pollen disappear into a hole just below the ledge. Another one followed a few minutes later and a drone bee also emerged. My first thought was panic – we have bees, what if they swarm, will I have hundreds of bees on my balcony? An internet search and a chat with Michael’s dad who knows about bees has reassured me. On the plus side, it may be interesting and at least the plants will benefit.

Time with friends and family

I have had a lovely weekend, catching up with friends and family. Two of my friends decided to host barbecues at the same time which meant I got to catch up with a lot of people whom I hadn’t seen for a long time, although trying to attend both was challenging. I also managed a brief trip back home to see my parents, my twin sister, brother-in-law, three of my nieces and one nephew which was great. As it was such a short visit, I didn’t get to see as many family members as I would have liked to though.

Musings on legs...

My dad had a fall at bingo the other week and landed awkwardly. When the staff came to help him, one of his legs was at an unusual angle causing them to worry that he had broken his leg. Fortunately they called my mum over before calling an ambulance and were somewhat stunned when my mum calmly said “oh his false leg's become unstrapped” and proceeded to fix it! A similar thing once happened to my uncle at a railway station when his false leg broke and as he moved off, he left his shoe and ankle on the platform!!

Musings on church

Had a meeting at my flat this evening, with the intention of discussing music at church. As there was not much to report from the previous meeting, it ended up being a discussion on different types of worship and working more effectively with other local churches. It was quite an interesting discussion which reinforced the feeling that my current church is the right place for me at the moment. It is one of the few places that I feel completely loved and accepted as I am (with all my imperfections). Maybe that is why I am never Ms Hyde there.

Rock 'n' roll

Michael and I went to rock 'n' roll classes tonight. We decided to start in the beginner class as we weren’t familiar with the style but it was very slow and we would have been better off jumping straight in at intermediate. I think we raised some eyebrows in the freestyle session when it became clear we’d done some dancing before, particularly when we tried a couple of acrobatic moves. It made me realise how out of practise we were though – whilst we could still do the moves, they were quite messy. Still, good to get back into it again.

Choreography

Spent some time at rehearsal today working on the choreography for my number in the concert (“Show Off” from the Drowsy Chaperone). I’d decided to choreograph the number myself which has been much harder than anticipated – it has been a long time since I last did any choreography. Tonight’s rehearsal was not without a few hitches – Michael didn’t expect me to lean on him at one point and we both fell over and then when he unwound my skirt (Bucks Fizz-style), he threw it at me instead of off stage. Hopefully it will get better with a few more rehearsals!

Learning something new everyday...

Had my tap class this evening and have now started learning the routines for level 5. I think I will like the routines once I get my head around them but they seem very complicated. We also came third in the pub quiz this evening. The conversation ended up taking rather a random direction resulting in Brian explaining how to use a condom to prevent someone with a stab wound to the chest from asphyxiating.

I’m now on annual leave for three weeks which is great – the first thing I’m planning to do is to catch up on some sleep!

ICM

Arrived back from Glasgow this evening after managing another flight without panicking. Hopefully I have finally have conquered my fear of flying! The first day of the conference was interesting although unfortunately the more inspirational speakers were in the smaller rooms so I couldn’t go to my first choice sessions as the rooms filled before I got to them. There was quite an interesting talk on the portrayal of birth on television. I also saw some of my midwifery lecturers from my university days which was great - just wish I could have stayed for the rest of the conference.

ICM Opening Ceremony

The flight to Glasgow went fairly well and I managed to stay calm throughout the journey. Today has been spent rehearsing and then singing with the RCM choir for the opening ceremony at the ICM. It is fantastic to see so many midwives come together from all around the world (and to catch up with Gillian!). After the opening ceremony, a group of us went to Yen – a Japanese restaurant where they cook the food in front of you at the table. It was quite impressive and the food was great. Must go back next time I am in Glasgow.