Introduces baby Steven...

The family tree continues to grow with the arrival of another great-nephew at 11am this morning. My niece Maria gave birth to Steven Theo, who weighed in at 6lb 13oz. He was originally due to arrive on my wedding day (Maria was convinced that she’d go into labour during the ceremony and give birth at the church!) but instead decided to arrive a little early. It’s been slightly confusing getting used to the fact that he is a boy called Steven, given that Maria’s nickname for her bump was Geraldine! Hopefully I will get to meet him at the weekend.

Busy, busy, busy

I seem to be surrounded by to-do lists. There are to-do lists for the wedding, to-do lists for work, to-do lists for the concerts and everything else that needs to be happening in my life. I’m not sure that things are being ticked off any quicker than they’re being added, but it makes me feel like I’m being more productive. I’d be even more productive if my computer hadn’t decided to stop working this morning, meaning that I can’t access my wedding files at the moment. Fortunately I have them backed up, but need Michael to come fix the computer!

Amazing love

In today’s celebrity-obsessed world, it is reassuring sometimes to be reminded that God loves all of us – from the multi-millionaire pop superstar to the homeless person trying to find somewhere to sleep for the night – we are all important and special in God’s sight. We don’t have to have a perfect body, be exceptionally talented or have lots of money; God’s love isn’t dependent on any of those things. We get things wrong, we turn away and try to find answers elsewhere, but God is always waiting with open arms ready for us to turn back and let Him in.

So much to do, so little time...

There are just under two weeks now left to go until our wedding and from feeling like we were very organised and could relax and wait for the big day, we’re now feeling more like there’s still so many little things left to do. Filling favour boxes, printing place cards, finalising the table plan, checking everything with the suppliers is on track... It’s not helped by our decision to be involved in two concerts – one two days before the wedding (helping out with) and the other four days after the honeymoon (performing and helping out with)– what were we thinking?!

Single-track news

Being sleep deprived doesn’t always prevent insomnia. I’ve been sitting watching BBC News and like many other people was stunned to hear that Michael Jackson has died – what sad news to hear in the early hours of the morning. News of the death of any super-celebrity/public figure always dominates the news reports of course (I remember watching the breaking news about Princess Diana when suffering insomnia that particular night) but I find it odd that all of a sudden there seems to be absolutely nothing else happening in the world – nothing else is even mentioned on the scrolling news feed.

Getting to know you

One of the nicest things about the way I work is being able to get to know the women in my caseload. It can be hard to say goodbye once the postnatal visits are finished, so it is great when women come back again. Looking after previous clients is such a lovely experience: It is an honour to be part of someone’s birth experience once; being able to do so a second time is a real privilege. Looking after previous clients is always a pleasure; it is even more special when it is someone who has also become a friend.

Evolving roles

I’ve now been working in the role of “Development Midwife” for several months and so had a review today to discuss how the new role was fitting into the practice. It went really well; the role seems to have naturally evolved more into admin support and streamlining some of our forms and paperwork. The name “Development Midwife” doesn’t really fit what the job has become so I’m now the “Midwifery Administrator”. I’m still really enjoying it – having a smaller caseload is great – I still get to be at births and be a midwife but the on call demand is less.

The junk room

Having a spare room is great for being able to invite friends over. The only problem is that if a friend ever did drop in unexpectedly and need a place to sleep for the night, it might take some time to find the bed underneath all the clutter that usually lives in the spare room. I’ve decided to make a start on de-cluttering today so that I can get some of the junk cleared out before the wedding. The trouble is, there’s so much junk that despite spending several hours sorting things out, it hardly looks like I’ve done anything.

Summer concert rehearsals

There are just over four weeks to go until the summer concert and we are still learning the choreography for some of the main numbers. Whilst everyone else still has four weeks of rehearsal left, I will be away on honeymoon for the last three rehearsals before we are in the theatre and so having less time for run-throughs than in previous years is even more nerve-racking. I’ve ended up taking my camera to rehearsals to video the steps – being short means I’m usually in the front row which makes it more important for me to know what I’m doing!

Shopping and partying - it's a tough life!

After a busy couple of weeks, it’s been nice to have a fairly relaxing day. Going shopping with Michael in the morning (and picking up our wedding rings!), then it was off to a family friend’s 60th birthday party in the afternoon. I’m not very good at social situations where I don’t really know many people, but we had a very pleasant afternoon. We’re now at the stage when every time we see people we haven’t seen for a while, we realise that the next time we’re likely to see them is at our wedding which is quite exciting really!

Patient mentality

Why is it that some women who are strong, intelligent and independent in their everyday lives suddenly become passive, obedient and unquestioning the minute they walk through the doors of the hospital? I have recently looked after a woman, who was questioning what the hospital staff were doing whilst I was alone with her, only to find that the minute the doctors appeared, she suddenly underwent a personality transplant and became a meek robot who merely responded “Yes, doctor” to the medical staff carrying out several quite unnecessary tests (when all previous results were normal) thus prolonging her hospital stay.

Stress

Life has been somewhat on the stressful side lately with family members being unwell and work being rather busy. I know that preparing for a wedding is generally considered to be fairly stressful in itself but with other than a few tense moments (and the odd Bridezilla attack!), the wedding planning has been reasonably stress-free and certainly at the present moment, it seems to be one of the least stressful things happening in my life. I’m waiting for things to get back on a more even keel, but I’m not convinced that it is likely to happen any time soon!

Carelessness in the community

It seems that substandard care isn’t just something that is limited to the hospital. The woman who came to initially assess about support needed spent about five minutes in my parents’ home and said that my dad was mobile and able to get around the house on his own, which he clearly isn’t able to do. After my mum complained, she did come back and do a proper assessment and the carer is now coming in, but my dad is still not really able to move about without a lot of help, and any physiotherapy support seems to have vanished.

Little wedding tasks

We had our final meeting with the minister yesterday to discuss the details of the service, what we wanted to say in our vows, how we wanted the chairs laid out etc. I keep thinking that nearly everything is organised and in place, but there are still lots of little things left to do – printing off and copying orders of service (church office is lovely and letting me use the colour photocopier at a very reasonable cost per copy), place cards, party bags for children, favours, getting currency for honeymoon. It’s getting close now – less than 4 weeks to go!

Phoney first aider

People sometimes assume that because I’m a midwife, I’m automatically trained in first aid and call on me in situations where first aid is needed. Whilst I have to update yearly on adult and neonatal resuscitation (along with other obstetric emergency scenarios), I’m not a first-aider – in fact, it’s been about five years since I last attended a first aid course. If someone is giving birth in the middle of Tesco then I can help; if an elderly lady is having a funny turn then I can talk to her and call an ambulance, but otherwise am not much use.

Sean & Faith's christening

Had another christening to go to yesterday having been asked to be godmother to my friend Vicky’s 9 year old son, Sean who was being christened with his baby sister Faith. It was such a lovely day, and so nice to catch up with Vicky and her family again, and to meet baby Faith for the first time, having not seen Vicky for over a year (although we’d spoken on the phone regularly). It was also the first time I had been asked to be a godparent to a friend’s child (my other two godchildren are my twin sister’s daughters).

Silver surfers

My mum has never been particularly into computers or technology, but has recently bought a laptop so she can use the internet to shop online and find information, although she has no desire (as yet) to embrace the delights of social networking. Michael’s mum on the other hand, has been a “silver surfer” for some time and forwards me several “funny”/”touching” emails each week (most of which have been doing the rounds for years!) Last week, I helped her set up her Facebook account (several hours later, she was still finding friends and looking through photos on her friends’ pages!).

Friendship in the virtual world

Social networking sites can be fantastic for getting in touch with old friends, organising events and inviting people to them and letting your friends know what is happening in your life. The trouble is, there is a tendency to just read people’s updates and fool ourselves that this is “staying in touch” even though we are not actually directly communicating with the other person. Instead of having a conversation, we just post the occasional comment. The danger is that if we spend too much time online focusing on virtual friendships, we can miss out on the beauty of real ones.

London grinds to a halt

It hasn’t been a good day for anyone trying to travel around London with the Tube strike going on. Huge queues at almost every bus stop, cars bumper to bumper and crawling along at a snails pace. It took me over two hours to get into work this morning and nearly three hours to get back home again. I was quite relieved that no-one went into labour during the day as at one point I was stuck in gridlocked traffic having spent over an hour to travel just one mile and with no easy way of getting out of it.

Introduces baby Jake...

There’s been another addition to the family today – my new great-nephew, Jake Peter, who was born around 2am this morning, weighing in at seven pounds – a new son for my nephew Wayne and his girlfriend Terri-Anne and a baby brother for Holly. I haven’t had a chance to get home yet and meet my new great-nephew, but hopefully will get to do so soon! Other family news today has also been good – my dad is now back home having been discharged from hospital this morning, and the occupational therapist and carer have both been in to help support my mum.

Back on track

Like a lot of people, I occasionally suffer from back pain. I apparently have a dodgy sacral-iliac joint, probably due to a dance injury (according to a physiotherapist friend). The back problem has flared up again over the last couple of days and after being called “ducky” most of yesterday evening by a not-particularly-sympathetic Michael who was amused by my waddling, I finally caved in and visited the chiropractor. It seems to have helped for now (although may flare up again before it gets better) and hopefully the treatment will mean it doesn’t flare up so often in the future.

Michael's return

Michael arrived back from LA this afternoon. It is great to have him home again, although the flat suddenly looks quite messy after two weeks of being tidy thanks to half-unpacked suitcases and paperwork now lying about all over the place! Having to go out earlier worked out well – he was so busy with work whilst he was out there that it would have been almost impossible to get everything done had he gone out as originally planned. I’m just glad to have him back, and am hoping that there won’t be any more trips away until after our wedding.

Brief trip home

I managed a trip back home today to visit my dad, which was very encouraging as he seemed so much better than he did last Saturday and was also managing to walk using a frame, with some assistance from the nurse. The staff also seemed to be giving much better care than they were a week ago and were much friendlier which was great. I have also been catching up with friends at my friend Clare’s 30th birthday barbecue and later this evening when out with my sisters – bumping into an old school friend I hadn’t seen for twelve years.

Update on my dad

I haven’t had a chance to get home and visit my dad over the last few days although my mum has been giving me daily updates on how he is. The latest news is good – whilst he is still having trouble with walking (which is possibly due to the Parkinson’s) – he should be coming home on Tuesday. The hospital will arrange for carers to come in each morning to help get my dad washed and dressed, and he will also be going to a day centre one day each week so my mum will also be getting more support now.

Busy with beading

Since attending a beading workshop at one of the craft days at church a couple of years ago, I’ve become quite addicted to making jewellery. I’ve made my necklace to go with my wedding dress, my bridesmaids’ necklaces and earrings as well as birthday and Christmas presents for friends. I’ve been spending this evening making a necklace to go with my going-away outfit – it’s a slightly more complicated pattern than I’ve tried before but after a few hours of unpicking work and restarting, I’m finally getting to grips with it and hopefully will have it finished by this time tomorrow.

Shuttlebus service

I have a very large family, most of whom live quite near to each other, and so it seemed sensible to organise a coach to transport them to the wedding. Initial enquiries as to who would be interested suggested that a 34-seater would be needed, but gradually people have changed plans and decided to make their own way to the wedding leaving only those who don’t have cars. I’m glad I didn’t book the coach early on as it would have been annoying to have booked a 34-seater coach and then discover I only needed to book a 16-seater minibus.

Sunshine and lopsided tanning

It’s been lovely and sunny over the last few days. The only problem with this is that because I spend so much time in my car, I end up developing white van man arm every year. I’m going to try much harder this year to remember to keep the sunscreen in the car to avoid the lopsided tan as it really won’t be a very good look in the wedding photos! Still, it has been really nice to have some good weather even if I haven’t had a lot of free time to be outdoors making the most of it.

Winding down the wedding preparations

I’ve been catching up on a few wedding-related tasks that still needed doing – ordering the cake; sending the booking form for the DJ; finalising the table plan and finalising the flowers. There’s still a couple of things left to organise – getting the orders of service printed, making sure the men get fitted for their suits and booking a coach to help get my family to the church, but I’m now feeling like the organising is mostly done and I can just look forward to it all (keeping my fingers crossed that my dad will be okay for the big day).