Happy Pesach

Today was spent cooking and cleaning and picking and putting and sorting and preparing. Tonight, we shared the seder and the meal with family. The kids were wonderful and three of the four actually read from the haggadah. We did the passover story completely and the children did a talent show for us before we ate the festive meal. We had a delicious dinner and then we finished the passover story and had delightful family singing. It was wonderful! Tomorrow, we will cook again and after dark we will share the second night seder with our family and their friends. The only thing that would make it better would be to have our daughter and her husband from Portland here with us also!

Travel across the pond

My last post was ages ago, and work continues on and on so I won't belabor that point. The great thing is that months ago we planned a vacay with our daughter and son-in-law and the 4 grand children at their home in England. So Olivia had her thyroid surgery, had a bit of recovery (2 weeks) and now we are both here with them for some real fun.

My last week of work was treacherous, long hours and hard births. Then I picked up an upper respiratory infection which has left me sounding like a seal at feeding time. However, at the appointed hour we boarded the large metal tube, with several hundred of our closest friends, for the long days night across the pond. I was thrilled to note, when seated in the aircraft, that there were others who sounded just like I did. This was perfect because then I did not draw undue attention to myself while coughing and choking. We traveled thru Amsterdam which is totally weird because we flew right across our destination and then back-tracked. None the less, we made it. The family picked us up at the airport in Manchester England and we spent the day visiting some of the sights of Manchester. We went to the Manchester Museum and the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry. It is delightful to get the grand children's take on things in the museums as we flew by. They quickly peruse the exhibits and then ask to go to the next room. They push every button, lift every lid, tug every rope or chain, and generally attempt to "DO" everything. They stop to read only when forced, and 3 of the 4 now read. It is a blast sharing their explorations with them. After the museums we went to a street called the curry mile filled with an amazing selection of, you guessed it, restaurants serving middle eastern food - yummy! After this we walk back to the car park and the 90 minute drive to the kid's house and blessedly bed. We had a long sleep and today after a yummy brunch of eggs, home fries, and banana pancakes we headed off to a brewery about an hour from where the kids live. We arrive and the Dads take the tour, as children under 10 (which all are) are not allowed in the brewery. Olivia and I take the take the kids on a walking tour of Masham (the village where the brewery is located), visit a delightful chocolate shop and then back to meet the Dads so Olivia and I can take the tour. The Dads take the kids to the pub and give them chips for tea while we are on the tour. We return and have a sample of the beer and provide juice for the very thirsty kids to drink. Then it is off to dinner, Italian this time, then a walk back to the car park and off home. Tomorrow, another day and more adventures. We are cooking for first night seder and will be sharing with all tomorrow night. For now - off to bed, so I can stay awake tomorrow.

A Rant

I was at the hospital to do rounds on my patient who delivered Christmas Eve and was now going home Christmas Day. There is a certain amount of teaching that needs to be done prior to discharge, especially with a young, first time Mom. I went in and taught about breast feeding and baby care. I addressed things for Mom to watch out for in herself. I talked about the prescriptions I give for post delivery pain and pretty much wrapped up my teaching. The nurse then comes in and goes over stuff again (literature shows that it takes three repetitions to "learn":). In the middle of the nurse's teaching, family arrives to see the baby. There are many people (13). There is a couch, two chairs and a stool in the room along with Mom's bed. I hear the nurse say very calmly and professionally "I'm doing some discharge teaching that will take a few minutes and I want Q to be able to pay attention so I'm going to have you all go down to the family waiting area and when I'm done, I'll come get you so you can visit." There is grumbling, milling, fussing and everyone leaves the room. As they pass by me I hear one of the older women in the group say "This is the stupidest hospital I have ever been in, it is just like yesterday when they wouldn't let us in after the baby was born. I'm hoping no one else has their baby here."

Now I shake my head in amazement. Yesterday, we put everyone out of the room for about 3 hours while we delivered, sewed up the bottom, and taught supported breastfeeding giving this young couple the very best family start we could. The exclusion was done at Q's request. Today, we asked them to stay out of the room so that the couple could focus on our teaching, so they can GO HOME where.everyone.can.see.the.baby and we are suddenly the bad guys. I find this frustrating and upsetting with no way to rectify the lack of knowledge and bad attitudes of the visitors. Huff

Time. . .Oh time, where does it go?

We were planning Thanksgiving the last time I wrote, and now we are thru Hannukah. Soon it will be 2010. This year has been full of births and babies as well as trial and tribulations. My work takes up a tremendous amount of my time. What time is left is often used up resting, dozing, and outright sleeping. I have this year been forced to learn new coping techniques in the workplace and although I am at last getting it figured out, it is still not very comfortable. I am naive when it comes to manipulation, mind control, and down right ugly human behaviors so it has taken me almost a year to realize that I'm not the one with the problem and I just need to focus on taking good care of the people who choose to see me and not worry about the ones who choose not to see me.

This year has been a wild one. In January I celebrated one year with a new knee. It still works great and does not pain me at all. From January to April I worked on a fitting bodice and then a wedding dress. It turned out beautifully. In May we married off our baby to a young man who appears to be good for her. They are talking making babies and we wish them good luck in this endeavor. In July we traveled by ocean liner Queen Mary 2) to England with our oldest daughter and her family. My first time out of the country. We had a glorious trip, but the flight home leaves something to be desired - sleep. Our home continues to be a place of peace and solitude where guests are always welcome. My work continues to take up too much time, but then I meet people out in the community for whom I have delivered children and some of them are 10 years old and growing up. Then, I realize that I got my wish and that was to live somewhere long enough to see the babies I delivered grow up. Then I realize that I will be 57 years old in 2010, and I don't see how that can be.

Thanksgiving planning

Today we talked with our daughter up north and we made plans for our Thanksgiving Feast!! I am so excited to be able to spend some time with she and her husband. We will do cooking and eating and play games and laugh and be silly and with any luck at all a great time will be had by all. On Friday the tentative plan is to go to the coast and walk on the beach (if the weather cooperates). I am so hopeful as walking on the beach is a wonderfully relaxing and health giving activity.

We did it!

What you may ask did you do? Well let me share this victory with you. I did a birth tonight, in fact just a few minutes ago. It was a special birth because this couple's last baby had a major heart defect and died a within a few hours of birth. They got pregnant again and this was the birth of that baby. Only it wasn't that easy. She had polyhydramnios - too, too, too much water around the baby. When her water broke it was like a fire hose at full blast. After the baby delivered there was a Tsunami which followed. The wonderful thing is that this baby is 100% normal and as I left the room he was already at breast and suckling beautifully. This was a long, long labor, 36 hours and I came in on my weekend off to be her midwife. It was a truly wonderful birth and I really had the opportunity to help give her something that she will remember for the rest of her life. We did it! She and I and her wonderful, supportive husband worked together as a team and we did it.

Tonight, tonight it has to be tonight, or maybe tomorrow sometime

Yes life goes on. I married off my baby, and I have had a wonderful trip across the ocean with my oldest daughter and her family and now I'm steadfastly back at work. Hmm, I think there is a pattern here. Yes, I'm on call this weekend and I have an induction. Yes, I have admitted someone to the hospital to make the baby come out prior to the time her body plans an eviction. I still am ambivalent about this, but also don't like cesarean deliveries when we could have done it vaginally - so here we are!!! I wish I was home with my honey, playing Wii Batman & Robin, but no, I'm being with woman and sitting around the hospital waiting for the pitocin to take effect. I gave some thought to going home, but realize that if I do that I could miss the delivery (especially if I didn't get updated in a timely manner by the nurse) and that would never do. More and more I think about a job with regular hours, and no call time and no crazy charting, but I haven't come up with anything that would challenge me and pay me both with money and adrenaline so for now I'm sticking with what I already do. I'm only on call every other weekend, I get a great high every time I do a nice birth, and I am financially compensated well enough to allow me to live in the style to which I have become accustomed. Probably not reason to rock the boat.