A Midwife’s Muse

……and, not content with me working on my day-off, they then suggested that, instead of working Friday, I work Thursday 1-5pm and Friday 8.30-1pm. Hmmm, should I? After all, why only have one day when I have a work commitment when I could have two? Needless to say, I declined their kind offer! So, not to be deterred they then had an even better idea, don’t work Christmas Day, my ears pricked up, work Boxing Day instead. Do they not have family? Don’t they spend months negotiating what arrangements they have for Christmas? I have known for years that I would be working this Christmas Day and as a result all the family have known that this year is ‘the in-laws’ Christmas Day and that our Yuletide celebrations will all happen on St Stephens Day. I have dug in my heels and shall be sticking to what is set down on the official rota.

Talking of ears, one of our partly feral moggies has a problem with hers. For a day she had been walking around with her head slightly to one side, it was a slightly quizzical look and didn’t particularly worry me, until she started wobbling and falling over. I rushed her to the vets. Look in her ears (£10); feel her tummy and her neck (£10); take her temperature (£10); give her an antibiotic jab (£15); and an anti-inflammatory (£15); then tell me that this may not work (£15) and so he would really like to sedate her and irrigate her ear (£250) but that may not work either. I have settled for the £75 option and she does seem to be improving, must be horrid for her though, constant vertigo.

Jack and Amy are busy disciplining Nanny. Amy made me sit on the ‘naughty stair’ the other day and then Jack admonished me yesterday ‘ I will not have this rudeness, Nanny. It is unacceptable’. I had to put a cushion in front of my face to try and hide the laughter, I failed and was informed that ‘This is nothing to laugh at. You are a very rude little Nanny’. Daughters think that it is hilarious, all I know is that he does an extremely good imitaion of his Mummy in full flow.

The boys are growing, in tandem but they are really a full-time job. I am full of admiration, and incredibly proud of daughter and how she is coping with 4 month-old twins and a daughter who is heavily into the ‘terrible two’s’. Talking ‘terrible twos’ this websitehas a calculator to enable you to judge how much longer this testing episode in a child’s development may go on for. Back to Jamis and Louis. Still like peas in a pod, both in looks and temperament. They now respond to each other and will grab each others hand and then laugh. Jamie has better head-control than his brother but Louis is starting to roll on his side in an effort to see more of his environment. They no longer co-sleep, too big now, so they are in their own cots and have started sleeping through the night, when the urge strikes them. Interestingly, they still wake at the same time which is good and bad news for daughter. Good in that the night feeds finish quicker, so she has more sleep Bad in that they get cross if they are not attended to immediately and also they also want individual interaction from Mummy. Daughter does find the juggling one-on-one very difficult, especially as Amy resents the amount of  time dedicated to her brothers. It will get easier, but I really don’t envy daughter the amazing gift of twins.