Catch up

OK so I've been a bit busy to blog in any proper sense of the word, but I have been taking a few photos, and thinking of what to blog.


Here is my reprobate son sunning himself in Hollywood on his balcony at a 5 star hotel. Any resemblance to a movie star is purely contrived (but he is a bit good looking). Overlooking this. Poor darling. I wonder what the other poor starving Aussie students are doing? Chances are they were not livin' large (ish) playing Magic the Gathering at a Pro Tournament - which is what Patty was doing! He had dreamed of it since he was 11 years old - this is him and his best mate at age 12, playing Magic. I think Patty is winning their game.His 12 year old birthday cake was a reproduction of a Magic card - a Shivan Dragon!! Good Lord he actually worked at it, and he won the qualifier tournament. He is now ranked 348th in the world (I think). He is capable of buckling down sometimes...I wish he displayed the same discipline at all his studies .... sigh ... although he is improving. He has reached that interesting age where (finally) he is putting in above minimum effort and getting back better grades - Who'd have thought? He is back BTW - with gifts! He's learning!

What else? I have made Steff a hat. She chose the fabric and pattern. It turned out pretty OK. She's been a bit in the wars lately, with one thing and another, achey here, a lot of podiatry there (weird feet that kid's got!) so this evening she has had an early shower and got settled into the beanbag in her new cat PJs. I'll have to stretch her tendons /torture her again soon. Its no fun.


My roses are nice at the moment. Here is a bunch of those gorgeous Chrysler Imperials that I cut and took to all of my Mums out on the visiting midwife service while working on Mother's Day. The car smelled lovely.


And here is a selection from the garden yesterday, including my new one 'Mother's Love', which I received for Mother's day (the pale pink/white on the left). The apricot one is the new Olivia Newton-John rose, pretty but not very scented :( The large mauve one is a Lucina rose - the midwife's rose. It is one I use as an ID when visiting blogs. I really like the little French Hen that lives on my outdoor table.


You know I promised to be good at the craft fair? Well . . . . I was! I did buy some stuff, but it all fitted into my handbag! Are you impressed? I was. You can see how crowded the craftroom is getting. It looks a bit better currently than it does pictured below. I'm not showing you the worst corner.


I bought a stitchery pattern stating the completely obvious. Can you read it?
It says 'You can never have too many handbags or too many friends'. But of course!



I couldn't resist some little beads from a Chinese bead man. And some fun necklace kits made entirely of buttons. I couldn't decide between the black one or the red one so guess how many of them came home with me?And another bag of buttons that I probably paid too much for but it was my day for making frivolous purchases if I wanted to. Buttons really are quite yummy to play with. I don't know anyone who can resist running their fingers through a pile of them, and sorting them into sets. I saw my sister and resisted buying anything from her stand, although she did make some pretty interesting stamped demo stuff with glazes and such. We did lunch instead.


I saw some yummy bags and patterns, and only bought ONE small collection of fabric - I'm a bit drawn to chocolate and pink at the moment. I'm wearing a lot of pink too. I bought a really lovely deep rose pink / fuchsia colour 3/4 sleeve cardigan a few weeks ago. Yummy. I've worn it a couple of times already.



I have been using buttons a bit lately - I found a handspun, handknitted cardigan in an op-shop recently for $4, yes FOUR dollars. It was too cheap to leave there. Someone had made it with love, and skill, and had taken pride in it, so it had to come home with me.Cream is not really a colour that looks fabulous on me, but I honour its creation. It had very ugly rubber buttons on it, which I removed. I then handwashed it very carefully and replaced the buttons with ones selected by two of my sisters, who had a very pleasant time sorting through my button collection, choosing for the cardigan as well as my niece's bag I showed you last time (she loved it, by the way, its already in use.) I now wear the cardie in the mornings when it is chilly, as I potter about, especially as I sit at the computer reading blogs.


I am in my last two weeks of VMS now. I think I will miss the autonomy of zipping about the suburbs, consulting on my own. I will miss the yummy babies. I have had some completely edible ones lately. Oh, young Mohammed today melted my butter completely, I actually asked his Dad for a spoon so I could eat him all up!!!! I'm glad I get to see him again tomorrow. His four big sisters are unlikely to let me get too far down the street with him though. Sigh. Ooh - he really was adorable. I am quite a connoisseur of babies and he is a very fine baby!


Young Ella last week had us in stitches, unfortunately at her own expense. She was yelling lustily, as most young ladies (and gentlemen) do when being undressed for weighing, and as I put her on the scales she somehow took a fistful of her own hair and pulled. And pulled again. And kept pulling. Poor little mite. I immediately tried to undo her tiny fist, but you know how babies just won't let go? Sigh, poor little chicken, she kept looking very surprised and indignant, and would then pull again - bringing on a fresh bout of screaming! It took about 30 seconds to gently unwind her fist, by which time she had caused quite a red patch on her scalp! OOOOWWWW! Her Mum was fantastic with her. She had had a really easy natural birth at term, was breastfeeding like a champion, very easily and naturally, nipples holding up well. The good news continued as Ella had gained 3oz in a day - which made the scale related ordeal worth it!


I had a little fellow last week who wasn't doing so well. Mum's third baby, she was nearly 40, her milk was taking a while to come in, his poo hadn't changed colour at four days of age. When I weighed him he had lost heaps of weight on day 5 of life (12.5%), and hadn't started gaining yet. I sent him in to the hospital to be checked out, as babies must be examined if they lose more than 10% of birth weight (most lose around 6-7%). It may indicate a heart condition, or a tongue tie that means they can't remove much milk from Mum's breast. I followed him up today and found he did have a tongue tie, and was only transferring 4mls of milk at a feed! That's why he hadn't been pooing the right colour - it was barely getting through! Yet Mum's breasts were full of milk. She started pumping to remove the milk for him, and shoved it down his neck with a teat that delivered it more easily into his mouth. He is to have a frenotomy next week (where a surgeon nicks the frenulum under the tongue) and will be reintroduced to the breast after that, when it should be much easier to move his tongue effectively. I feel bad that I missed it when I saw him on two visits. He wasn't damaging the nipple, so I wasn't looking for it, and when I observed attachment he was moving and sucking in an apparently effective way, and I observed swallowing too! I'm glad he is turning the corner.


I've learned heaps in visiting midwifery. Its a matter of putting it all together, which I feel I am getting better at doing. I've had student midwives, and today I've had a graduate midwife with me. We toss around ideas, and at each house (as we drive away) I ask them if they would say or do anything different, and we discuss the things we have just seen, or houses we have been at!


There are so many delightful families out there in parenting land from all different cultures. Pets getting to know the new baby, siblings squirming for a front row seat at the action, or by Mum's side as she feeds the new one. Half naked men answering the door sleepily, and leading us back to their bedrooms, where we then ALL roll about on the bed, observing feeds, feeling the fundus, checking out the stitches, weighing breasts in hands, with the man in bed too, helping them all to understand the new family member, encouraging a love-in in the early days that will hopefully carry over to a harmonious family life. Its an intimate job.



I love it!