Getting into things

Spent most of today in an extremely hot library, can't believe how hot it is at the minute though! I'm coming home this weekend so I  have a huge pile of washing and shopping list to take back with me. I'm actually looking forward to going back to work even if it is for one day. I miss it ha! It'll be nice to get away from the mess here for a bit.
Yesterday morning I walked into the kitchen and someone had left the milk laying down in the fridge so it had leaked everywhere out of the door and had curdled. The smell was horrendous! But instead of the person clearing it up just left it so when i came back from lectures there was a bit of a rant at the flat mates about the state of the kitchen. Seriously though I thought I was bad. In comparison to others I'm fairly tidy, I can hear my mum laughing now at the idea of me being the tidy one, but I really am. I'm also pretty sick of chips and chicken nuggets so when I go home I'm hoping for a roast since I haven't eaten a single vegetable since I left home 3 weeks ago! Unless you count baked beans :)

Placement starts soon...
I'm scared too many scary things to think about!

Freshers Flu?

Two things to moan about today:

1. I have freshers flu
2. My new bus pass cost me £220 :O

So now i'm super poor!

Joy.

A night to relax

So I'm having a night off tonight to eat chocolate, drink hot chocolate and watch doctor who. Plus my room needs a serious tidy up and I have a heap of stuff that I need to do.

I found out what placement I have today and it's miles away which means I need to catch two buses. Anyone who knows me well will know for me even the thought of it brings me to tears. I HATE public transport, so much so I would rather bike ten miles than get lost on a bus. Just one more thing to worry about I Suppose. Although I must say we had another good day of tutorials on "Annie's Diary" which is a book on a pregnant 14 year old. We got split up into groups and I got to know a few more of the midwives a bit better which was nice.
I'm going home this weekend which I'm rather excited about :) get to see my Pussy cat and feed him cheese, I know he misses me :)

Here's a group photo of Flat One :) The people I share The flat with...

What the hell happened last night.

The reason that I haven't posted in the last two day is because I was drinking myself into oblivion, trust me when I tell you that I am paying for it now. Everyone moved in so the kitchen is a complete state and the noise levels have risen considerably.
I have a whole heap of stuff that I need to do today but I really can't be bothered. So I think I'm just going to lay in bed and watch movies all day. It's hard being a student.

Snooze

After pressing the snooze button about a hundred times this morning I managed to roll out of bed and cycle down to the ECB in time for my first lecture. When  I saw manual handling on my timetable this morning I could have cried. Although to my surprise it wasn't a , "sit down and listen to me speak for 3 hours while you all go into a coma." Kind of talk it was actually quite enjoyable. Things are on the up. Two good lectures in two days! So after an hour it was all over and back to something still rather boring.

Things are definitely better today because I have a rather large weight lifted of my mind (Thanks Mum & Dad), I can now afford my accommodation for the year, Hooray!

YOU are Responsible.

So this morning was a very, very easy morning, got in at 10 and finished at 11:30. Not bad, but what I will say is that we are starting to move away from the induction week and into the more nitty gritty legal side of midwifery. At my surprise I was interested and actually enjoyed it. I didn't have to doodle or day dream once! We mostly talked about the code, which is the Holy Grail to any midwives. Most importantly though it really demonstrated how responsible we have to be as practicing/student midwife. It feels like they're out to get you when you read the code in terms of the responsibility you have, every decision you make has to be justified and appropriate. It says to me that midwives and doctors are not such a different breed of health care professionals. Although most people would argue that we are nothing alike, but looking at the similarities we have a lot in common. For example responsibility for others lives. Okay yes I know we don't have to do five years training but we do have to be very specialised in our topic which is mother and baby. Where as a doctor is more generalised until very much later on in their training, a midwife just misses out the generalised bit and goes straight into it. So anyway at 21-22 I will have the responsibility of one of the most important things in life which is rather daunting I have to say.

 What I have learnt in the short space of two weeks is there is going to be many up's and many down's and it's only the beginning. So these are only baby waves I have to deal with, who knows what will happen when the tsunami hits home.

The Inevitable

This evening is the first time since I've been here that I've felt really homesick. It's taken me by surprise because I have no reason to. There is nothing I specifically miss about home just that I miss it. So it proves that I have to stay the full month before going home, or I might never come back.
  I realised today that I had taken on an enormous task by becoming a student midwife and you don't normally realise it and understand that until you get here and experience it. Even though the lectures are fairly simple I still can't help thinking that I'm in way over my head at the minute. Who knows how I'm going to feel when the real work starts...

Ps. GG I miss you

Oh My God! Cake!

Today was a nightmare of a day, not because it was difficult but because the information we were given was so important. So all day the mouse in my head is running on its wheel at full pace just to keep up. I won't bore you with my timetable but it was a long day. I was rewarded with a large amount of books at the end of the day though.

  Whenever I go to the post room it feels like Christmas because you never know what you’re going to get. Everyone is dead jealous because I get three packages from home and they get one letter! Ha! Now you may think this is childish, but for me it's very nice to have little things come through the post from home.

  Anyway this is supposed to be about midwifery and so far there has been very little so here's what happened today while in lectures. First off we had a chat with the exam board who told us AGAIN about the two strikes and you’re out technique, which is still scary as hell to me as I have no idea whether I can write a good essay in order to get the bare minimum to pass. Some people in the group were happy to admit they were going for firsts (which I still don't understand what that is.) Me, I’m just happy if I pass let alone become the overachiever. Then talks on our first assignment's a poster presentation on health promotion during the antenatal period and a written assignment on the booking in interview of 2000 words, which isn't a lot but I still have no idea what to put in it. I talked to the rest of the group and we are all the same panicking about not being able to pass and being kicked out before it's even started.

 The group was then given another tutorial about placement assessments. By this point the mouse was running out of steam and was nearly at full capacity, which is bad because I needed to know all these things, unfortunately I couldn't help but zone out a couple of times but I did manage to catch that all together over the three years I needed to carry out:

• 100 Antenatal Examinations
• Observe a Minimum of 10 midwife managed births
• 40 Personally Managed labours
• A Minimum of 40 Newborn baby checks on babies that I have personally delivered
• 100 Postnatal Mother and Baby checks
• And Been Part of 40 complicated Antenatal, Labour or Postnatal cases

Plus a 10,000 word dissertation, countless assessments both verbal, written and three exams

Yes all that in three years....

Think I can do it. Personally I have no idea!

Anyway on to the good bit Laura came down to the kitchen this evening to join me in my chips and nuggets dinner, she also brought this little beauty with her :) I swear I’ve never tasted anything so good! And that ladies and gents turned a really bad day to an alright day. Safe to say Laura and her cake where invited back tomorrow :)

Sunday

Yawn, Felt seriously ill last night and therefore went to bed when I got in from shopping and didn't get out of bed until 11'o'clock this morning. I didn't even have any dinner so I must have been ill.
 I just finished my directed study on the NMC and Data Protection 1998 so i'm feeling pretty good now. I must say i really enjoy the self directed learning, it's much better than sitting in a class room listening for three hours. Directed study really enables me to look at the bigger picture and explore and understand things in my own time.
In all honesty though directed study is so much more fun than sitting in the launderette for an hour watching your clothes spin round. zzzz makes me tired thinking about it.

This weekend has been so quiet because I’ve have no one move in which is disappointing and Kristie has gone to watch Lee Evans in London so all in all ive been able to be a noisy as I want without upsetting people. I kind of get the feeling this is the peace before the storm though, all the fresher’s move in next Friday and that means that the party begins. Finally!

One last thing to moan about before I go and enjoy the launderette went to the accommodation office yesterday because I was unsure about what to do next in the way of payments. The women I spoke to must have been the most unhelpful and patronising person I’ve ever met... I was asking for advice on what to do next and she looked at me as if I had spat on her desk. I was completely shocked at her reaction and was rather taken back. She sighed and said we don't deal with that you'll need to go to finance. Well I’m sorry if I’ve been here a week and I haven’t got a friggin clue what I’m doing. Sorry for interrupting you and your tea and biscuits. So it’s safe to say I won't be going there again.

Blow out.

Well I've lasted a week, so it should be okay now. It's still very weird to be here at weekends, everyone went home this weekend apart from a select few so the 4 of us that didn't went shopping. I had a mad blow out meaning I spent £47.99 on a beautiful! (Not) pair of placement shoes. I normally feel bad if I buy a pair of shoes I like for £50 let alone some I hate but I had to be sensible and buy shoes that were professional and comfortable. Although these weren't the worst in the shop it still felt that it was a lot of money, also had to buy a new printer because it's cheaper to buy a new printer than it is just to get the ink. Crazy I know but me being the blond I am forgot to buy any paper so now I have a printer with no paper.

My first week here has been so tiring and I know people say that university is a doss and for some, yes it is but for midwifery students it's an uphill struggle, I'm so tired it's unbelievable and my diet of pasta, Chinese and alcohol is making me feel fantastic ha! Anyway I read back through my blogs and they all seem a bit negative I can assure you I really like it here and I know the course will get better because it's only induction week and on the really bright side I go on placement in 3 weeks time. That’s a bit scary and very brave of the NHS letting me out ha-ha :)

Oh and I got my welcome pack yesterday, I've already been here a week so it's a bit late but hey ho better late than never!

Here is a picture of all my goodies and my new sexy shoes...

It's All Happening

So two new things are happening tomorrow...

1. New roomies, I'm not sure whether this is a good thing as I am now happy with the peaceful quiet nature of my flat. I feel it aids my study some how. Plus having new people means more mess, more noise and more drinking and late nights. Not sure that will benefit my course all that much. Hmm

2. More Frigging money, A very positive thing. I'm going to spend it on clothes and shoes and everything. Yes your right I'm not telling the truth. I'm going to spend it on my massive accommodation fee of over £4500 yep so really I'm using none of that money for myself. Sad times. I also need to buy a new printer because I magically managed to brake mine on my first day. On the brighter side though because it's an NHS course there will be no tuition fee's Hooray! if there was I would no way be here.

So that's kind of it. Apart from my uniform fitting tomorrow which I'm told by previous Student midwives is very flattering and makes you look like the banana's in pajama's TV kids show, Great!

They want your blood

So three days into the course and no sign of the induction lectures coming to an end. A truly riveting talk on IPL (inter proffesional learning) a lot about student services and the student union but no sign of midwifery yet, which is a bit of a let down. The lecturer today enjoyed scaring everyone about the 2 strike rule which is if you fail  an assignment, exam or anything twice your off the course, for me that's a pretty worrying prospect. Then after lunch we were dragged around campus and the library in large groups as they had put us with the ODP for a bit of  IPL or bonding which ever.  So although we didn't do even a sniff of midwifery today it was still much better than sitting on our bums for three hours, so I'm grateful.

For part of any health care course now you have to jump though a whole host of hoops to get to where you want to be, one of which is an occupational health test, for anyone who doesn't know what this is. It is people jabbing you with needles to check that you haven't caught anything or are not infectious which is fair enough. But the amount of blood they took out of my arm was enough to satisfy any vampire. To top it off they want me back next week for more blood pinching but in return they will be giving me a lovely BCG jab, Yay :) us midwives have all the fun!

Yum pasta!

After eating pasta for everyday I've been here I can safely say it is the most boring thing on earth. I wold die for a bit of veg right now, no joke! all you students out there I feel your pain. Pasta is the most boring food on earth and I can honestly say I think next week will be a beans on toast week =_=  This is what my cupboard looks like at the moment. All healthy as you can see :)

And before you ask. Yes I did hide all the unhealthy stuff at the back

Um what?

And so the fun continues...
I wish induction week would be over already, I sat still three hours this morning. I didn't even know I could do that. Most of it thought was a little interesting the lecture on class dynamics wasn't bad although the whole room pretty much sat silent for the full three hours. It's weird I know I should love all this stuff but I just don't. It's dull and mind numbingly boring. The cohort still isn't comfortable in each other’s presence which makes it even more difficult. Are main tutor is an absolutely amazing, chatty and bubbly and somehow appears fairly normal, which in the midwifery profession is very rare. I have biked to the building three times now and I swear it nearly kills me. I thought I was fairly fit but boy was I so wrong. We also had a talk in the afternoon about Study skills and legislation within the NHS, Fun right? NO. My brain went numb and I literally felt like my ears were bleeding, I must admit I was okay until we looked a referencing then I was gone, pretty much sat in my chair in shock at the complexity of it all, I mean really on are second day? Throw us in at the deep end why don't ya! Safe to say today was far from fun and i still have a small heap of directed study to do :( another late night tonight then.

In the NHS talk thing today we mostly talked about politics and how we needed to be aware of how the work place and NHS is changing and what that means for our future. It really says a lot about how a hospital is run when the government is looking to cut funds, training and hospitals in order to dig ourselves out of the financial downturn. Where on earth do they expect to treat the same amount of people on fewer resources than we have now? We are clutching at straws as it is. Normally I would just ignore all this stupidity and pretend it had nothing to do with me, but now it does. What the government do in the next few years can mean I either have a job after university or not. So really I should get involved a bit more. A lot of the student midwives on the course have very strong view about it, but because I lack the knowledge to look at it all I’m pretty useless within group discussions which is a shame, so more reading is to follow I’m sure.

First Day as A Student Midwife

Well all that hard work has payed off and I’m finally here, living in halls and being a proper student! This means that today I cycled down to the Edith Cavel building (which very nearly killed me) and began my new life as a student midwife.
It's safe to say that is was boring as hell, A very very very long book list and lots to read about but nothing really midwifery related apart from reading the NMC handbook. We did however get to chat with the 3rd year midwifery student. This was an amazing opportunity to get to know the next three years of my life and see it in front of me. Although my rose tinted glasses were soon removed and I was brought to the ground with a rather unpleasant thud. I found out that midwifery is damn hard and passion alone isn't enough to survive. I also found out that being part of midwifery turns you into a slightly crazy person, which isn't far from what I am now really. Anyway she told me that she saw her first birth in October. That’s a month after starting her course...
A month from now I will see me first birth. WOW.
Deep end or what? I go on community on October the 4th for a month and have a new mentor who will teach me what i need to know. I will also be doing night shifts with my community mentor occasionally. So although this week is going to feel slow I can assure you that the rest of the course is absolutely mental! Probably why everyone involved with midwifery is slightly on the strange side. hmm

Moving on My timetable is pretty easy and I think manageable with a lot of self directed study time. What is that I here you asking? Well it's when they tell you to buggar off and do it elsewhere, it mostly consists of reading, filling out sheet and general tasks. I think I need to work on myself restraint if this is the case (oh dear.) To give you an example of my first week of University here it is.

Day one
Monday

2 hour talk and Tour of building and intro to the course, fairly boring nothing that I really found to be vital information.

Lunch- met with 3rd year midwifery students

Another hour of introducing the course and met the course director, Still very boring.

Then to round it off a talk about Fire safety and UEA security! Yay!

So basically finished at 3 and came home for some self directed study! Haha

First day done.

The only really exciting thing that’s happening this week is Friday and that the uniform fitting :) Maybe then I can put this on my Uniform :)

Meeting The Cohort

These are the lovely people I will be studying with next year :) From right to left.
Emma, Andrea, Holly, Matty, Ruth ,Lisa, Lyndia,Laura, Me, Naomi, Abby and Asha. Still loads more to meet though. :) All very nice genuine people, I think im going to have a lot of fun studying with these people :)

New things

Last night was my first night in my new room. It was slightly noisier than I thought it was going to be. I like my new room thought it's quite cosy now everything is in it. My clothes are still in their bags of course but only because it is very lacking on the wardrobe department.
On a whole though the place is just fine, I went shopping in Norwich today with a bunch of other student midwives and experienced my first budgeted shop. I hated it.

So now I'm all moved in and have met everyone so I just want to get onto the important stuff now like DRINKING studying hard. :) Anyway here a picture of my old room :)


And here is a picture of my new room, pretty smart hey!

Moving

September 9th...

Moving today was A lot easier than I thought it was going to be, saying goodbyes to family was easier and the whole process was really good. I had a lovely day in Norwich just enjoying the day with my dad and I can honestly say I didn't cry until much later on in the evening.

The accommodation is small but cosy and all my stuff is kind of unpacked on the floor and fairly tidy (maybe the tidiest it will ever be) I'm on the ground floor so moving things in was really easy and didn't take much effort as we could park literally next to my bedroom window.

Although because I'm doing a midwifery course it means that I am here two full weeks ahead of everyone else, which is very scary and lonely. There is only one other person in my flat and she keeps her door shut and locked even when she's in there. Maybe because she doesn't feel comfortable enough yet this is fair enough. so for the first part of my evening I sat crying in my room because I had no one :( dad had long gone and it was just me on the ground floor with anti-social girl (whose name is Lisa). So I called dad and immediately called and asked him to come and pick me up, which of course he refused! Even crying failed so I know I’m definitely here for good now. Anyway after a few frantic phone calls to my fellow student midwives I managed to meet up with Laura, an 18 year old 6th form leaver she had also got an anti-social Chinese person on her floor, So we were in the same boat and after an offer of tea and jammy dodgers I won her over and she came back to mine.

After that everything was fine, I'm very happy and after a little bit of a wobble I think I am really going to like it here :) shame it's so bloody hot in the rooms, I have no idea how on earth I’m going to sleep =_= anyway after a long nerve racking day I can finally relax and start to be an adult :) well kind of  :)

Tears

Today was my last day at work! I can honestly say I'm going to miss the place, the people and the whole atmosphere :) I received so many lovely gifts and I'm so grateful. I really am going to miss La Hogue it kind of felt like a second home and now it's gone. Not forever but for now :) so I just really want to say a massive thank you to everyone there :)

 

Anyway moving on and up, I have kind of got most of my things packed. I’m sure there will be something I will forget but like everyone keeps telling me I'm not a million miles away! No matter how far it is though it is a MASSIVE change and I'm scared, nervous and excited all at once. for me crying isn't a regular occurrence but everyday this week I’ve had a quiet sob in the car to myself, not because I’m scared but because I’m a little sad. I'm moving away from my home, family, friends, job and life for the unknown and for anyone that’s huge. as much as I moan about my anti-social sister, pestering mother and sarcastic father I’m going to miss them so much, I’ve out grown home now and know it's time to move on but i will miss it and I hope they will miss me to.

Mountains to climb before the journey begins...

Another down day today.

It suddenly dawned on me that there is no way I can afford university :( I'm so stressed with it all. I've made the wrong decision when choosing my accommodation and now can't afford it. This means I'm now worried that there will be no spaces for me at other accommodation. I'm talking to all the new people starting and they all have parent's that are helping to support them. I'm afraid all the hard work and free hand outs that I have taken won't be enough. Money spoils everything! All I want is to be a good midwife and it seems that there are mountains to climb before I even get there. 8 days now and my nerves are building. I'm scared and excited all at the same time but there is still that niggling voice at the back of my head saying I can't afford it (which I can't).

I have packed most of my clothes into boxes and it is my leaving dinner at work tomorrow. I can't believe I'm going to be unemployed and can't remember the last time I was unemployed, it feels slightly worrying.

So at the moment all I'm worrying about it how it's all going to pan out. I'd love to be one of these people that can just deal with it when it happens and not worry about what to do next but I'm not the long and short of it is I'm a planner and an organiser and at the minute I have very little control of either.

I pray for some good luck soon !