Back to Normality and Late Starts

Didn't get up until 9am this morning, bliss is the only word that explains how good that feels. Also starting at 10 and finishing at 3 means that I have more time to be a kind of normal student! Work is starting to wrap itself up now and that means I'm getting more and more time to relax a little. However, the lingering essay amendments I have to do are still very much there.
  I have no idea what to do with them though, sometimes I think it would just be better if I just gave it in and hoped that I scrape a pass! (wrong attitude, I know!) Never the less I'm going to have one last good bash at it tomorrow as I have all day off because of the strikes :D!!!
  Then a visit to the Dean of Students so they can look at it then I'm done, I've tried my hardest and I could possibly do no more, if it's not enough then I will just have to look into getting more support because the AA's we have here are S**T.

Immature

I have a lot of growing up to do if this makes me laugh hysterically...

And Relax

All Ive done this weekend is sleep and eat, I feel so lazy, but it's so nice to be able to chill out for a bit even though I have a huge amount of work still breathing down my neck. I have a few reflections to type up and another look at that bloody essay again. never the less it will soon be Christmas and then i can go home and work for a few penny's :) '

Bloody Lap top! =_=

PLACEMENT IS OVER!!!!

Thank the lord, finally I can paint my nails, wear my hair down and sleep until 9am on a weekday! Bliss.

I sent away my essay away during the week feeling confident and happy with the achievement of finishing an essay. Only to receive a really shit review back. I tell you no lie, apparently the only good bit in it is the part where I started it early. The rest was a load of crap... Did I feel angry and upset and really demotivated, Yes I did. When I then emailed back saying I'm clearly struggling is it possible to get a bit of support the answer was no. Am I happy about it, No I'm F**King not! Well anyway, I'm fighting with it until it could be a little better.

Moving on to my last moan of the evening- My Bloody laptop decides it wants to make me look like an incompetent idiot this evening, When I turned it on it was clearly broken and was making "broken" noises, so. Step one on managing IT problems is... Call dad, which failed. So,  step two was to press every button on the laptop, still no luck. So as a last resort I had to run to the IT help desk to get it sorted, I gave it to the IT man told him it was broken, Which it was. However, when he turned it on magically the sodding thing worked no problem, in fact it hasn't worked as well as that since I moved in. So now I had to stand in front of this IT guy who clearly though I was just another airhead student who had nothing better to do with her time then harass him... in the end, I ended up looking like I class A twat. Joy! :)

I made a mistake

Going out last night was a really good idea at the time. I thought getting dressed up, covering myself in UV paint and drinking too much was a super idea even though I knew that I had to be up at 6am for work the next day.  I can hear you all now saying serves me right, I then had the worse day on placement in a while. I had to do 4 booking interviews with my mentor watching me very closely and marking me =_= safe to say it went well...not. In all fairness some of the information must of sunk in because i was able to waffle on for a good 45 minutes uninterrupted. I passed but I could have done so much better if the headache from hell wasn't sitting in my hung over head. In all fairness though I'm fairly proud of myself, women are now listening to my advice which is odd. I'm 18 and grown women ask me questions about babies. Oh the power. It's also a little bit weird that people trust me to tell them the right things... Thank god for my midwife who pretty much lets me waffle on and then teaches me what I should really be saying. I feel that my brain is definetly growng though, probly the reason for the headache.

Working like a little beaver

Only three million reflections to do, It's okay though because it's my day off and I have time. Anything to avoid going to the launderette really. Only three days left of placement and I'm not going to lie but I'm relieved, I'm pretty much doing everything now, just booking interviews are the last hurdle =_= Probably  the most boring appointment which is mostly form filling and organising. I wrote up one reflection today and it took me two hours, I have about five more to do so there goes my lazy day :) No rest for the wicked!

Oh and by the way

Dear Santa, As Ive been so good this year could I possible have a new ink cartage for my printer. Thanks :)

Some student I am

All I do is work and sleep, I now have a routine of going to bed at 7pm and getting up at 6am. You may like to call that lazy, I however call that exhausted. Can't wait for the end of placement and to be able to start at 10!!!! and finish at 4!!!! To me that sounds amazing, 7 weeks is much to long for a first placement.
Things are finally starting to come together now, my assignment is done and sent off our EBL is nearly finised and our IPL is completely finished and gone, Horray !

Oh Funny story of the saturday evening, I was relaxing in my room watching im a celeb when all of a sudden there is loud screaching and shouting coming from out side my window so because of my curious nature I open the window to have a look. What I saw was scraing but also very funny. Two very cold very naked drinking men/boys, to my delight i instandly got my flat mate out of bed to have a look. She was just as pleased to see it. When they caught us looking we were invited up to party with them which I had to decline because I was working a sunday shift :( So the moral of the story is if you wanna come to uni to party and sleep all day and just drink then.... Don't become a student midwife! :)

I survived

One night shift down a life time more to go, the first 8 hours of the shift felt like the longest hours of my life sitting on the antenatal ward with only a few very quiet ladies at 4 in the morning was less than fun, I did a few pulses and listened into babies heart rate and other than that I sat at  a desk drinking a litre of red bull and reading the NICE guidelines it was nice to have another 3rd year student on the ward though who was able to explain how she struggled and gave me a few tips and pointers of how to survive the three year hell that is midwifery training. I was saved at about 5 in the morning by another midwife who offered to baby sit me on the birthing unit for a while. Good job she did because she had a lady came in and things were in action, within seconds of her getting into the room she was undressing herself and shouting that she was going to have a baby. She brought her sister in law with her as her husband was racing down from London and was unlikely to make it. So it was action stations for the midwife who was now running around the room grabbing things and sorting things out so as to prepare a little bit. It was all a bit scary really, a lot going on at the same time and it was a job to figure out what was the most important job and what needed to be done first. After a little while the women SROM and the midwife was swimming. It was not graceful and goggles, apron and gloves were needed there were so many unpleasant things on the floor it was a job to know where to stand and to stay out of the way. The lovely lady was really going for it now and she was pushing hard. However, it took a while for anything to happen and the midwife was getting a bit fidgety so a second midwife was called in to monitor the FHR, everything was fine with the exception to a very minor heart decal in the baby but it soon shot back up again. When the head finally appeared it was the single strangest things I’ve ever seen in my life. I was a bit shocked at to how weird it looked to have a head sticking out. The baby was not playing ball though and appeared to be struggling a bit, turns out it was a shoulder distoshia and within seconds of pushing the emergency buzzer hundreds of people came running in the lady was quickly laid on her side with legs pushed back which was enough to open the pelvis a bit more and get the baby out. When it did eventual fully appear it wasn't very healthy looking and needed a bit of waking up and rubbing. That still didn't get it going completely though so the baby needed rescue breaths in order to get it going a bit better, after a few the gurgle noises of a baby there were a few cries and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. I had managed to wedge myself in a corner in the hope I got in nobodies way and stood silently, I'm not going to lie, that shit was scary especially for your first birth. Turns out the baby was a whopping 9lb 8oz which is why it took so long to push her out but she was lovely and all in all her mothers labour was lovely and calm and a little bit rushed at the end but never the less brilliant. I was also with an amazing midwife who talked me though it and was just brilliant and amazing, it really was lovely and such a nice way to end a shift.
When the placenta was delivered it was another weird thing to see, the midwife took me to one side to examine the placenta and have a feel, at 6am it was the last thing I wanted to do but I shut up and just did it and it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. We checked to see the 2 arteries and one vein in the cord then checked to see the 2 membranes which are called the corion and amnion then we checked for completeness of the placenta and too see that it was all intact, the last thing we checked was to see whether the cord was positioned in the centre of the placenta and had good vein and artery supply. It was all very interesting actually. When the shift finally ended I felt amazing, shocked and overwhelmed with a sense of achievement. It really made me realise how privileged I am to be a student midwife and really believe that all the hard work so far and beforehand was definitely worth it, bring on the next three years of training and that my friends was my first ever night shift and first ever birth.

A Quick glimpse into how not to be a student midwife for our EBL presentation

The midwife role

(Emma and Sonia enter the staffroom)

Student-EMMA – “God almighty can you believe that girl we just had in booking clinic!  How old was she again?!”

Midwife SONIA – “She was fourteen bless her heart”

(the other midwives look over at them)

Student EMMA- “Jesus!! Fourteen and pregnant!  What a slapper eh?”

Midwife FIONA – “Whoa steady on!  That’s a bit strong!  What’s happened Sonia?”

Midwife SONIA – “We have just had a young girl come into clinic.  She is fourteen and in a real state the poor love.  She has fallen pregnant by her boyfriend.  She does not know which way to turn or what to do for the best”

Midwife ANDREA – “Does her mum or boyfriend know about the baby?”

Midwife EMMA – “No!  Can you believe that!!  What a silly little girl!”

Midwife MATTIE – “You can’t say things like that Emma!!  As a midwife we remain professional and non judgemental at all times.  It is our job to help this girl and give her all the information she needs to be able to go away and make an informed choice about what she does”

Student AMY – “Yeah but surely you should have talked to her about having sex so young and that obviously having sex without using anything is just an accident waiting to happen!  Me and my mentor had a teenage girl too the other day in our clinic.  There is just so many of these silly little girls putting it about and then ending up getting up the duff!”.

Midwife ANDREA – “We are not there to criticise women.  We see all different types of women from many different backgrounds and situations.  We are there to support them whatever their choices are even if we do not agree with them ourselves”

I stress that this was a role play and the views that were expressed where merely there to prove a point about how NOT to be a midwife...

This is not my own work my fellow student midwife created it and this is only a short snipit of our presentation

Mental preparation for a very long night shift

Sleep, Sleep,  Eat, Sleep and bit more sleep before getting dressed. I'm feeling a bit anxious about this evening purely because I have no idea how I'm going to cope with staying awake all night and  still functioning like a human being. I can barely function during the day. The red bull is out and at the ready should an emergency I'm going to faint moment happens, which I'm told is very common for new students on their first night shifts. I'm eating lots today to make sure that at 3 in the morning my sugars don't plummet and as a result I end up with a whooshing noise in my ears and ending up in an untidy mess on the floor. I'm a bit nervous because this could be the night for my first birth so i want to be awake and fairly alert but who knows. Wish me luck! :)

My Sleep and work relationship

These two buggers go hand in hand at the minute and the only reason I bring it up is because all I have time to do is work then come home and sleep, this week is the hardest so far. Tonight I'm on my second night shift. yesterday I got back and got straight into bed and slept for 13 hours straight. Even I was impressed, Another lot of good news is Ive finished my essay, EBL is nearly done, IPL is finished and our group has loads of time for our presentation so I'm a little less stressed and just tired now. I also get paid my bursary money on Friday so I'm going to be rich :) Happy times!

Fingers crossed everything stays positive :)

What a weird night

My flat mate decided last week that I should see a gig so this weekend we went, Safe to say I am never going to a gig with Alice ever again! That was some weird stuff, I think I could have shouted down a microphone better than these old women could. By the end of the evening I was ravenous so we trekked all the way to Maccy D's which of course was shut by the time we got there, So in a sulk we had to wait for the bus for ages in the freezing cold. But, oh no the fun didn't stop there, we got on the wrong bus and someone who was very drunk at 12.00am decided they wanted to chuck up most of there dinner and alcohol all over the bus, so not only were we on the bus for an hour but the sick smell made it even more enjoyable. So by the time we eventually got home I was wasting away and promptly ordered a chinese, Alice came and sat in my room and we watch some weird film about sperm donors. So that's how my Saturday night went: Really weird gig, No Maccy D's, wrong bus, people puking, Chinese and sperm. Ha I love being a student!

I really can't believe it.

   After Thursday I honestly thought I was going to pull a sicky to avoid working with this new mentor. She was slow and she just made me stand about and do nothing! Yesterday morning we had visits which was okay because I can very rarely get involved with post natal appointments because of my lack of knowledge, however, in the afternoon we had a fully booked antenatal clinic and those I can get involved with because I know what I'm doing but The new midwife just made me sit there for 2 hours and watch.
Mid afternoon I was saved though, the phone rang and Medicom or a woman screaming BBA at me down the phone, I was shocked at how rude this woman was and told my mentor who immediately jumped up and started throwing things in random bags. We had to throw the women we were seeing out of the room and get rid of about 3 pregnant ladies sitting in the waiting room. Then a mad dash to the car with about six bags and a race to get to this woman who lived 20 minutes away and was already pushing.
The drive there was the scariest drive of my life and I'm not going to lie I thought we were going to die, I'm a nervous driver at the best of times but when your whizzing down a motor way I'm ever worse. My adrenaline was pumping and predictable the traffic was less than easy going, when we arrived we were met by a paramedic and a baby’s head, she was laid on her kitchen floor under the table in the funniest position I've ever seen in my life.  Within seconds baby was out and mum and baby were having skin to skin. The second midwife arrived seconds later with another student midwife who I study with so the numbers of people were slowly increasing to 2 midwives, 1 paramedic and 2 student midwives. As it was about school finishing time then her 4 children arrived and 2 more paramedics so in the smallest house you've ever seen everyone was cramped into. The midwife delivered the placenta and brought the lady through to lay on the sofa while we wrote up notes and did baby checks, safe to say it was very busy in the house. The lady gave birth to a little girl called poppy on the 11/11/11 how sweet is that? The baby was a big 9lb baby and was very content.
   The midwife examined the placenta which was complete and very healthy although it was a lot bigger than i'd imagened it to be
    The sad thing is I can't call this my first birth because I didn't get to see the labour, birth of the head or placenta so I didn't really witness it. It's sad because I feel like it should have been my first home birth even if I wasn't there all the way through.

When i got home last night I must have been tired as soon as I got into bed at 9 last night i fell asleep and didn't wake up until 10am the next morning, It's a hard life being a student midwife ;)  I wouln't change it for the world though. The contrast in days are amazing and from one day wanting to quit and just stay a home to the next day having an amazing birth experience, there really is no other job that keeps you on your toes as much as midwifery does.

What a shit day

Like I knew when I first started it's not always going to be easy, and today it hasn't been. I think the fact that I'm tired as hell doesn't help with my mood today. Today I had a new mentor for the day and I can honestly say it has been the worst day on placement since I started five weeks ago. She may have not meant to make me feel useless and in the way but that's the message I got, so I sat on the bus sulked and cried all the way home.
I don't want to be all negative but I really can't wait until I go back into uni so that I have time to reflect on my placement and not just relentless information been thrown at me which I'm expected to remember. I love it most of the time but today has just not been a good day.
Tomorrow is a new day and I'm determined to make the most of it!

You know you're a student midwife when:

You can talk about vaginas, tears and placentas over dinner without vomiting, You can survive a 12hr shift on just tea and chocolates, your bladder has a 5 litre capacity, you have been covered in at least 3 bodily fluids, you threaten anyone who mentions it being 'quiet', you admire people with 'great veins' in supermarkets, you have planned your weekends off for the next two years and the only way to measure centimetres is to spread your fingers apart. ;)

It's been a long day

Today has been a hellishly long day, words can not explain how tired I am, I have a hole heap of stuff and it just won't go away on it's own.
I think I'm going to start to try and do a bit tonight, i will probably fail and watch Eastenders then go to bed though.
Last week I didn't get change to chat about what I did but to sum it up it was busy, we had six home visits to do, all of which were complicated and needed a lot of time. The first lady we went to see was a lady who had to say in hospital because her child had a suspected Group B strep and the baby needed a lumbar puncture which is where a sample of fluid is taken from inside the lower back in order to determine whether she has Strep B.she also needed to discuss her birth experience and ask a whole list of questions. Safe to say we where in there a good hour.
The next lady we went to see had a suspected pre-eclampsia, she had a sky high BP and ++ protein in her urine, she was rushed up to the hospital and had her baby the same day! Us midwives work quickly :)
The we had a very, very long visit with a mother who was extremely anxious and extremely tired. She had been trying to B/F her baby for a week. She was really struggling, her baby had a tongue tie and this often effects B/F babies as they can't suck properly. The baby had a minor op to try and solve this problem, however, the baby still had issues with feeding as the babies tongue would not come down and therefore he couldn't latch properly which was painful for mummy and frustrating for baby. He had also gotten a bit jaundice and was becoming more and more lethargic. So the midwife advised light therapy and regular feeding. We went to see him to day and sadly the mum had given up and moved to A/F which is a shame but B/F was becoming much to painful and frustrating for the whole family. Mum seemed a lot happier and the baby was much more alert with a small weight gain in three days. It's wasn't a massive amount but enough to keep my mentor happy.
the day doesn't end there though we then had to go and visit some twins which was lovely although they were the smallest babies Ive seen, twin one was a fairly reasonable weight of 4ld where as twin two was only a little 2ld baby, the size difference was quite a shock. When we weighed the twins, twin one had put on the least since birth whereas twin 2 had put on a large amount in a short space of time. Both were very happy and discharged that day. :)
Moving on we had to deliver a bit of bad news to a mother whose baby had contracted MRSA, not much i can really say about this, parents weren't happy which is as to be expected. further tests where offered to both parents in order to determine the source.
Finally we went to see a women who had, had a very normal pregnancy until the baby was born and they discovered that the placenta was abnormal, there is a big long word that is very complicated and i can never remember it. anyways to cut a long story short it was a very long and very busy day!

And thank you grandma for sending me home with so many goodies :) I'm very popular within my flat and I'm really enjoying all the goodies :)

Boobies

I've been sent home over the weekend to sort out a presentation on breastfeeding and the anatomy and physiology of the breast. I will need to present to a full antenatal class of very pregnant and very scary women! So safe to say I feel the pressure to swat up and do a wheelbarrow load of work on breast  feeding.

It's nice to be at home and see all my family but my to do list is long and I can't really relax knowing the there is so much to do and so little time to do it in. It feels like 2 months have just disappeared and that Christmas is right around the corner, It's soooo nice to be home for a bit to see my cat and harass the family. although I miss my uni room because it's much tidier and isn't situated behind a caravan.

Another thing I feel looming is my IPL presentation and written essay, This by far is the worst thing they make you do.  Every health care professional I talk to talks about it as a waste of time which is not encouraging and it also just add two things on my to do list. However, I managed to cross one thing off this afternoon so it's baby steps at the minute but achievements none the less.

Home time

Had a nice day off today but only managed half the work i had planned to do :S I'm going to have busy weekend, I'm pretty excited about going home though. Not much to report for the week really, just working and sleeping. The good news is that I have started pole dancing again so today I spent all day hurting because I over did it last night... and the bruises have returned with avengeance. I'm currently nursing 3 massive bruises and a lot of aches and pains.
   Can't wait to get home and sleep in my double bed, use the dishwasher, washing machine and telly! It's the simple things in life you miss. Plus I get to see my GeGe!!!!!!!!!!!!! Although thanks to my sister I'm working on Sunday because she let the cat out of the bag and told work, Duh! Oh well, since i spent so much on the taxi last night i feel that i have to make up for it.

ps. Just incase you forget about your long lost daughter, I need picking up tomorrow :) Thanks dad :)