An Autumn Poem #centerparcs

I really love the autumn. The colours are so fabulous, especially when the weather is kind and the sun shines. It is the birthday season in our house as well, so the kids love it too! The center parcs challenge for this month is autumn poems. I asked my daughter if she thought she could come up with a poem and she was keen to give it a try. We chatted about what things she liked about autumn and then went to the center parcs website for some handy tips on how to ‘write a poem’ with the kids. My favourite one was just ‘learn from the best’ I really let my daughter do her own thing. I wanted her to describe autumn in her own words and in a way that meant something to her!

She got to work and pretty soon she had come up with the idea to start each line with a letter from the word Autumn. The things in her poem really reflect her actually. She loves animals, they feature heavily in anything she writes. She has always loved fireworks and she adores her Daddy making hot chocolate in the Kelly kettle. Her poem made me smile not just because it is a lovely reflection of autumn but also that it is also a reflection of her character.

I managed to convince her to read it out too!

 

 

‘This is my entry to the Center Parcs and Tots 100 November challenge. If I’m chosen, I would like to visit Whinfell Forest.

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Working with Neonatal Nurses – A Bird’s Eye View #worldprematurityday

Originally appeared online here.

I have re-blogged it today as it is world prematurity day. 

 

 

By Sue Ludwig

Originally written for Donna Ranker on the occasion of her first retirement from the NICU

 

Neonatal nurses are a difficult group to describe. I have a bird’s eye view of them, working with them yet not being one of them.

I entered their world cautiously, knowing they would eat me for lunch if I so much as looked the wrong way. Forget that I had any knowledge or even a personality. I knew that first I must just exist in their world and do no harm for a very long time, and if that plan worked out, maybe I could start treating some patients. I respected their protectiveness. I couldn’t think of any group of patients in greater need of protection.

And slowly, they allowed me to be.

If you’ve never seen a NICU nurse work it’s quite amazing. They can bundle a baby as tight as any burrito in 3 seconds flat, especially if showing a new resident how to properly perform this task. Seemingly regardless of their age and/or eyesight they can start an I.V. in a vein that’s no wider than a thread or fishing line while blocking out all surrounding distractions.

And don’t kid yourself if you’re a friend of one of these nurses and you visit her with your new baby. You may think she’s just admiring his adorable face when really she’s trying to control her excitement about how good his scalp veins look in case he ever needs an I.V. in his noggin.

I’m telling you, they’re just not right.

 

They are meticulous about the state of the baby’s bedside and the baby himself, and are so anal that they typically revamp the entire area when they come on shift because the nurse before them wasn’t quite anal enough. This is all in the best interest of the baby of course, and for that nurse’s state of mind for the rest of the shift.

They have the ability to discern when a little 1-pound person just doesn’t seem like herself from a mile away. They will do everything in their power to convince the docs of this and will likely not let them leave for the day unless they get what they want for that baby.

NICU nurses have known forever that these babies feel pain, even though it was difficult to ‘prove’. They think about the babies on their days off, come in from home if they are dying. They provide a baby with lots of love one minute, and run to code another one the next.

 

They are expert at what they do.

Now that I’ve been working with them for well over a decade and they trust me not to do anything too stupid, I must say I understand them. This little world in the NICU is unique. It is at once a place of celebrating new life and the grasping for it. It has been noted to be a place of intense parental love or at times abandonment; parents sometimes lost in their own set of horrible circumstances. It is mostly happy. It is mostly positive. It can be devastating.

We tuck years of that pain into a place we pretend doesn’t exist in health care. We go home and kiss our children.

I can’t say enough about the dedication of this group of people. They make me laugh hysterically with the sarcasm and humor that comes with the territory. They stun me with the level of skill they take for granted and the patience with which they teach the unending line of new doctors, new nurses, and people like me.

It is an immense responsibility to dedicate your work to a place that never closes, which needs you for its smooth and competent running, where fragile babies living and dying can just be part of your day’s work. All of that for a six figure salary…………

Thank you to the NICU nurses, for your expertise, your example, and your friendship. May there be a place in heaven for you with a coffee pot, good Chinese food, and the perfect schedule!

 

 

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Searching for Autumn #countrykids

Weird post title right?

Well this weeks outdoor adventure had a bit of another purpose. I know the parks round here reasonably well but i wanted to check some of them for autumn colours…sometimes when i go with the family there isnt enough time to take things in. But i have a couple of shoots this weekend and so i wanted to scope out a couple of spots. So the me, the littlest one and the dog went on a quick jaunt around a few parks in search of autumn colours (that are suitable for being in a shot as well) By that i mean, a tree with all of its pretty leaves super high up and twigs below isnt going to look good in a shot. I want the trees that act like a beautiful backdrop of autumn lushness.

Managed to get in a few candid little girl shots as well. Aren’t little girls awesome. 🙂

Country Kids from Coombe Mill Family Farm Holidays Cornwall

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Versatile Blogger Award

Being nominated for an award is always really fun, especially when you get to nominate on as well. I have been nominated for the Versatile Blogger award by the lovely Sarah at mumturnedmom. My favourite scottish american mummy blogger!

The rules are (i think) that i have to share some facts about me and then nominate some other fabulous bloggers!

So first things first. Fun facts about me:

1. I hate being cold….really..i get grumpy when im cold. Having been a student for a while living in houses that are wind tunnels with a few bits of furniture i feel like i am well done with wearing layers and layers of clothes around the house..but alas we are among the ‘energy poor’ society and we actually don’t have our heating on that much because we can’t afford to. So I am back to the thick socks, slippers and layers of jumpers and blankets….AGAIN!

2. I am a sucker for a good inspirational quote. I love browsing those on pinterest. Words are powerful aren’t they and sometimes they can really lift you. I have a whole folder on pinterest dedicated to advice to my little ones. Can’t help myself.

3.I sleep wearing socks nearly all the time. There are a few times throughout the year where this will change..but mostly when the temperatures have been pretty darn high throughout the day. There is something about having bare feet feeling cold in bed that makes me unable to fall asleep. I know. weird.

4. When we were on our honeymoon we lost our camera..well it was stolen from our room. So we got one of those one time only use cameras..yes..i know classy! We then left it in our hire car when we returned to the airport…we got in touch with the car hire company and they had it and very kindly sent it back to us but only after the cheeky beggers finished off the film with a couple of interesting shots they had taken!! cough cough.

5. I cannot read in bed. There was a time when i could..now it just sends me to sleep. I actually dont remember the last time i read an entire book. Thats really bad.

6. I have developed that annoying parenting habit of waking up a stupid o’clock in the morning regardless of whether there are any children up or not! bleugh.

7. I am a qualified and certified teacher of the art of equestrian. Thats a riding teacher 😉 But i havent been near a horse for a long time. Seems to be a little boxed off part of my life right now although my girls are trying very hard to change that.

8. I did half a term of a radiography degree before I realised that actually there is a lot of physics in it and the scientific mind in me is hiding somewhere in the back with the dust and the dirt.

9. When i was revising for my finals i had the film ‘the firm’ on a loop. My theory was that i had to have something else going on otherwise the silence just about killed me and i had to go off and find something else to do. It pretty much kept me in my seat and working for 90 minutes. Did it work? hmmmm…well i could probably still quote most of the script! 😉

10. I have had one occasion to be in a court in my life, it was just getting documents certified and i hadn’t done anything wrong..but did have to resist the urge to shout. “IM NOT GUILTY!” and fall to the ground sobbing.

So there you have it.

Now to nominate:

These lovely folks may have already been nominated and so if you have just bask in the glory glory!

1.a new discovery blog of mine..and new baby pictures too… Learning lessons in Mummyography 

2. One of my fav daddy bloggers and supremo runner! Mutterings of a fool

3.One of my besties and one of the first mummy bloggers i ever came across..other than me! Original Britgirl 

4. And the lovely and super wonderful City Girl at heart

 

 

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The influence of adverts #wotsofunee

The one thing i really really like about cbeebies and CBBC. No adverts!

Its not because they irritate me on the basis of interrupting a show or the fact that it means that the companies who make the shows are making money advertising dross to us for half the time.

No..its the ‘I wants’ it produces from my kids.

This frequently happens that one of the kids will come screaming into the kitchen yelling my name and beckoning me to the living room to see the thing they simply MUST have. Please. please. please.

UGH.

Give me advert free TV any time of the week.

My two youngest can very easily be convinced to head back to the oasis of calm no-advert fuelled frenzy of the BBC.

Most of the time 😉

This evening, as the older kids were swimming, my youngest was watching a channel with ads. She perked up and announced to me that “I WANT THAT!”

Turning to look, i saw that she was pointing at an advert for some L’oreal hair dye.

‘Not sure you need that actually’ i say to her…

“I DO…I NEEEED IT!”

Okaaaaaayyyyy.

Time to turn of the TV 😉

 

Wot So Funee?

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