There is not enough time in the day at the moment. The twins are both poorly with bronchiolitis, Jamie has just been discharged from hospital, Louis has been admitted. Just when things are starting to look up with good news about the health concerns surrounding Louis they both become ill. Daughter is exhausted, she is staying at the hospital with which ever babe is in, and what with them not settling due to their coughing and the alarms from the monitors, her sleep is averaging about an hour and a half per night. I have been looking after Amy, fighting off a cold and had a 24 hour sickness bug so I'm rather low on the energy stakes as well, life is rather like the weather today, dismal.
I have always said that my daughters having babies has given me a hugely increased insight into my job and the feelings of the women and their families, the twins being hospitalised has increased that insight even more. On the surface, certainly to the hospital staff, all is serene. Daughter stays at the hospital, partner goes in for a couple of hours, harmony. Under the veneer there are phonecalls, schedules for childcare, arrangements for collecting from nursery, cancelling other commitments, e-mailed shopping lists, bags of laundry being ferried around and at the end of every day there is a logistical puzzle being unravelled to ensure that every eventuality is covered for the next day. We are lucky as we all live very close to each other so there is a good support network, it must be hell if you are new to an area, away from family and friends and suddenly your ordered little life is disrupted by an illness.

Time has flown, again but here I am again. Still the same old midwife, the only new thing is that I now have 2 new Grandchildren. I am sooo greedy. First there was Jack, then Amy, then Izzy and now we have Jamie and Louis as well. Our little peas in a pod were born, by elective C-Section, on the 23rd August which was 4 weeks before their due date. Jamie came out first weighing 6lbs 2ozs, followed 1 minute later by Louis weighing 5lbs 15ozs. The first couple of days with little Lou were a bit worrying, he had to have CPAP as his breathing was not particularly effective, and then a careless nurse gave him an overdose of gentamycin (can cause deafness, we don't know yet if it has) but now both babies are thriving. They are freakily identical, Jamie has the distinction of wearing nail-varnish on one toe nail so we know which is which, ok unless he is dressed, then its a guessing game!
The Maternity Services are gradually disintigrating around us, but we are soldiering bravely on. My job-share partner left in the middle of August, she will be replaced at some point in October and so her replacement should be up and running by the beginning of November. Nice little cost-saving exercise, half a salary for 2 months but not especially good for my stress levels.