Love your work, Pers...
So today, we went to the 'Mothers Group'. It was good because I got to talk to a couple of other Mums who had their babies at the same hospital as I did and who were equally as unimpressed as I was, experiencing similar issues such as: Not answering buzzers, crabby staff, slow to get pain relief, being left alone in my room unless I buzzed for stuff (I could've been haemorrhaging and no-one would have noticed!)...that kind of stuff. And I realise that there is a staffing issue and that it was busy there, but I honestly thought it was substandard and at least now I don't feel so bad. I honestly went away from there thinking maybe they thought I was weird or something and were minimising their contact with me. But no, they were just slack. One of the mums said she heard the manager telling them to answer bells and another mum saying they would all go into the nursery and hide in there, not answering bells...
I know what nurses get up to, I mean, I am one. But when you're a patient, it's different, you expect a bit better and you don't want to believe that the people who are being paid to look after you and your tiny, defenseless little one, are infact, going to do just that. Not the case here. Infact, when the second day blues hit (and bloody hell they hit me hard!) the basically just closed the door on me and left me on my own. I hardly saw them except for when they came in to patronise me with
"Do you think maybe you need to talk to someone?" I mean, you tell me, you're the professionals here!
So yeah, I was less than impressed, but at least now I know it wasn't just me...
Anyway...
Pers, yeah, you gotta love her work. I turned up and they gave me a mat for her to play on so I put her on her tummy and she promptly rolled over! And everyone was like "Wow!" and I was like "You saw it here first, ladies!" Persephone just kind of looked a bit surprised, but I was impressed! She's been trying to do that for ages and well, there you go! I had her weighed and measured. She is now 7kgs and 63cms tall (exactly 100cms shorter than I am!).
She was doing her best to sit up and grab everything and the community nurse seemed so surprised that she is so alert. I wasn't, she's been pretty alert since day 1! Anyway, the community nurse said Persi is doing very well and is probably going to develop pretty fast, which is great, but I am just as happy for her to do what she wants when she is good and ready. Because just as I am as proud as punch of her, and I will brag about her all day if I am challenged to (I'm her biggest fan!) I also realise that all the development can happen under the sun, but lets be realistic and not place unreasonable expectations on the 4 month old!!! Heaven forbid the poor little thing grow up with self confidence issues!
So that all out of the way, I took Persi to Westfields to get our passport photos done. They tried to charge me an extra $5 for Persi's (because babies don't often co-operate). I said "If my baby co-operates, I am not paying the extra $5...
...of course I didn't pay! She looked straight at the camera, they took one shot, I paid $15 for me and $15 for her, they didn't try to push the issue and I walked away.
Love your work, Pers!
