I had a baby!

Well, as the title suggests I have indeed had my baby, a beautiful little boy named Blake. By the end of my pregnancy impatient me thought he'd never arrive but he did, 6 days over his due date and on the morning of my 27th birthday, the best gift anyone could ask for. He was a rather hefty 8lb 11oz with humongous hands/feet and the most amazing little face. I know that I'm hugely biased but I do think he's the cutest baby to grace the planet 😁

Any way, he's now 15 weeks old and my partner and I are getting used to our new little life. We're hoping to find a bigger and better house asap to make life a touch easier and I pushed back my return to university until November since May seemed a bit too soon for us. I'd love to complete my training sooner but leaving my boy at only 5 months old and organising/affording childcare would be tricky. Plus as all parents know, babies change so quickly and I'll never get this opportunity again. I intend to soak it all up and am loving every minute...well most minutes ha!

In an effort to keep my hand in (sort of speak) I have attended a few nursing lectures (heart/lung transplantation and immunology) and teaching sessions (cadaver anatomy and physiology) so far and hope to do more, including doing a few bank shifts. I miss nursing like mad. My class have just chosen their management placements for final year which stung a bit but I'm just reminding myself that I'll be doing that soon and will be graduating with my gorgeous little family watching, proud as punch. I can't wait to see what life has to offer us in the future 😊

Between now and then I'm going to work hard on the last little bits I have of year 2 including 2 essays and an exam. Hopefully if I work on them asap, getting back in to uni life will be a touch easier with an 11 month old crawling/walking/running around! Then there'll only be 1 placement standing between me and my final year of nurse training. I can't wait!! My final placement will be in an acute and critical area of nursing. Before I stepped off to have my son I found out I would have been spending 8 weeks on a cardiac critical care unit, somewhere I would have loved. I just hope I get something equally as good on my return.

I hope to write about the placements and assessments I have already completed soon. Until then I hope this finds everyone well.

A Long Overdue Catch-up

Well...I hang my head in shame since it's been around 7 months since I last posted but I have had a tonne going on, and still have really so this will be very brief.

I'm currently on my second placement of second year in the biggest hospital in the area. I'm based on an outpatients department that specialises in plastics so it's absolutely fascinating! I'm loving the experience but not so much the travel and parking situation. I'll (hopefully!) write a more in depth post about the placement soon. My last placement was with the District Nurses, which I enjoyed but I'm not sure it's for me. I think I'm more of a 'hospital nurse'.

I've handed in an essay and completed a VIVA (spoken exam) and an anatomy and physiology exam. I managed to get 82% for my VIVA which I was over the moon with, especially given the circumstance of what's been happening recently. I'm waiting for the results for the other 2 which we should have in the next month.

So the reason (other than being manically busy) that I haven't posted in a while is because...I'm pregnant. We're expecting a baby boy on 10th December, in 3 short months. It has absolutely flown over so far and trying to balance everything has been a bit of a challenge to say the least. I can imagine the next few months will pose the most challenges but I'm ready to face them head on :) I know it's going to be difficult to complete my training with a young child at home but I'm going to do my very best. I intend on stepping off just before he's due, taking 6 months out and then going back in the Summer to complete second year and then straight on into third year. It makes me tired just thinking about it!

Unfortunately my partner's Nana, who brought him up also passed away recently so it's been difficult moving on from that, especially with us expecting our first child. I'm sure she's watching over our growing baby.

I'll try and post again soon. Hope everyone is well :)