Maternity Leave

Hands up: I have been a dreadful, nay silent, blogger these last few weeks. I'm not entirely sure why, given I am just completing my third week of maternity leave which has hardly been a strenuous period of my life. That said, when you are used to overseeing the running of your Blue Leader's life as well as the day to day managing of an office of eight it's an odd transition to solo living. To go from working 10-12 hour days in constant company with an endless to do list which is frequently overtaken by breaking news, it's rather odd to then just manage and indeed motivate yourself.


That said, I've done some excellent day time telly watching (Homes Under the Hammer a staple of my mid-morning diet) and telly yelling (quite cathartic to scream and shout at the Loose Women who are as daft and ill-informed as you would imagine them to be). That said, there's a limit to how satisfying this can be so flick between LW, WATO and Daily Politics for my own sanity.


I've also bought a good chunk of Brent Cross (not a whole lot left in their John Lewis, Mothercare or Boots) and managed to fit purchases into the Baby's room. I've had some lovely lunches and coffee and cake meet ups, played/practised with several live babies and toddlers. I've even cleaned out all our kitchen and both bedrooms cupboards and shelves, however I drew the line at the oven and 'delegated' to Husband.


In addition there have been multiple midwife, hospital and physio check-ups to interrupt my otherwise very important 'resting' time. I have been assessed for the birth centre at the Whittington which, fingers crossed if my platelet count improves, I can use. And I really want to: there are en suite facilities, a double bed so we can both stay over night if needs be and, most important to me, a birthing pool. Oh, and a flat screen telly (you can guess who was most impressed by this facility). I also had a birthing session with my physio which I will blog about separately as was very useful and deserves a stand alone posting.


My bloods now seem to be the only thing causing concern to the medics; my iron was low, but has now rallied by my taking the oh-so-delicious (ahem) Floradix as well as Pregaday iron tablets. Just these pesky platelets now, and really who needs their blood to clot when delivering a baby ... ?


And nope, still no sign of Baby G. My fear that all Ministerial Group babies come early has so far proven unfounded, although there are another 10 days til D-Day. And trust me, with the amount of packing and planning required for hospital this giving birth melarky has turned into a full blown military operation.