Shellshock

Where have I been since October last year and my last post? I can't believe it's been so long.

Hey there! Long time no blog. As you may have guessed, after discovering that was pregnant with baby no 2 everything got pretty hectic. In addition to juggling full-time job, husband and toddler, in that order, I had to try and fit in a years psychiatry training and research in the 8 months leading up to my maternity leave. Fun.

Managed to complete most of my work, although after my little girl's early appearance I was often found with laptop balanced on one knee and baby balanced on the other whilst I finished off bits and bobs. Would not recommend this as good breastfeeding technique.

So now I am mum of 2, something that I am still finding it hard to digest. Little Sproglet, now 8 weeks old is just gorgeous with pudgy Michelin-man legs and the cutest smile. She eats for Britain and my boobs are killing me (too much information?) but she is such a happy little baby. The Duracell toddler's world has been severely rocked and some days he deals with it better than others. After a week or two recently where I could've happily given him away due to the tantrums and episodes of biting/pinching/scratching Sproglet he has been back to his lovely, although overactive self. He still asks me to send Sproglet away at times, but not as frequently as before.

I must confess to not finding the whole motherhood thing easy at all and sometimes downright boring. I was pondering this the other day and notice similar feelings amongst friends/colleagues who are also medics. Give any of us a difficult clinical scenario or busy on-call and we'll just get on with it but deal with a 2 year old having a tantrum? We're potentially more clueless than your average mum. My theory on this is that we have been too self-reliant for a long time and are coming to parenthood a good deal later than our mothers who often weren't the major wage-earners and frequently didn't have careers, just jobs. They expected to get married, have children and be stay-at-home mums; we expect to 'have it all' - the career, the family and the social life! What I don't think most of us fully realise PRIOR to the babies is that something has to give.....

Whilst I have been away lots seems to have happened - MPs have been found out for ripping off the taxpayers, Peter Andre and Jordan are no more (surely the most important news?!), swine flu is terrifying the masses.... Some things don't change at all - particularly the loss of life in Afghanistan and the good old credit crunch.

right need to go - sproglet calling out for her early morning meal. Going to try not to make it 10 months this time until next post!