Early Morning Dash

OK, now my son Scott was born three weeks premature (not that you’d have guessed it since he was 9lb 2oz at birth) but he was born by semi-elective caesarian section which runs the risk of the baby breathing in a bit of amnionic fluid on the way out (which of course he did) and causing a bit of minor damage to his lungs. So he wasn’t breathing properly when he came out and was whisked off almost immediately to be put on oxygen.

So off he went and I was left watching them sew Helen back together (which is very interesting in a gory sort of way). I didn’t get to see him for a couple of hours after that and Helen had to wait until the next morning which had her climbing the walls.

He spent a week in an incubator and it was possibly one of the scariest weeks of my life, even thought everyone told us it was perfectly normal and nothing to worry about. I still listen every night before I go to sleep that he’s still breathing OK.

So as a rule I get understandably panicky when he starts to breath funny.

So this morning at 5-30 I was pulling on my cloths and driving him to the hospital. Basically he had of croup which isn’t particularly pleasant for him but he’s had it before so we weren’t quite as freaked out as before (although he did sound like a distressed walrus).

Of course to make the day a tad more interesting he’d kept me up because he’s teething until 2 the night before so I’d only had about three and a half hours sleep, it was snowing, and today at 10am was my annual staff review at work.

All in all an interesting day.

Trawling around for a Good Quote

The only thing that’s stopped me using iWeb for my website before are all the annoying little boxes all over the place that need filling with witty or incisive bits of prose. Of course I could just delete them but I’d rather put something interesting in them, after all I’m supposedly a literate, published, individual.

And now the ideal quote has fallen right into my lap.

“Something you should know about me. I'm not just the first person in my family to get a PhD, I am the first person in my family to actually go to University!”
Keith Gallagher (Final Lecture, Durham University, 16th December 2009)

Of course Keith was talking about himself but It applies equally well to me and it’s probably one of the bits of trauma that defines who I am (or at least the end result of it).

I’ve been thinking quite a lot about my school life ever since I had to start badgering the school to teach Caitlin properly and being classed as thick at school (and not being able to read) was probably one of the major things that drove me on in later life. Dyslexia is a terrible thing. If only I could get Caitlin’s school to understand that! Grrr.

Anyhow, shame I didn’t come up with the quote first.

My daughter sat her year 3 optional SATs last week and today was her parent's evening when we were told the results. Now the SATs scores were all nicely explained to me when I was there but, being a bear of very little brain, I'd forgotten the details by the time I got home. Not to worry I thought I'll just look them up on direct.gov. Ha! If they are there I can't find them (and neither can Google)

I finally found a nice little chart on the wiltshire council site (I'm reminded of: "It was on display in the bottom of a lock filling cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying beware of the leopard! Have you ever thought of going into advertising?")

The link is http://wisenet.wiltshire.gov.uk/documents/dsweb/GetRendition/Document-5216/html but I've reproduced the table here.

Name	End of Y1	End of Y2	End of Y3	End of Y4	End of Y5	End of Y6
	W	W	1C	1A	2C	2A
	W	1C	1B	2C	2B	3C
	W	1B	1A	2B	2A	3B
	1C	1A	2C	2A	3C	3A
	1B	2C	2B	3C	3B	4C
Average	1A	2B	2A	3B	3A	4B
	2C	2A	3C	3A	4C	4A
	2B	3C	3B	4C	4B	5C
	2A	3B	3A	4B	4A	5B
	3C	3A	4C	4A	5C	5A