Week 2.

Well folks, that’s 2 weeks of University already DONE! Only another 157 to go…give or take! And I’d say, mostly it’s been great!

I had my first two days of proper lectures at the beginning of the week, one of which was just with the other 32 Mental Health nursing students. It’s nice to be part of a wider ‘Nursing Family’ but getting to know 32 people is a lot less daunting than 160! We did the traditional getting to know you session which was a real eye opener, so many people of different ages, backgrounds etc. who have all taken various different paths to reach the same starting point as me. We were also set our first assignment in that class, already, can you believe it?! It looks like it’ll be an interesting one and I have begun reading around the topic already, as our lecturer very cleverly pointed out, we are ‘reading for a degree’ after all!

In case you can’t tell, this is Jon Snow. Well his digestive system anyways!

On Tuesday we were back with the rest of the Nursing cohorts and you’ll be pleased to know, this time I did not overheat. Winner! Anyone who follows me on my Instagram will have seen the fun I had doing some craft in our first Anatomy & Physiology lecture (I have included the result above!). In our groups we had to then present our body systems and I’m ashamed to say I didn’t manage to get over my fear of speaking in front of a large group and very much hid at the back. This is one area of myself that I really want to work on. When I studied the first time around I hated public speaking SO much that I managed to convince one of my lecturers that I had already done my presentation in the class the previous week and that she just hadn’t written a tick next to my name…yes people, I lied. Definitely not one of my prouder moments! I have been trying a lot harder to put my hand up when questions are asked in class so I’m almost there, maybe by Christmas I’ll have gotten over this irrational fear!

One slightly unfortunate/amusing thing that did happen this week was that I got caught in the rain. Without an umbrella. When I say rain, I don’t just mean a small shower, I’m talking someone standing on a ladder pouring bucket loads onto my head. As you’ll see from the below photo, I did end up finding this amusing, kind of. I was halfway between Uni and home when it really chucked it down and in the middle of a racecourse, there isn’t a lot of shelter let me tell you! I decided that I wasn’t going to get any drier so I just turned up the radio in my ears (Desert Island Discs in case you were wondering) and squelched my way home. And I promise I didn’t get freaked out by the thunder and lightning, honest!

When you live in England, always have an umbrella on you!!

Little Man has had another great week at nursery and we’ve even managed to come home in our own clothes twice this week, quite an achievement! There was a small incident involving another child and a spade on Thursday, but we won’t dwell on that. I was walking around feeling pretty smug on Wednesday as I’d completed my final 2 nights as a Single Parent and even ended up enjoying it if I’m honest. I have gone from having one on one time with Little Man all day every day to just the evenings and although I do miss him during the day, it really has turned the bed/bath time routine from just a routine to a chance to hang out. And I know I’m biased but he’s a pretty cool little chap to hang out with, especially when he’s not overtired and doing that thing that toddlers do where they make elongated, whingey noises and it gets RIGHT.UNDER.YOUR.SKIN!

So yes, my parents are finally home! Hurrah! As lovely as it was having a big double bed all to myself and being able to watch whatever Australian soaps I liked in the evenings, (yes I like Neighbours and Home and Away, I never claimed to be cool on this blog), it has been SO good to have them home. And it has nothing to do with the fact that my Mum provided a supply of cake for when I was studying on Thursday! They are so supportive of this adventure and when it has looked like it wouldn’t be possible, they have done all they could to make sure that it can be. Thanks parents! It will be interesting to see how next week plays out with everyone working/studying/nursery-ing. I’ve already roped my Dad into cooking dinner one night, beans on toast totally counts, so I’m marking that up as a win.

The Weekly Planner I created has been a success this week, I have done at least an hour a night of studying when Little Man has gone to bed, utilised my ‘Study Day’ on Thursday when Dylan was at nursery and I didn’t have any lectures and because of that I enjoyed a delicious coffee and macaroon with one of my best friends and didn’t feel an ounce of guilt. If anyone who is reading this is about to embark on their studies or even if you’re part way through, if you haven’t made a planner then I can thoroughly recommend you do. It has allowed me to balance the things I really want to do, like watching GBBO or reading stories with Little Man and still get a steady amount of work done too. I am not sure how easy it’ll be to stick to when I have deadlines looming etc. but I am hoping if I put the work in now, it won’t be a mad rush at the end!

So the only thing I will have a grumble about is the sleeping situation. Sharing a room with a toddler is going to take some adjustment! I’m very lucky that the Husband is not a snorer, in fact, he makes scarily little noise when he sleeps so going from that to sharing with the Little Man has not been easy. It doesn’t help that he has a cold so his snoring is almost deafening at the moment but even aside from that, I have never known such a wriggly sleeper! At least once a night I am woken by a THUD and then a sleepy whine where he’s wriggled to the top of the cot and banged his head. Silly Little Man! I have attempted ear plugs but so far failed, I put them in before I go to sleep and wake up with them stuck to the side of my face. So any tips would be gratefully received!

I hope everyone else has had a good, productive week and hopefully it included more sleep than I managed at the latter end of it! Ooh and whilst I have your attention, if anyone has any good baked snack recipes they fancy sharing with me, please ping them over here. I have almost finished my Nigella Breakfast Bars and would love to try something new! Thanks in advance.

The Uni Mummy, over&out!