Post university dreams coming true? Is my life over?

I joked the other day that my life is "over" on paper - I have the degree that I worked hard for, I have an amazing husband and an adorable child, I am married and own a house... and now I earn money doing something I love.

That little black spot is where I'm aiming! Read more at http://www.bionichippo.com/blog/2011/friday-fix-the-quick-and-dirty-guide-to-lifetime-job-happiness/

Which is NOT to say that you need this life. Or that it was what I aspired to. Or without those things that your life isn't complete. Please note the first two words of this post - I joked about this because someone asked me what I was up to this year.

But I also feel that I'm coming to an end. I am finishing my formal uber structured study. I feel like I have finally found what I want to do when I grow up. So now instead of seeking out another Bachelor's degree to go with the others I have (3 now, 1 with honours), I will instead insist that the next time I graduate it will be with a funny hat.

That would be for a PhD. Which I'm not going to pursue anytime soon ever if my husband has anything to say about it after the 8 years it took him to get his! Although, there are a few topics that I'd love to look more into. Using heat and seaweed for wound healing for example. Sterile water injections for pain relief. Hrmmm...

Some of my inspirations

I am a midwife and I wanted to share some of my inspirations!

Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond are a huge motivation to me - I totally want to be them when I grow up.

This video also really motivated me to be a homebirth midwife. Not because it's sassy or high paying or public but because it's HOME.

To do list

I like making lists so here's the one that I need to at the moment:

• Find a business coach
• Think about some advertising
• Buy a few more bits and pieces
• fetoscope
• pinnards
• birth pool
• pump for said birth pool
• Do a budget
• Register for a workshop in March

Number 2 on that list is a bit confronting. Am I afraid of success? Do I need to advertise? What do I say? I want to under promise and over deliver so no iron-clad guarantees but still, I need to make some kind of move to find clients.

Cause that's kind of important.

On moving and transitioning

Wow the past month(s) have flown by. I have achieved so much at the same time as seeing Christmas pass, the new year arrive, us buy a house / pack / move, and settle into a new town, a new job for me, a new childcare for my offspring, and lots of other things!

The new and exciting year I'm sure is part of the year of the Dragon. Last year sucked on so many levels and then suddenly with the waning of the year my life had a huge turn around.

My plans progress apace. I've used some of the funding from Map Your Future to purchase the first of my equipment for my new practice. It was so exciting to get a huge package from The Birthkit Company the other day and now it's sitting in my lounge looking at me. I'm waiting on the rest of the package to arrive though, and I need to organise a few other things for myself and then *deep breath* putting out that shingle.

In the meantime, I'm doing some logo design. It's a lot of fun and not something I know much about. I'm trying not to over analyse it though!

So many things to plan for!

It is so hard to conceptualise how to make my dream a reality. I'm only one person, and yet I want to take midwifery to the masses? What kind of crazy am I?

The enthusiastic crazy! The logical, maybe I missed my calling to go into logistics, type. The "I've got the whole of 2012 to think this over" kind.

On the other hand, I see so many of my friends have poor experiences with their pregnancy and birth, in ways that I don't see when friends birth with a known midwife. Or even when they have births that they want, rather than the supposedly unrealistic expectation that birth shouldn't suck.

Today's excitement is brought to you by boxes, tape guns and stinky pens because - we've started packing our house up to move. Movers are here on Monday. So in order to procrastinate best, I've made a list of things to do:

• Enrol in MidPLUS for my continuing professional development now that I'm a graduand and a registered midwife
• Buy scales for weighing babies on
• Look at becoming a childbirth educator
• Investigate the options already available in my new town
• Buy an overlocker Check that anyone is reading this blog
• Look at and commit to some courses for the year

And in the meantime, I'm going to go pack at least one room today.

Serendipity

Serendipity is:

Discoveries, by accident and sagacity, of things you are not in quest of.

That kind of sums up how I'm feeling at the moment. I was a little worried about getting decompression sickness after such a heinously stressful year, but so far I'm not doing too badly. There have been a few serendipitous moments recently, and I'm trying to be in the moment rather than fretting about 2012. Which is next week.

I am taking some down time though - it is Solstice for me, Christmas for many others, and a time of transition for my whole family. So for the next week or two I think I'll just try and soak up some warmth and enjoy my life.

Here are some things that are bubbling in my mind though:

• I need to buy a set of baby scales. And a new lens for my camera. And 
• I am reading some interesting websites at the moment:
• BirthWorks (cause it just *does*)
• LazyDaisy (loving their logo)
• NICE guidelines on postnatal care (*yawn* not the most inspiring)
• Birthing Rites Australia
• Birth Right 
• I am in need of a holiday from work before I start as a midwife but that aint going to happen now.
• This afternoon I'm off to meet with my first client as a registered midwife and that's pretty exciting, scary and fun!