Dash to Birmingham
We left Muddle Puddle camp early on the Friday afternoon so that we could drive home and unpack and then repack and drive to Birmingham, because I wanted to go to the ABM breastfeeding conference. It was a bit of a mad dash and the weather was so warm and draining too. We got set off OK but a little later than intended from home and so we ate at Little Chef on the drive over, much later than we usally eat.
We got to the Travelodge in Sutton Coldfield about 9.30pm. It was really difficult getting everyone settled. M was feverish and kept tossing and turning and moaning/whimpering. He finally threw up (in the loo, he’s well trained!) and eventually went to sleep. L bounced around the bed massively overtired but not giving in, even when we turned all the lights off. He crashed during Jonathon Ross, but none of us slept soundly during the first part of the night. So in the morning there was much difficulty waking - I got up about 8ish and woke everyone else about 8.30am for 9 kick off. The conference started at 9.25am somewhere else in Birmingham so there was no time for breakfast. I spotted a bakery across the road from the Travelodge though and got Belgian buns to eat on the way.
We had something of a domestic trying to find the conference hotel because I’d printed off a small map linked from the hotel’s website and it was too detailed and pretty impossible to link with our road atlas. The motorway junction the map said was nearest turned out to be a junction where you couldn’t actually leave the motorway and so we went past and I tried to navigate us back through the top of Birmingham. Eventually we parked up and I asked a postman for directions and it only took us about 5 mins from there. So I skirted in to the first talk of the conference by the skin of my teeth but luckily someone had saved me a seat.
Overall there were excellent speakers and I really enjoyed it all. I didn’t hear much I hadn’t heard before but then I’m more of an overview than a fine details person and the latest research just fits with the bigger picture. I went for the general affirming of breastfeeding being normal more than anything and to catch up with all my ABM friends, and because I thought it would be mad to miss a chance to hear Dr Jack Newman speaking. He’s a Canadian paed who is well known in breastfeeding circles for his support and I love his down-to-earthness.
There’s never enough time to chat to people at the conference! I was glad to finally meet Ilana after bumping into each other in various places online for about the last 5 years. I caught up with Trog and talked potties and slings. Had my new wrap admired by lots of people and had several chats about best slings for midwives/HVs to tell their mums about. I hope I avoided being filmed by Monkey Productions who had talked an ABM member into being filmed for their attachment paretning documentary. Had a brief chat with them in the corridor about what they were doing but didn’t mention I was just coming out of the loo from weeing L LOL - originally I think they were looking for someone who breastfeeds, home eds and ECs and generally does AP-type things. L was a star all day and coped really well with the conference, though he was a bit of a distraction crawling around under people’s chairs and I kept having to follow him as he wandered out the back patio doors outside.
A and M spent the day at Think Tank which is a science museum. It was air conditioned and spending the day inside was spot on for M to recover from whatever was up with him - possibly some kind of heat exhaustion thing or maybe an extreme attack of his wierd tummy thing he has going on. Think Tank was really quiet and they went to a planetarium show and an interactive presentation about the planets as well as looking around.
We set off to drive home about 5pm and stopped at a Little Chef for tea again. At 7.30pm it was still measuring 27C on the car thermometer! We were glad to get home and go to bed.
