When Mommy goes down for the count…

You may have noticed it’s been a quiet few days here on OJH. I do try to post most days. But it has been a few days, and I have a good reason to share with you.

I started feeling sick on Wednesday, and spent Thursday from the wee hours of the morning in so much pain that I ended up in the hospital. I got home late Thursday night after working out a way to manage some meds at home–I’d prefer not to stay in the hospital overnight if I could go home. So I’m now home and resting, Baruch Hashem!

It’s difficult when Mommy goes down for the count. I’m staying in bed right now, and although I know that things in my house are not going to be the way I would do it, I also know that they are going to work out just fine. I’ll be able to jump back in with just a little makeup work. Why?

• I have a wonderful husband who is able to take the days off to be with the kids so I can rest and recover. I can’t expect him to do everything I would do, but he is awesome at handling the most important “things” in my day: our children.
• Each person’s chores are clearly written out, so even if I’m not there to remind, they know what is expected of them. Our days have been different since I wasn’t with them as usual, but the kids still did their chores, which in turn makes our house run a little bit more smoothly.
• I had kept up with my routines until I went down on Wednesday. This means there isn’t a huge backup in laundry, dishes, or any other place in our household. Sure, I’ll play some catch up later, but it’s just a few days instead of more.
• I have an emergency Shabbat set aside in my freezer and cupboard, so we don’t have to rush and try to make a nice Shabbat from nothing (I was sick from Wednesday, remember, so we basically have nothing much done for Shabbat this week.) I posted a little about this in the Shabbat weekly challenge, too.
• I have a detailed Shabbat checklist so everything that needs to be done is listed and can be done  by anyone. Lights, blech and hot water settings, timers, etc. It’s laminated and hanging in the kitchen, so everyone can easily access it.
• I have lowered my expectations so that when the house is a little more messy, or a little less organized, I can cope.

As a breastfeeding mom, I also found these things helpful while I was in the hospital away from my little baby:

• I had a stockpile of milk in my freezer, so while I was on medications in the hospital and I couldn’t feed her, she still had my milk. My baby is rarely away from me, and hasn’t even had a bottle, although she has learned how to drink from a sippy cup recently. Given that, even though it seemed silly, I would sometimes pump and save the milk for a time like this, just in case. I’m so grateful I did!
• I brought my breastpump to the hospital so I could have one available to pump as needed to keep up my supply. In fact, the only things I brought were a book and the pump (and I was so out of it I didn’t read the book at all).
• I consulted my CNM and the pediatrician’s office several times to find a pain medication regimen that was breastfeeding friendly and to counteract the information that the doctor gave me – he originally told me that morphine made me unable to nurse my daughter for two days after I had it–that’s not at all the case!

Baruch Hashem, I am well on the way to healing, and will get back to more regular posting, but I wanted to share with you some of the blessings of being organized.