Just take a moment... and breathe
WHAT a week this has been! It always happens this way; I think everything is under control, and in this case, this week, I actually had a handle on the goings on written on my calendar… and more importantly, I’d actually remembered to write things on the calendar in the first place!
Archie had had a cold across the weekend and it got a bit worse, and then Sunday a bit worse! So much so that he actually stayed off sports on Sunday, which never happens! And then Monday rolled around and I had to keep him home from school. All of a sudden the plans for the week went out the window…
It’s funny isn’t it, you can plan, plan, plan and then having kids means the plan, plan, plans, go right out the window, window, window! In fact, I’m adamant that the more plans you have, the more something is destined to happen to scupper them.
As it turns out, poor Archie got a little bit worse and by Monday night he was wheezing like a bagpipe and visibly upset with it. After a few horrendous coughing bouts and some very unsettled wheezing and breathing episodes in the night, I phoned the doctor at 8am who advised to take him straight to A&E. Usually a ‘right, get right in the car and we’ll go straight there’ conversation, but of course now baby Rose is in the gang and it’s not that simple.
Twenty minutes of dressing Archie, dressing Rose, having James also come up to the hospital in the car so that Rose can have someone watch her while I run in with Archie.
We spent the rest of the day swapping in and out of the hospital (because of course, Rose couldn’t come in at the moment) and they were keeping Archie in to monitor his breathing and his chest. So I took Rose home, and then back to the hospital to swap in with James for a bit so I could see Archie, and honestly, I felt like I’d run a marathon by the time it even got to 3pm! I went back to the hospital at 2pm laden down with rucksacks full of ipads, magazines, notebooks and colouring pens, headphones, chargers and of course, a Mcdonald’s!
By the time I’d parked up and trudged as quickly as possible across the car park to the entrance (typically there were no spaces anywhere near, and I’d pretty much had to park in Morriston by the time I found a space!) I was laden down with three rucksacks, two bags of Mcdonald’s food and drinks, while pushing the buggy with Rose in, who was about 15 seconds away from going bonkers! Thankfully, by 9pm that night I found myself driving back to PAU Ward to collect Archie, and I was so glad to have him home.
Him being hospitalised, if only for the day, really made me stop and think. I have a tendency to take for granted so much in our lives. The children’s health, the fact we get to sit and make plans in the first place and get to moan when they then get changed and cancelled.
Turns out we missed swimming, football, rugby, matches and school this week… but instead I realised that we can make all the plans we want and it doesn’t really mean anything. All week, we stayed in, ate good food, watched films (Harry Potter… and
Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets to be precise, over and over and over again, as it’s his favourite). And had early nights and warm baths. It wasn’t the week we planned; we ended up missing the circus too, which he was most upset about, although, I later found out he was more upset about missing out on the light-up spinny battery toy things, so I’ve said I’ll order him one on Amazon and he seemed pretty happy with that.
I have a tendency to get swept up in planning, days out, nights out, play dates, festive fun… especially this time of year! And the calendar fills up quicker than my cheese board plate! I found myself spiralling though this week, with so many things to do… (I mean, it’s Saturday and I’m still yet to do Rose’s washing from the week), so many things to organise – school costumes for the play, Christmas decorations (my living room has looked like an grotto that’s been flipped upside down and then just left there for three days…) Although I have to thank Dave from DJW restoration because in the midst of all this chaos this week, magically put up our Christmas lights outside and it finally feels like the beginning of Christmas! I’ve also been trying to sort out the flippin’ Elf on the Shelf who arrives next week… and I’m yet to figure out what to do for it (since when did planning an elf’s arrival cause so much heartburn?!)
I guess this week has taught me that sometimes you can make all the plans you want and freak out because you have so many things to do, but ultimately, you have to just go with the flow because things are out of our control. Sometimes you have to take a step back, and take a big breath, and realise that we can only do what we can do. And the health and happiness of our family is what really matters.
I’m just happy that the big breaths we’re taking this weekend are nebuliser and oxygen free, and involve a lot of love and making some festive memories!