Holiday Daze
Originally published at tansyrr.com. You can comment here or there.
Last night I ended up in hospital - a severe and sudden bout of gastro left me suddenly without enough fluids to stay upright and, it seemed, without enough blood pressure for the paramedics to be able to get a drip into me. Their original plan was to just do that and be on their way - but instead I ended up strapped to a stretcher, taken into hospital, and put on a drip there.
It was an awful, scary few hours, but I got home by about 2am feeling a lot more okay. My honey had called my Mum to come keep an eye on the kids while he came to fetch me - and miraculously, neither girl even woke up during the whole mess.
We were already all pretty stressed thanks to another family member being in hospital under quite awful circumstances, so this was very much not what we needed - a long way from our original plans for the Easter holiday! I’m supposed to be internet free, writing up a storm and showing off my beautiful girls to various family members… well okay I still get to do the last part.
I had to break it to Raeli that there would be no Easter hunt at Glammer’s house today (itself the replacement treat after our first plans were called off) because the drive would be too much for me and none of us could eat the planned Easter feast. Also as Raeli had been sick too (though not as sick as me) she would not be allowed to eat any chocolate today.
That’s pretty disappointing for a 5 year old, especially one who has had to deal with a week of beloved relatives visiting, but not having much time and attention for her, because it’s all about the hospital and dealing with other, adult concerns.
It turned out that what she wanted most was the Easter hunt - because, you know, it’s Easter Sunday and apparently the bunny isn’t big on postponement. She agreed firmly that she was okay with hunting but not eating today, and so we ended up watching with pride as she trip-trapped around the back yard, finding her eggs and filling her basket. Since she hasn’t been sick all day we have negotiated up to one small egg tonight after tea… and she hasn’t whined about it at all.
Awesome kid.
As well as chocolate, the Easter Bunny brought her a little Jemima Puddleduck toy that came packaged with pink eggs - I had kind of hoped Raeli would think to give that to Jem so she would have an Easter treat too, and was delighted when she did exactly that. All her own idea.
Our Easter Sunday has been all about us lying around, tired and not quite sick but not exactly bouncing with energy, nibbling dry toast, playing maths games on the computer (her school has set us up with a website that sneakily makes sums as much fun as a kids version of facebook, full of games and rewards) and watching Justice League Unlimited.
There have been a few bright spots, apart from my child being surprisingly mature about chocolate consumption. Arsenal won a game they needed to win by a killer goal in the 95th minute. Twitter tells me that the new Doctor Who episode is awesome - I haven’t seen it yet, nor decided if I’m going to watch it now or save it up for the TV experience since that is only 2 weeks away. It’s so nice to have an episode not overwhelmed with cries of ‘nooo what crap’ before I get to it, though. Before all the illness hit yesterday I even got to spend an afternoon by myself, binding a quilt while watching Keeper of Traken. These are all good things.
And, you know, at least I’m not still in hospital! The little interlude last night makes me very grateful for being at home with my family this holiday, even if we haven’t managed to move nearly enough furniture. When I was at my sickest last night, the thing that scared me most was that someone else would have to look after my baby, even for a little while. That I would be stuck in hospital, unable to feed her or cuddle her. Things turned out way better than I feared, so yes - gratitude.