Back to school blues...

I took a little blog holiday over the summer as you can tell, mainly because having all four children at home means there are less hours in the day to indulge myself in writing than normal.  Well the children have been back to school for a week now and I have taken up my usual Sunday evening position at the kitchen table, clean school uniform waiting to be taken upstairs and homework (allegedly) finished.

I think I have the back to school blues though, despite the little bit of daytime respite having the children in school gives me.  Back to school means back to meetings, appointments, form filling and in a couple of weeks another hospital admission for Daisy.  Back to school means back to the reality of my life, reality which was temporarily suspended over our glorious summer break.

Faster, Higher, Stronger.....

When Daisy was nearly 7 months old she had a gastrostomy tube inserted as an emergency case.  It was an emergency because at the time we were relying on a nasal-gastric tube to feed her and her vomiting and excess secretions meant that it would come out several times a day and she was losing weight and dropping her blood sugars constantly as a result - as we now know the weight loss was going to happen regardless as her gut became unfeedable but at the time we had to try every option.

Gastrostomy insertions are often done as a day case or overnight but at that point in her life Daisy was needing intensive care after every anaesthetic so she had 24 hours in ICU plus a couple of days on a surgical ward before she was well enough to come home.

That week in July was a big one in the UK and Daisy and I were able to witness it all , while the rest of the family were at work and school.  On the 6th July we turned on the TV for the live announcement of the decision on who was to host the Olympics in 2012 - I had been following the progress of the bid keenly and was over the moon when the announcement was made, hugging Daisy, not really thinking about what the next 7 years would bring.

Spontaneous Planning

We are at the end of another half term and have made it through in one piece.  I am so grateful for every school holiday we get to spend together because we have lost so much family time over the years. This time of normality has also shown us how different our lives in the real world are as we try to function as a family, this week provided many examples and made me realise that what I am constantly trying to do is spontaneously plan in order to do the normal childhood stuff other families take for granted.

It can't have escaped anyone's attention that there is a lot going on in my home town of London at the moment - all this week we have had the Diamond Jubilee Celebrations then in a few weeks time the Olympics start.