Seven top tips for surviving a hospital stay with a child

Unfortunately for us Mitch has had a pretty rough start to his life. This week has seen him being admitted to hospital for the seventh time in his eight months of being on this wonderful planet. I won't go into what he has and why he's been admitted so many times today, I'll save that for a future post, but I do want to share my top tips for coping when your child is in hospital as we have learned so much.

I base all of the following on the fact that one parent needs to stay in hospital with the child overnight as this is the point of reference we have and is common for young children and babies. We also have one child so accept that this is easier than if you have more than one child. I'm sure that these tips could be adapted though.

1. Its going to be tough accept it - stating the obvious I know but the sooner you accept that its going to be tough for not only the parent who is staying in hospital but also the one "home alone" the better. Acceptance is a great way to move forward, and you will be home as a family again soon.
2. Create some sort of routine quickly - as the stay at home one we find that with all the doctors checks and nurses shift change overs me being there early morning isn't really that useful. What we find works is for me to come late morning early afternoon and stay later. This means I can keep up to speed with work but also means that I am there to support when things are getting frayed around the edges. Which brings me to.....
3. Try and create some normality for both of you. By me only going to visit later it means I can work, do some exercise, walk the dogs etc. Then by me doing an afternoon shift Kim can do some work, go for a run, catch up with friends for coffee, or even come home for an hour or two and walk the dogs.
4. Give the stayer a break. Being stuck in a hospital ward is not pleasant so give the parent staying in hospital a chance to get out. Often they will refuse, however the space offered is always welcome
5. Make home cooked food. We are lucky our childrens ward has a small kitchen with microwave oven this allows the stay at home parent to make a "normal" dinner or lunch and bring it to the hospital for the other parent. Not only is this healthier but its also cheaper by far. It also keeps a sense of normality as everyone loves a home cooked meal over a hospital dinner or take away.
6. Make friends with the nurses. I cannot stress this enough. So often we see parents who treat nurses as quasi-slaves or personal servants. Bad move. Yes they will be professional and do their job but that's it. We have always made a point of finding out their names (its on their name tags so not hard to do) and calling them by it, buying them a chocolate bar, offering to make them tea or coffee, or just finding out more about them. It pays off believe me as when we go into hospital now we have a relationship with them and they are more flexible with visiting hours, or looking after Mitch while we have a break. Stuff that can make a huge difference to your experience
7. Don't force people to come and visit. We learned very early on that some people hate hospitals and will do anything to avoid them. This is ok. The people who want to visit will and those who don't won't. On the converse you don't always want to be entertaining visitors and just want to be left alone. This is ok and totally natural, you will find a balance.

So there's my seven top tips for surviving a hospital stay with a child. As I said its not easy but you will get through it and everything will be ok. Trust me!