Well! We have had some excitement around here! Paul was sick and I would personally have diagnosed him with Acute Bigbabyitis, but then he got sicker and ended up spending three days in the hospital. He’s fine and back home now, tutting over how quickly the garden got out of hand, asking me do we have a multi-alarm pillbox for his antibiotics. (“Oh, yes, Honey, I keep a stack of those in the pantry!”)
The few days he was in the hospital were so busy; I don’t think I’ve felt like that since the twins were newborns. I’d intended to go into more detail here about how busy I was, but then I got a couple paragraphs into it and couldn’t BELIEVE how boring it was. In short, the hospital is half an hour away, and I was also preparing for the twins’ birthdays, and also there are five children, and anyway it was a busy time—the kind where you can’t figure out how you’re going to eat because even stopping at a drive-through takes too much time. I have a FitBit, and I was coming close to the daily goal of 10,000 steps without doing any exercise at all, just moving from thing to thing.
It was interesting to me to see what things got dropped and what things didn’t, and how such things were decided (importance to me + importance to someone else + timing + possibility/impossibility). Candy Crush: dropped. Blogging: dropped. (The URGE to blog: NOT DROPPED.) Cooking: dropped. Shopping didn’t get dropped entirely, but turned into “figuring out when I’d be driving past the store anyway and buying only the one item we had to have.” Reminding the kids about their homework, or in fact worrying about their homework/grades at all: dropped. The kids’ karate class: dropped. Daily walk: dropped. Emailing the teachers about the situation: not dropped. Child’s annual physical: not dropped. Classroom birthday treats: not dropped. Stopping to buy more kid soap: dropped. Noticing library book due dates: dropped.
It was interesting to see where there were caches of available time. Normally in the morning I don’t try to get anything done before the kids go to school, except for the regular morning routines. It turns out there’s enough time in there to also bake a batch of cupcakes and two batches of cookies, if I am fueled by the weird Emergency Mode adrenaline. I could have stopped at the store and purchased those things, and in fact that was my original plan. (Baking: dropped. Caring about the cost of doing things an easier/faster way: dropped.) But there I was, trapped ANYWAY in the house until the bus came, and itching to get to some of the things on the list.
I found it fun to visit Paul in the hospital. It was odd to spend time with him like that: sitting in a hospital room and chatting and playing card games. I also LOVED the cafeteria. Do you remember me rhapsodizing about the food in the maternity ward? THAT WAS AVAILABLE TO ME AGAIN. I had a chicken caesar salad wrap! A fruit cup! Chocolate chip cookies!
Do you go to the same hospital as me? I LOVE the chicken caesar salad wrap!! I get it every day when I’m there having a baby. Glad Paul is doing better!
I loved the hospital food when I was there too! Isn’t that weird? The roast beef sandwich was my favourite cafeteria thing. Yeah, husband, hospital, five kids? BUSY. I love that you admitted you would have diagnosed him with BigBabyitis, too – I think I saw an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond where that exact thing happened once (which is weird, because I really hate Everybody Loves Raymond).
Glad Paul has improved! You’re making me want to head over to the hospital cafeteria.
You will never be able to diagnose Big Babyitis again, because someone will remind you that you were wrong, wrong, wrong, and he could have DIED. Sigh.
THIS! My husband had Big Babyitis that turned out to be West Nile virus. Fortunately, after a few days of my Big Babyitis diagnosis and lack of improvement on his part, I also diagnosed West Nile and insisted on the blood test. So, I can never again diagnose Big Babyitis but I can (and do) take credit for his cure.
I’m glad Paul is okay, and glad you’re back! It sounds like the best possible outcome as far as an interruption to daily life — not serious enough to have turned into anything stressful, but a different routine + fun cafeteria food. Er, except for Paul being sick, I’m sure that wasn’t fun for him.
I’m glad he’s alright and home now!
OMG, what an adventure! Sounds like you got through it like a champ, though. Very glad Paul is home and on the mend!
So glad Paul is better. I hope he doesn’t have any lasting effects, though I fear a previous commenter may be right and your ability to diagnose bigbabyitis is done for.
I was on hospital bed rest for a month and had a chicken Caesar salad for dinner almost every night. Delish. Then after I had the baby and was moved to a different part of the hospital, their chicken Caesar salad was horrible. Weird.
So clearly, you’re about the cutest person ever. Aside from that my typical diagnosis for my hubs is crabassitis. Very similar to bibbabyitis but with more loud obnoxious moans. Glad that Paul’s better.
I laughed really hard at Bigbabyitis! Hope all is well now. It is amazing what we can get done when we have to.
Instead of taking us kids to a regular restaurant, my parents would often take us to the hospital cafeteria for dinner. I remember begging to go there more than McDonalds!
Sounds like an exhausting 3 days; I’m glad Paul is feeling better and is home now and that life can return to normal where you only have to worry about how he’s loading the dishwasher. :)
I am pregnant and headed on a 9-day business trip and all I can think about is the room service that will be available to me!
I hope Paul is doing better and it wasn’t too serious.
Glad he’s feeling better.
Now you deserve a vacation :)
Glad Paul’s better. I, also, enjoyed the hospital. The food wasn’t outstandingly wonderful but it was so nice to have “room service” available without the “room service” bill. I know, I know– the hospital stay was expensive. I’m lucky to have good health insurance and it was my first/only time in a hospital to have our beautiful baby girl so it was, overall, a very pleasant stay.
Obviously I’m glad Paul is better and at home, but most fascinating to me was that you referred to it as the twins’ birthdayS with an s. I call it my twins’ birthday. But then, they’ve only had one so maybe I’m doing it wrong?
I was thinking the same thing as the first commenter – do you live near me? When i had my second daughter I looked forward to ordering the chicken caeasar wrap at the hospital! That’s all I ate for 3 days, even when my husband offered to go get me other food.