Packing, unpacking and packing.....

I needed to sit down and take a bit of a breather. It has been a very busy Mother's Day. Today was an unpacking day. I unpacked all Kourtney's things from the hospital and washed them with bleach. I just talked to my Aunt Sharon today and she told me that nothing says clean more than the smell of bleach. I have to agree with that. When Kourtney was in the hospital we had problems with Kourtney's feed leaking through the stoma. The smell of feed is very strong but it gets worse when it stays on the dressings for a long period of time. Kourtney's dressings weren't changed at the hospital and the feed leaked the first night we were there. Needless to say there was quite an odour in the room.

As soon as we got home, the first things I did were give Kourtney a bath and wash all her clothes with bleach. I then wiped down her bath and table with bleach. Then I started emptying out laundry bags, dressing supply bags and entertainment bags from the hospital. I always accumulate so much stuff from the hospital because any extra supplies left over in a isolation room are thrown out. It is my rich German heritage that does not allow me to throw these things away. Maybe one day I will be able to use the blue pads or the 'save a day trays' or even the 10cc syringes. I have even accumulated some IV supplies and am thinking of teaching one of our student nurses how to start an IV. I am thinking that Todd's veins might come in handy (he thinks he should rent himself out). In a couple of months I will probably have a psychotic cleaning moment and chuck them all out and tell myself . . . what was I thinking? Right now I am anticipating that I'll make use of all these supplies.

So after I went through all these things, I moved to Shaelyns' room. WE unpacked her bags that she had packed for overnights at Grandma's when we were at the hospital. We put away her DVDs and stuffies from the long trip into Children's and even found her tarantula skin (long story). I started to organize outfits for Disney World and was going to try to put some outfits together and put them in a Ziploc bag and then she could have an outfit for the day (I saw it done at camp and envied the organization of that mom). But Shae does not think like that nor should she. I just thought it would be so nice to pull out a bag a day and not have to worry about sifting through all her stuff in her suitcase. I had a mutiny on my hands as she would not clean up her room if I did that. I put that thought away and just will have to close my eyes when I see her suitcase. Maybe I could try it with Todd's clothes.

So on to my room. I had laundry still sitting around from Tuesday before we left for the hospital. I put everything in my room and then started folding. I then organized my clothes for going away. I am counting on hot weather, so lots of shorts and tank tops.

Tonight I am making up the dressing supply list, tomorrow I will organize the toiletries and organize the DVDs and decide which ones we will take on our trip. We also will have Kourtney's iPOD, Shae's Nintendo, magazines and books. Todd is organizing electronics and his own clothes. He is going to work tomorrow, so it will give me some more time to organize things. Shaelyn is going to school, and Kourtney will stay home. We are hoping Tammy will be able to come and spend time with her (did I mention how wonderful she is). She came over for a visit today and brought her 2 children along. It brightened us all up!!

We will end up with a ton of suitcases but it is very obvious why. We are taking Kourtney's feed. Generally she goes through one 1.5 litre bottle per night. 8 1.5 litres is approx 12kg which equals over 25 lbs. We will need 64 rolls of comforming gauze 5 rolls of jelonet, 7 boxes of mepilex transfer, 7 boxes of mepitel, 1 box of needles, 1 box of vaseline gauze, 1 box of honey, satin draw sheets, padded blankets, soaker pads, toilet stuff plus all her medications. It is a daunting task for anyone and I am so thankful for the great help I have to make the job go easier.

I will write down that list and then try to find my bed amongst the rubble. Actually all I have to do is follow the snoring sound, Todd has gone to bed and is extremely tired . . . when he is that tired . . . he snores.