Respite, giggles and more messy medical stuff

It's been a long time since Smiley was in respite, and the last overnight ended in tears, lots of them.  But my social worker did not give up and by Christmas she had another plan.  A small respite house  in a country village where just a handful of children stay over together with a few who live there, and no agency workers, so Smiley could get to know the staff.  This sounded good and the first meeting left me feeling confident.  Smiley was relaxed and interested, so I booked her in for two sessions of afternoon respite to familiarise her.  The first time I went to collect her she was looking a bit worried and then gave a big smile when she saw me.  The second time she looked as though she wanted to stay.  And last night, she did.

The day before I wobbled, especially at bedtime when she just looked so happy!

There was lots of preparation, including a special social story with pictures, which the school and I used to prepare her for her 'sleepover'.  On the morning there was no time for anything except packing and list checking.  And then she was gone.

My day was very productive, starting with a visit to the surgery to get a stitch taken out.  But while I was there the nurse took a look at my chart and said:

"You're due a smear, will I do it now?"

What?

Panic time...

Brain went through rapid checklist:

Shower: yes
Clean undies: yes
Wax/shave: no

Eeek!

But after a week of embarrassing and awkward medical procedures, surely I could cope with one more?

So I let her.  And hopefully there will no more poking and prodding and scraping and cutting this side of Christmas.

Rather stupidly I filled the rest of the day with shopping - the boring kind - administration and work.  I did rent a DVD for the evening, but my son kept asking me to turn it down and the soft Scottish accents of the characters meant I couldn't hear half the story!  I missed Smiley, especially in the quiet of the kitchen, so perhaps staying home and doing chores is not the best use of free time.

Memo to self: next time Smiley is in Respite DO SOMETHING FUN.

The highlight of the day was a call at about 8pm from the Respite House.  Nothing was wrong, they were just ringing to tell me how she was getting on!  A second call in the morning confirmed that all went pretty well.  No tears, just lots of excited giggling, which was non-stop from 4.30am in the morning!

She arrived back to school happy, and there was more laughter this afternoon when we went for a walk, after a treat of mashed up banana muffins and custard.  So I'm almost afraid to jinx it but it looks like this new respite house is a complete success :D

My son also benefited. I slept in till almost 7.  My son got up at the same time.  By choice.  And only made me wait for about 5 minutes while he did his 'stretches'.

I do wonder if some of his 'difficult' behaviour is due to jealousy of his sister and how much time and attention she needs from me.  So perhaps more respite for Smiley could improve my relationship with him too?

Wouldn't that be wonderful.