When Tag-Team Parenting Goes Awry (AKA One parent is hospitalized)

Randy and I spend our days in a delicate game of parenting hot potato. We pass the kids back and forth as we shift off sleeping and working. It's challenging but we've got our routine down and most days go fairly smoothly. That is, until one of us is out of commission and the other parent is stuck holding a scalding potato. That happened to us this past week when I came down with appendicitis.

It started as a mild stomach ache that migrated down to the lower right side of my stomach. It actually didn't hurt that bad and I was too busy to notice it much. It was around the kids' bedtime on Thursday evening when S kept trying to climb into my lap for "big hugs!" that I begin to realize that when he climbed onto the left side of my lap, it hurt on the right side.

So Randy and I got the kids into bed and I Dr. Googled symptoms of appendicitis. I decided I had enough symptoms to head to urgent care, but I first nursed the baby and pumped some milk just in case I had a long wait. I left for urgent care just after 7 PM, was sent to the hospital for a CT scan by 8 PM (I did come home to get my pump since I could tell it was going to be a long night), was in for a CT scan by 11:30, and was in surgery shortly after 2 AM.

We have a wonderful emergency baby-sitter who is used to working at night and we were able to get her to our apartment in time for Randy to make it to the hospital for my surgery. We had called her as soon as I went to urgent care, just in case we needed a back-up. Randy also called my mom early on to place her on alert. It doesn't take much to throw tag-team parents for a loop!

While in recovery the nurses kept requesting that I let them know if I needed anything. All I could think was "People are preparing my meals for me, cleaning up after me, I have cable t.v., and no one has followed me into the bathroom all day. I want for nothing." It was Randy that I was worried about, stuck at home with three little people, one being a fussy baby that was not too fond of bottles. Not to mention he was supposed to be sleeping during the day and working at night. Thankfully my mom is a saint and arrived in Pennsylvania by lunchtime on Friday. Randy was able to catch a nap before heading back to the hospital and the kids were so excited to see Nana that they didn't notice I wasn't around.

I guess that's the only way to make tag-team parenting successful - with a huge support network of people you can really trust. We're not really making it on our own, we're making it because of the loving people in our lives. I just hope that we can return the favor one day.