Last week was not a great week in the Mummy Matters household, my bug has still been hanging around but last week Little Bean and Beanie Boy came down with it too but on Thursday evening, Little Bean was really poorly. She came home from school and went to her dance class full of the joys of spring, then when we got home she kept complaining of feeling cold and asking if she could go to bed AT 5.30pm!!!! This is unheard of as she will do everything she can to drag bedtime out as long as possible.
I managed to stretch bedtime out until 6.30pm before I finally putting my sleeping beauty to bed. Bless her this cold/flu thing really seemed to have wiped her out. But at 8.30pm she started coughing quite badly and when I went in to check on her I wasn’t quite prepared for the scene to greet me. Picture the scene from The Exorcist with the projectile vomiting and then remind yourself of the fact that Little Bean pretty much only eats chocolate inspired foods. That evening she had a Blueberry puree followed by a chocolate custard and I got to see it all again, ALL EVENING! This was the first time that she has really been sick since she was a baby and so it frightened the life out of her. She just didn’t know what to do as the contents of her stomach were pumping out of her. Finally around 11pm she managed to keep down a little drink of squash and went back to bed. Throughout the evening we managed to get through 3 pillows, 1 duvet, 1 duvet cover, 3 bedsheets, 4 blankets, 3 pairs of pyjamas and 2 cuddly toys – my washing machine was licking its lips!
But suddenly my thoughts turned to the following day, I was to travel down to London to attend an event with Pampers and UNICEF. I had already purchased my train ticket for which I was to be reimbursed but as I wasn’t sure whether they would still reimburse me if I didn’t attend I knew that I still had to go. Hubby and I agreed that we couldn’t afford to not be reimbursed so I had no other choice and I felt awful, I have never been away from my children when they are poorly. Hubby said that he would stay at home to look after her and Beanie Boy but this didn’t make me feel any better. I know that many working Mums have to do this all the time but I personally felt like I had failed Little Bean, it was me that she was calling out for, me who she wanted to put her to bed and now I was planning to head off to London when she felt so ill. I tried to contact the PR but being so late at night I didn’t hold out much hope of a response before I boarded the train in the morning and as it turns out, I did receive a response as I sat drinking a cup of tea in London just around the corner from the UNICEF offices to say that “yes of course I would be reimbursed, stay at home with Little Bean”.
It turns out that Little Bean was perfectly fine without me, as I knew she would be but I did miss her and I couldn’t wait to get home and hold her in my arms. She is still not well today bless her, this bug has totally wiped her out but I’m not going anywhere . . .