How many weeks of help did you have? (kids mentioned)

Well I thought I was going to have almost 5 weeks of help after my surgery, but my Step Mom said yesterday that her and my Dad may not come back after my Hubby goes back to work. Which will only be 2 1/2 weeks out from my surgery. I understand I will be feeling better, but I have to small children ages 3 and 4 1/2, the 3 yr old still needs lifting from time to time as she is so tiny, UGH UGH UGH. I got my Dad alone and asked about this, since they HAD TOLD me the would be back for a week or 2 after hubby went back to work. My Dad said if I needed him he would come by himself. OK COOOOOOL I am going to talk to him tonight and just let him know YES I will need you that week for sure, that way by the time he went home, I would be almost into my 4th week of recovery.

Thanks for letting me vent ladies.

ANY ADVICE on how you did it or how you will do it?

watching this thread!

I'm watching too!

I'm not really sure how much help you will need. I am having a laprascopic via the tummy.....nothing coming out of the vagina & was thinking I would only need about 10 days or so. If I had a full abdominal, I was thinking a full 2 weeks. My dd is 4 & only weighs 30 lbs. but I really don't pick her up much excpet for getting in & out of her car seat which she can easily crawl into. I hold her but mostly when sitting down.

I would be very interested in what others say about how much help is needed. My help will be coming from IN to TX so I need to have a pretty solid plan.

That said, if your Dad is willing to come hlep out, TAKE HIM UP ON IT!!!! :-)

Pam

I too have a 30lb 4 year old and will lose my help only 1.5 weeks in. My hubby works offshore and I chose to have surgery while he was home (he wants to be there and is quite worried and I need him by myside).
Im not sure how things are going to work out yet. My father is disabled and lives about 45 min away so Im sure if nothing else, that I can get him to come and watch the kiddo while Im resting.
Im really hoping to get back to work quickly but we shall see!

As of right now, me, and my 3 girls will be staying wtih my parents for about 2 weeks (we will base more on how I feel) after mine (due my husband's work hours) I will go home on weekends, since he will be home all day.

My dad will be getting the girls (2 of them) ready for school and take them to our bus stop. Thank goodness they are only a mile from my house.

Hi
I want to warn all of you to take the restriction on lifting more than 10 lbs very seriously. Lifting heavy things (or even light things at funny angles) can cause "microtears" inside you that are mini wounds that create scarring or adhesions. If they are around your bowel, the adhesions can constrict your bowel and can force emergency surgery. My mom had a hysterectomy 15 years ago, and ended up with bowel adhesions about a year later (although they weren't correctly diagnosed until four years ago, when she had emergencysurgery.) Please read the post-op section on overdoing it and adhesions.

I have older kids, (16 and 10) so I was able to get them to do a lot of the casual lifting around the house like carrying laundry up and down , taking out the trash, or putting full pots of water on the stove when DH wasn't there. I don't know what I would have done with small kids--I would probably have considered putting the little ones' mattress on the floor and lying with them to go to sleep. But even so, its really hard to handle a small kid (say if they need diapering)--I would think it would be important for you to have help durin gthe waking hours for the full time you have lifting restrictions (which will vary depending on your surgery--I had a SAH and had lifting restrictions for 6 weeks.)
I feel a bit of a fool sometimes making the kids lift stuff, but I would rather do that than have another surgery, and then another and another (if you are prone to adhesions, any surgery including surgery to remove adhesions can create more adhesions and problems.) And the one or two times I tried lifting stuff even close to my 10 lb limit I could feel it in my abdomen.

Some other ideas might include hiring a local preteen or teen to help you by doing teh baby lifting--afterall, you would be home the whole time, so they dont' need the kind of judgment and experience of a babysitter you would leave alone with the kids?

Thanks so much ladies for all the info, I will let my family KNOW how improtant it is that I DO NOT LIFT

I think you and I are in the same boat...
I'm having the recto. TVH, Vaginal vault repair, the perri. reconstructed, and they will put the camera in my bladder to see how much they must do there...
I have a 25 lb 10 month old baby, a 2 1/2 year old (potty training), 10 and 12 year old too...
I'm trying to set up everything...but feel like I'm flying blind. My insurance company said they will only allow one day in the castle..so they must think it's no big deal.
This forum is leading me to believe this combo is a big deal. I'm so scared that I won't be able to cuddle my baby .

I'm thinking about you-I think we're in the same time zone. Please let us all know how you're doing.

Blessings on your whole family-
Sammantha
Southwest Washington

wow! a couple of wa ladies, huh? cool! i have a 2 1/2 year old and a five year old. i am worried about the 2 yo since he won't allow anyone else to carry him or get him in/out of his car seat, etc. he will if i am not around, so i guess i will just have to be absent anytime he needs lifted? ugh luckily i will have dh for 2 weeks for sure and more if need be and my mil will be staying with us for as long as i need as well.