How I Pack for a Prolonged Hospital Stay with a Complex Needs Child

We are two days out from Elin's double osteotomy at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore, and I have given myself, once again, far too much to do in far too little time. #osteotomy #cerebralpalsykids #hospitalstay This vlog is filmed over three days — the evening before, the day before admission, and the morning we leave. You'll see me cooking Elin's blends, trying to hold it together emotionally, dropping the cat off, spending a last evening with Alice, opening a very exciting delivery from Wilbo's Blends that completely changed my packing plan, and finally getting on the road in the rain. Four years ago I made a vlog called How Not to Prepare Mentally For Your Child's Surgery. It has some genuinely good advice in it. I wish I'd followed it. I'll link it below. If you are preparing for a prolonged hospital stay with a complex needs child, I hope this is useful. And if you're in the thick of the anticipation and struggling with it — me too. That's what this channel is for. 🔗 How Not to Prepare Mentally For Your Child's Surgery →    • How (not) to prepare mentally for your chi...   🔗 Wilbo's Blends (blended diet pouches for tube and oral blended diet feeders) → https://wilbosblends.com/ Wilbo's Blends sent me this product to try. I'm a special needs mum vlogger in the UK with two daughters, one of whom is severely disabled. Elin is a girl with quadriplegic cerebral palsy, she has a feeding tube, is a wheelchair user and as she can't use the toilet independently she is in a nappy / diaper. Apart from cerebral palsy, Elin has complex medical needs and seizure disorder. She has tonic clonic, or grand mal seizures, partial focal seizures and absence seizures. She is on multiple medications every day, for her spastic muscles, for her reflux disorder and for her epilepsy. Elin is on a blended diet, which we give her through her feeding tube, and I share tips, how to and recipes. On this channel I share our day to day life, our morning, feeding, medication and bedtime routines, feeding techniques, how Elin communicates, etc. I also showcase the relationship between Elin and her sister Alice, and how they play and interact with each other. And I share what life is like for a single, midlife mom who always juggles too much. Organisation tips, perimenopause, and coparenting. Elin’s medical procedures playlist: https://bit.ly/2HhKFsE Tips and tricks playlist: https://bit.ly/2ugfoy1 Come and join us on other social media platforms: Instagram:   / parentxp   TikTok: https://tikTok.com/parentxp Facebook:   / parentxp   00:00 Cooking for Elin and Me — Surgery in Two Days 02:09 Packing, Feelings and the Anticipation of Surgery 06:45 Car Chat with Alice — Animals, Admission Times and Admin 10:50 Opening Wilbo's Blends — This Changes Everything 13:12 3:30am and I Actually Did It 15:30 We're Off — Heading to Stanmore