You know the saying ‘The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray’, well I experienced this for myself today!

So my today was going to look like this:

1. We would drop both children at my friend’s house at 9am.
2. They would spend the day with them and their children having heaps of fun on a day trip to an animal farm. I had packed their bags last night in readiness.
3. We would get the bus into the city treating ourselves to some well deserved and necessary chill out time at a luxury hotel spa followed by a spot of lunch.
4. We’d return on the bus around 4pm to collect our 2 happy, exhausted children.
5. We would all be happy and revitalised.

This was an unbelievable treat as in the 19 months since our youngest has been a part of our family I can count on half a hand the amount of time we’ve had apart from both girls. We love them dearly but to be honest, I was looking forward to having an uninterrupted conversation with my husband for the first time in a very long time.

This is what my today was:

• At 1.30am I was woken by our 19 month olds cries.
• I ran in, shoved a dummy in her mouth and crept back out of her room holding my breath.
• About 30 minutes later I woke to the sound of her being sick.
• My husband had (rather unusually) woken to her before me. She had been sick. Not a little bit. A lot. Vomit everywhere. He brought her into the room next to our bedroom where she continued to throw up.
• When I woke to the sound of her throwing up I came through to help.
• As is often the case in these far too frequent night-time rendezvous, my husband and I exchanged a few grumpy/ heated words with each other as we attempted to deal with the situation.
• I changed her bed and did my best to clear up as much sick as possible in the dark.
• Before long our 3 year old appeared (around 2.30am).
• She demanded the iPad and hot milk.
• I suggested I would lie with her to help her get back to sleep to which she declined and said she wanted Daddy.
• I then suggested I stay with our 19 month old – it appeared she also only wanted Daddy as she scrunched her body up towards him, clinging on for dear life when I tried to take her.

• Apparently neither of my children wanted me at this precise moment in time.
• After a further 10 minutes standing there feeling helpless and shattered we agreed for me to return to bed (it has been quite a few months of active nights so whilst the spewing is unusual the wakefulness isn’t an isolated occurrence).
• It was no good, I couldn’t sleep with the guilt that my husband had 2 of them to deal with in the middle of the night and one was poorly. Plus, I couldn’t relax knowing she was sick and I wasn’t there to comfort her.
• I went back and firmly suggested to our 3 year old that it was bedtime and daddy would go with her.
• Luckily this time they both co-operated and the youngest stayed with me, continuing to be glued to In The Night Garden. I’m gobsmacked to see that she now knows what to do with the iPad when each episode ends – she’s 19 months old!
• Just as I think she is falling asleep she starts to retch again.
• I go to grab the sick bowl to discover it and it’s contents, have turned upside down on the carpet.
• She is sick again.
• I then put her into the baby carrier, both starkers (well except for her nappy) and spend the next half an hour swaying her to sleep.
• At 5 am she eventually falls asleep.
• I put her in the travel cot which we have set up in our room in preparation for the busy nights we often have.
• I lie down to go to sleep. Just as I think I may nod off I hear her retching again.
• I jump up to get her and stand in the sick bowl.
• On this occasion it was a false alarm. She isn’t sick and by 5.30am she goes off to sleep again.
• I don’t.
• I lie there feeling absurdly AWAKE.
• I must drift off at some point as I wake up at 7.30am to the sound of my 3 year old in the room next door chattering away to her daddy.
• My husband and I blearily apologise to each other for snapping in the night, aware we are just gutted that we are all exhausted and the day we’d been looking forward to isn’t going to happen.
• I contact my friend to explain what’s happened.
• She is as disappointed for us as I am.
• We discuss the possibility of her just taking my 3 year old, I throw in my disclaimer that I can’t promise she won’t start spewing too.
• She’s up for it and enthusiastically agrees (far too nice and selfless).
• Husband takes 3 year old to their house whilst I spend the next hour cleaning up the remainder of the sick
• At this point our 19 month old points to the iPod, makes me press play and begins SKIPPING around the lounge.
• WTF?
• I’m obviously delighted that she is feeling better. However, I’m also a tad pissed off that our EXTREMELY RARE/ NEVER romantic, relaxing, child free day was cancelled.
• Husband returns with a bunch of flowers, anticipating my grumpy mood. The flowers don’t help. I wanted a different kind of day. This isn’t the one I had planned.
• He makes a couple of suggestions to which my response is to bite his head off.
• Our 19 month old continues to dance around cutely. I can no longer remain grumpy as we laugh at her. I accept that whilst it’s not going to be quite the day I had planned, we can still have a lovely day and enjoy spending some quality time just with her.
• We had a lovely day.
• Our 3 year old also had a lovely day at the farm with her friend.

Best laid plans!

Have you ever experienced something similar? Please share in the comments below.

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