Hellobee Boards

I'm sorry, that sounds terrible! I stay home and we don't have family nearby either. We would have to have dh stay home or work from home to help. Maybe you could find a babysitter through care.com or something like that? I feel like you could afford to be less picky since you will be there for the most part, as opposed to leaving her with a new sister and putting all your trust at once, if that makes sense.

I hope you feel better soon!

Oh gosh, that sounds painful! I thought about this recently, myself, but don't have a good solution. I like the idea of the mother's helper as others suggested. Good luck, mama, and heal quickly.

My friend had this problem over the summer - she needed an emergency surgery and couldn't lift anything for 6 weeks, and was a SAHM to her three kids. She hired a neighbourhood teenager to come over and basically do her lifting.

I'm sorry about your elbow!

I don't know how much help I'll be, but last summer I broke my ankle. I SAH, but we live 5 hours from our nearest family, so I have/had no help/backup. I stepped funny on our step one morning (thank god it was during LO's nap!) and then I called my DH telling him what happened and that I couldn't put weight on it. He usually walks to work, but had a friend/co-worker that was able to bring him home. We went to the doctor that afternoon and found out it was broken. Luckily (I guess), it was a Friday, so DH was home all weekend. I had a walking boot and by Monday was able to at least move around/provide basic care for my DS. We babygated our living room and I kept diapers, wipes, and a mat in the living room for changing him, and that helped so that I didn't have to move around the house a lot. All DS's toys were in the living room and we did some projects to break up the day. But I will be honest, he watched a TON of TV during those weeks. We had just moved to our city, so we didn't know a lot about the area and I couldn't drive because it was my right ankle. That was probably the worst part because it was 6-8 weeks of no driving!

After a few weeks, I was able to move decently so we could go in the backyard and play more. That might not really be an option depending on where you live since it's so cold, but hopefully after a few weeks it will be easier to leave the house a little bit...even for walks!

I think my DH came home early most days to help out, so if that's an option it might be helpful for you!

@catgirl: hopefully your LO will go to bed easily for you on the nights your DH works late. I'm pretty lucky because my DH works in academics and can go in late/leave early whenever he needs to, but he can't work from home either. The situation sucks, but you will find ways to make it work! I think the first 2 weeks were the hardest. It really wasn't as bad as it could have been, I just had to let a lot go. I couldn't do laundry or clean, etc. Just make sure you give yourself time to rest/heal or it could take longer. During every nap I made sure to take my boot off and elevate/ice my foot in the first couple weeks.

Also, you'll probably have several doctor's appointments, so you may want to try to plan those out ASAP and see if your parents or in-laws can help if your DH can't get off work. Or schedule for the days he has mornings off. You definitely won't want to bring your LO with all alone.

Oh, this sucks! I wouldn't have been able to use drop in care when my son was small, I tried, but he would freak out about 15 minutes in and I would have to go and get him...this is why even though I stayed at home for 2 years, we got a very part time nanny (4 hours a week). I'd look and see if you can utilize someone like an au pair, that has older children in school in her care, so you can leverage him or her during their downtime. I would think any care in your home would be the least disruptive.

That sounds really tough. As far as finding a sitter on short notice I would look at sites like Urbansitter and Chime by SitterCity, if they're available where you live. If you have any connections to college students now might be good timing to find someone who's on break for a few more weeks.

Good luck and feel better!