Monday, 18 November 2013

Granny Care

I'm essentially doing nightshifts with my Granny. She has advanced alzheimers and has been getting up a lot in the night so my parents haven't been getting a lot of sleep. We think of her like a toddler which makes it a lot easier to cope/deal with her. It sounds a little harsh like that. Let me explain! With my kids in SA, I didn't want to know their stories at first because I was scared that all I saw when I looked at them would be the abuse they had suffered. Instead, when I learned their stories one by one it gave me a better understanding of how their minds worked and where they were coming from and so I was able to come up with solutions for any problems we had that suited the individual child. Same with Granny. If we think of her as a perfectly able old lady we get horrendously frustrated, she can be very stubborn and argumentative sometimes. But if we think of her as a toddler, we can look after her better.

With me working lates at M&S it means I can sleep all day, so we're trialling me on nightshifts to see if it helps any. I'm working a rough 2 days on 2 days off system and I'm only doing it 4 nights a week. I've also arranged it so that I'm not pulling an all-nighter when I have to work at midday at Marks.

I'd forgotten how tiring it is though. And how it's 9 hours of waiting to be able to go to bed! Yoh!

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