Looking after twins with a broken wrist
Just under six weeks ago I broke my wrist falling from a ladder whilst I was at work. t’s not one of my best moves, but there you go!
My wife works two days a week so I was in the position of looking after the girls on my own whilst off work. It seems easy looking after twins, but when you lose the use of one of your arms, you soon realise that even at the age of almost three, we still have to do so much for them.
My biggest challenge was picking the girls up if they wanted a cuddle. My arm was useless.
I’d normally get the girls food on their plate at the same, but I had to do it one at a time. Making a drink for them was also an effort. I would hold the beaker inside my elbow to take the lid off and make a drink. This would normally take seconds, but with one arm in plaster seconds had turned into minutes.
I remember that we went to the theatre one day and all of a sudden I couldn’t help my wife to gett the pushchair down some stairs because of the cast and it actually made me feel helpless and useless.
brokenPushing a double buggy with one hand was also a nightmare, not to mention extremely hard work. This mean that I rarely went out on my own.
It was really small things that were so difficult – buttering a piece of toast and cutting it in half, pouring milk on the girls cereal and evidently spilling it everywhere! I lost count of how many times I did that!
I did manage to get through looking after the twins with a broken wrist, and the twins definitely appreciated that my arm was bad. I must admit that it was frustrating and incredibly difficult to do though. By the end of the day my arm ached so badly. I guess the lesson I learnt was how much I take for granted compared to what I do when I’m fully fit.
Interestingly the biggest thing I missed nearly every morning is that the girls sit either side of me on the sofa and watch kids TV. I usually put my arms around them and it’s a very special moment every day for me. I can without a doubt say with a plaster cast on my arm it is not the same.
Thankfully, I’m all back to normal now! My plaster cast has gone so that means we can have lots of cuddles again!
3 Comments
Emily
November 7, 2014 at 9:19 pm
You looked after them very well! Thanks for linking up to the #binkylinky
Mama Herself
November 8, 2014 at 10:48 pm
I busted my ribs once. It was fine as long as I didn't have to pick things up or laugh, which I felt rather defined parenting in a nutshell, unfortunately.
Glad it is all better now!
Ashley Beolens
March 22, 2015 at 12:58 pm
I'm sure you did a great job anyway 🙂
As someone who suffers with back issues I can guarantee one thing though, and that was that you still pushed your arm to its limits for the sake of the kids rather than rest as you should (I think we as parents will always put ourselves out for our kids).