Help a Hero.

Have you ever spent the night in a hospital with your child?
Have you ever slept on one of those fold out chair beds?

I remember when Zoe was in hospital with chronic asthma. Muski was around 6 weeks old and the three of us stayed for a few days… and nights.

I’m willing to bet that ever parent who brings a sick child to hospital is already tired. I bet they’ve already had a sleepless night or two, not to mention a nice helping of stress to add to that. And sleeping in a hospital is hard.

Being crammed into a small room, with people you don’t know, with just a thin curtain separating us all (sometimes one that doesn’t even reach the whole way around), listening to them sleep, or snore, or toss and turn, it’s a new kind of hell. The worry is palpable, and then there are machines and night nurses and strange noises. Sleep is not easy to come by for anyone.

Add to that the fold out beds are not exactly comfortable. They are usually old and battered. The bottom sheet never seems to stay on. The springs squeak. They are tiny, with torn vinyl and strange smells.

Don’t get me wrong… I know most of us would sleep standing up if we had to, just to be near our children when they need us. I also know that the hospitals that we’ve stayed in do a fabulous job of not only looking after our kids, but caring for us too. But funding falls short and beds for parents are at the bottom of a long long list of much more important hospital equipment.

So why am I rambling on about this?

Well I know someone, a hero, though I know she’ll hate me calling her that… Someone who has slept on many a fold out hospital bed. Someone who has seen first hand how much hospital staff care about our sick kids. Sometime who knows much more about this than any parent would ever want to…. and someone who is making a difference.

Please pop over to Tiffs blog – Three Ring Circus and read more about her efforts to raise money to buy parent beds and a fridge for the ward nurses at John Hunter Children’s Hospital.

Sure, the likelihood me ever sleeping on a fold out bed in NSW is slim to none (since we live in another state!), but I know what it’s like. I’ve been there. I can imagine how horrible it must be for those parents with longer or recurrent hospital stays. So if I can donate a few dollars to make just one parent’s hospital stay a little easier… I’m up for it!

When all of us bloggers and blog readers get together we can do amazing things.. so donate a dollar or two and make someone’s hard night a little bit easier!