How to tell your children ?

[WAEE01 2]

Hey everyone.. I just got my surgery date for May 26th and I have to say Im super nervous and excited. My question is how did others tell their children that you would be away from home for 2 nights? My girl is 8 and my boy is 3 ... they both cling to me at bedtime so im really worried how this will impact them. I know its only 2 days but as a mom, they are my main concern! A nurse told me i shoudl tell my 8yr old that momma is going to the hospital to get help with my weight??? Suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!!!!

Thanks

[ShellMilliner 233]

@@WAEE01 Hi, I was in a very similiar situation. I have a 6 year old daughter and 2 year old son. I had the SADI so I was in the hospital 3.5 days. My son is a mama's boy, although when I'm not home he does just fine with dad. But believe me I was worried, every minute before surgery. What if he won't let daddy give him a bath? He's going to cry and miss me. Will he sleep okay? Will dad wake up if he cries in the middle of the night? And so on...

First, they both did just fine. They came and visited me in the hospital on the 2nd day. I had a NG tube in the first 24 hours and didn't want them to see that. My son wanted to see and hug me but was a bit apprehensive. My daughter was fine. She visited me in the hospital when she was almost 3 going on 4 after her brother was born (C-section). She was pretty apprehensive at that time too. I think it is the IVs and the hospital bed that throws them.

I told my daughter because I knew she would want to know what was up. I told her that mommy has tried to lose weight lots of times and that the doctors were going to do an operation to help me. I told her being very overweight like mommy was is not healthy and can cause me to be sick and not do as many things wth them, like run around and play and go on rides. I told her just like after having her brother I would be sore and need to rest but that I would heal up and as I did I would be losing weight and that we would be able to do so many more things this summer and it would help keep me healthy for a long time.

She understood and was very excited for me. You don't have to detail any bad things or risks when talking to her. I also told her she needed to help her daddy as much as possible because he would be the only one having to drive them places, pack lunches, get them ready for bed and up in the morning. She was very proud to get to be mommy.