Grocery Shopping Yesterday

It's something most people take for granted. You need something, you go to the store to buy it. All that changed for us the minute Ainsley came home. The days of packing up the kids in the car to run whatever errands needed to be done were over. It's been a challenge to get the things we need and we've resorted to buying many things through the internet, including groceries at times. But yesterday the kids were having friends over for a tea party and we had to have cookies. More importantly, we HAD to have diapers. That one, cannot wait! So I did it. I packed them all up in the car and we got all the things we needed and rushed home to meet our guests. I suctioned Ainsley once before we left and once again when we left the store. THAT'S IT!

Now this would not have been possible even a few weeks ago. I hate to jinx myself but it appears that the Flovent that we started giving her on Saturday (was it really less than a week ago?!) is really helping minimize secretions. I'm not sure why or how. Perhaps it was just a lucky day. It's not been long enough to know for sure so I'll post more about that another time. Anyway, safety issues aside, I really hate it when she needs suctioning while I'm driving and I have to quickly find a place to pull over to suction her. In the city that's not always safe or possible. These days I am 99% sure she won't end up vomiting if I can't pull over fast enough, like I had happen so many times in the past when I attempted to drive her anywhere. Now she is able to sit, and with the cast/brace off she will fit, in a cart instead of having to grocery shop in the stroller with store personnel suspecting me of shop lifting. Nowdays I am confident enough that I don't feel I must have the oxygen, the ambubag, the go bag with supplies and spare trachs. With only Ainsley, the suction machine and my mini-Mom purse (smaller than a wallet, hangs off the stroller or stuffs in the diaper bag, unlike my REAL purse) in the cart I was actually almost able to fit everything we need in the cart. Alas, I did have to forgo buying beer. No room. Bummer. It was so liberating that I was woo-hooing in the car. The kids are like "What are you so excited about, Mom?" I answer "We went GROCERY SHOPPING!" They think I'm crazy. I'm sure few people can understand. Of course it's still preferable NOT to take 3 kids to the grocery store but at least I have the peace of mind that I can do it if needed, without a nervous breakdown. And tonight we had pulled pork tacos with escabeche, instead of frozen food.