So if you’ve read this blog before, you know that we looked at different home care providers and invested in a momsitter to come to the nursing home for 3 hours a week, 3 times a week to spend time with mom.  Whatever they want to do, read, listen to music, work puzzles, etc.  We are paying for someone to be 100% focused on mom and what makes her happy.  

It’s had a huge impact!  She reads now.  She writes now.  She’s up and moving and doing things.  It’s been so successful that we have added a second momsitter who comes twice a week.  This time instead of a service, we hired a staff member who works in the home to come on her days off.  

Things couldn’t be going better.  For one, mom is engaged and active at a minimum five times per week.  Six if you count when we visit on the weekend.  So it’s got obvious benefits for her. For us, it means less worry about what she’s doing and how active she is.  It also means less guilt around having our own lives in addition to playing the roles of son and caregiver.  We have found two other people to regularly show up to love and care for mom.  

An unexpected thing that’s happened is it’s allowed us to be connected to her life in a way we weren’t before.  Each day the momsitter from the service is there, she writes what they did in a notebook that we can read on the weekends.  Each week the momsitter we hired from the home sends me an email of what they did so I can use it as a billing invoice.  Both things allow me a window into mom’s day to day life.  A way of being there when I can’t be there.  

Some excerpts from her weekly activities:

week 6. day 1: went to activities listened to music. worked on puzzles,brushed teeth,did some identification cards,read the newspaper,walked around a bit and looked at pictures.  day 2: today we went to activities,looked at newspaper,colored,curled her hair and walked alot,brushed her teeth and wrote some too.

week 3- day 1. we did puzzles,went to activities and listened to music,colored a pic for facility,walked,brushed our teeth. got our dinner at 515 and ate. day 2. puzzles,played fish,listened to radio, other aide gave her shower i kept her busy singing songs in shower. did her hair and brushed her teeth and folded clothes.

week 4 day 1. we had makeover day, curled her hair,fingernails purple,soaked and lotioned feet,played cards,puzzles, and wrote 2 notes. day 2. today we did puzzles,picked songs off cds and sang them. she really liked singing take me home country roads. brushed teeth,went thru drawers and organized,hung up shirts,walked some,wrote some more and she read your letter you wrote again. the weeks fly by she seems to like the visits.