You know the bumper sticker that says, “A bad day at golf/fishing/etc is still better than a good day at the office”? Today’s the first day of school, and I’m home. I’m not a teacher anymore. I’m a mom. But I guess mine would read, “A bad day at home is still better than a good day at school.” This is a big deal. I have cried – literally – everytime I passed the school since knowing I’m not going back. I LOVED teaching middle school. But as I bounced Sam on the yoga ball this morning (trying to get work out his gas) singing “You are my sunshine” as the sun came up, I just had to smile. It was funny. And I guess it was fun, too.
Unfortunately things didn’t get better for Sam and me. I spilled shredded cheddar all over the floor, found the weekend laundry that didn’t ever make to the dryer still in the washer, found the melted ice cream Todd left ON the refridgerator this morning (don’t ask). And by the way the gas episode started after the 4:15 feeding, which means I got…let’s see…22 minutes of very interrupted sleep since then.
And I haven’t even gotten to the worst part: the nap. Sam and I are trying to master the nap. At 10:00 he went down. I was proud of myself because he was a little tired but not asleep. I gloated a little as my little angel drifted off. What a sweetie. Promptly twenty-five minutes later (while I was stirring the boiling macaroni) he woke up. Crying. I waver between thinking I am a) a wimp or b) a really good mom but golly, I just don’t feel right leaving him cry when he wakes up. He’s three months old and needs a little help. I gave him the pacifier (aptly named) stroked his head and – success – he fell asleep!
For six minutes. This process repeated itself three more times. I’m embarassed to admit how quickly, for me, anger can enter the picture. JUST TAKE A NAP. I’M TRYING TO HELP! Eventually I had to resort to my most desperate, humiliating means. I held him, bounced him, sshhed him, swaddled him. Any pretense of teaching independent sleep was gone. In my arms he managed to get two minutes of sleep (once I got the smiling giraffe on the mobile out of sight…rookie mistake) when, hello, it’s time to eat. I think some days you just ditch the book and shoot for sheer survival. This Monday, my friends, is one of those days. 🙂
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Ohh Jessica, you are a champ! Kudos for trying!!
oh honey bunny…i'm so sorry you had such a rough morning!there will be a lot of those….;) it's just them doing their job right now :)poor thing with his gas problems!….have you been eating anything different? maybe something that has been fine is now starting to affect him…as far as his nap, maybe 10 am just doesn't work for him….jake usually gets tired about 1 1/2 hours after he starts eating…have you been able to find any pattern like that with sam?? and then you can work his nap times around that.do you start the day at the same time each day?
Well my Monday was not much better. It was by far one of the worst. So I guess we tied.
oh, but jessica, you are still a teacher…you are teaching sam to sleep {and many more amazing things as well!}.