Working Mom

The challenges of being a working mom are becoming so clear and tangible!

We have been in school for 16 days. I have already missed 4. That’s a whopping 25%! Thank God I co-teach so that those days I was gone were covered by a more than competent general education teacher with whom the kids are familiar.

Why have I missed 4 days? My son was sick… TWICE. The first time he had a virus complete with fever. The second time was much worse. He had a double ear infection and was working on cutting 4 teeth. I’ve never seen him so unhappy in my life. Poor thing was in so much pain and he just couldn’t shake the fever until the antibiotics kicked in. I had taken him to the doctor on Monday. His ears were clear. But on Thursday, the doctor said that he probably had had the ear infection for several days. So it developed just after the first visit. 😦 I’ll have to better time our next doctor’s visit.

The good news is that he is better… except for a worsening diaper rash due to the diarrhea caused by the antibiotic. He’s currently sleeping on his stomach with his bottom exposed to the air and the diaper under his pee pee. I hope I don’t regret this!

The other difficulty is preparing for work at night or in the morning. Last night it seemed as if I couldn’t be left alone so that I could get some instructional planning done. I already feel like my needs come dead last in the family list of priorities. I’m sure many women/mothers have felt this… Why? Why does it have to be this way? Then I feel like b@#* for defending my own agenda.

This morning was nearly impossible. I was up at 6:20 am. The following is a list of my accomplishments. I had hoped to leave somewhere between 7:15 and 7:30 am. No such luck…

1. change baby’s diaper

2. dress baby

3. nurse baby

4. prepare baby’s daycare bag with labeled bottles and daily info form (and feed fish)

5. pump

5. prepare pumping bag

6. feed baby solids because he’s fussing and seems to be hungry early today

7. eat breakfast while feeding baby

8. give baby antibiotic (which he hates)

9. prepare cooler for pumped breastmilk

10. pack lunch

11. pack school materials and laptop

12. shower

13. dress, make-up, hair, etc.

14. pack water bottle and coffee

15. pack car

16. leave! (7:45am)

Since I fed the baby solids (I usually don’t), my husband asked if I put that on the form. I didn’t. I explained that I didn’t because I had filled the form out before I realized that he wanted to eat. As I’m headed out the door, he yells downstairs… asking if I’ve changed the form… I reply nastily, “NO!” He asks me to change it. I reply that I’m not going to. In my mind that is one additional thing that he can do this morning since he drops our son off at daycare. And if he doesn’t, it’s not the end of the world. They’ll try to feed him at daycare, he won’t eat and they’ll save his food or throw it out. Perhaps we loose $0.75 in the process. Personally, those cents weren’t worth my sanity.

I arrive to work grumpy and out of sorts…

At the end of the day, I decided to take some “me” time. So I headed home, took a nap for 45 minutes, jogged around the block for 25 minutes and THEN went to pick up my son. I was in a much better mood and able to deal with the impending diaper rash I would discover later. Did I mention that I’ve been up at least 4 times a night these days as well???? Being sick wreaked havoc on Gabe’s sleep schedule. Plus, he’s teething and now with the DIAPER RASH… Well you can imagine. I feel like I can’t expect much. Tonight we started with Motrin. I’m hoping that will ease some of the discomfort and help him AND I get some much needed zzz’s.