Being Sara

I started a new job a few months ago. I really, really enjoy it. Unfortunately, there are some draw backs. It is currently a non-benefited hourly position, so I get paid when I’m at work, and I don’t get paid when I’m not here. So, I won’t get paid for the Thanksgiving holiday. I won’t get a paycheck when the place closes for 2 weeks at Christmas time. I can’t afford to be sick, and if Xander is sick, I can’t stay home with him. It also means no maternity leave, but that’s a story for a different post.

Since I’m hourly, I need to be vigilante about being on time. As I’m sure many of you can attest to, once you have a child, it is sooooo much more difficult to be on time! Consequently, I always feel like I’m late - rushing from place to place. I barely make it to work on time, I’m busy for 8 hours, then I barely make it to the day care on time to pick Xander up. Never mind the fact that the day care teachers keep telling me how upset Xander gets during the last hour of the day when everyone else’s parents show up, and his doesn’t. Then I rush home and start my second job - cooking, cleaning, folding laundry, bathing Xander, etc. Zach does help - he does whatever I ask him to, but there is so much to do, that I don’t think either of us has the energy to keep up.

The next day we start all over again. I’m too tired to get out of bed early because Xander woke me up so much the night before, on top of the fact that I stayed up late to pack bags and put out clothes for the morning. In my last job, it was easy to run a few errands during the day - pick up cat food or a prescription, fill the car with gas, etc. Now, I hardly ever leave my building, and if I do, it costs money, so I hate to leave. This means that all of those errands that have to be done between 8am and 5pm during the business week don’t get done.

I haven’t yet figured out how to balance this new job with my old responsibilities. I do know that I’m getting less sleep and feeling more rushed than ever before. Add on top of that all of the stress of Christmas cards, holiday parties, shopping, wrapping, planning, decorating, etc. and it seems like life is going to get even more interesting before it quiets down. Wish me luck!

toddler, parent, parents, parenting, mother, mothers, motherhood, mom, working mom

We’ve been giving Xander baths in the tub for a few months now. He likes it - more room to play, he loves to play with the running water, and I get much less water splashed on me. We usually try to squirt some sort of bubble substance into the water, makes it feel cleaner, and it’s easier to clean Xander. So last week while we were shopping, we picked up some Mr. Bubbles. Zach and I both remembered this brand from our childhood, and bubble baths always seemed pretty bubbly. Unfortunately, Mr. Bubbles doesn’t live up to his name anymore. The directions say to pour a few cap fulls of soap into the running water. A few caps full of Mr. Bubbles might get you a tiny fizz for a few minutes, but that’s about it. About 1/2 a cup of Mr. Bubbles will get you a reasonable amount of bubbles, but then you’re out of soap in about a week. So in terms of making bubbles for your baby in a bath tub, I would not recommend Mr. Bubbles. If anyone else out there has any other suggestions, please let me know - I’d love to try some other brands and do a comparison.

baby, toddler, parent, parents, parenting, mother, motherhood, mothering, bath time, bath, bathing, Mr. Bubbles, bubble bath

Last week and the week before in our house have been miserable. Xander has been sick. Not the kind of sick that is easy to diagnose - no “oh, you have a runny nose, fever and a cough” nope, he was just mad - mad at me, mad at his dad, mad at his toys, mad at his bottles, etc. Nothing could make him happy. After about a week of this - which included little to no sleep - Zach took him to see his doctor. After a thorough exam, they decided it must be teething. Though we were hoping for an easier solution, we tried some Tylenol to help with the pain, tried ora-gel and cool things to chomp on. Still, Xander was miserable.

Finally, one Sunday night, we noticed that after Xander had been asleep for about an hour, he was covered in sweat - head to toe. We tried to take his temperature, but our thermometer wasn’t reading properly, so we brought him to the emergency room.

It was the most nerve racking moment we’ve had in a long time. At that point I knew there was something wrong with my child, and I also knew that there was nothing I could do to make it better. The not knowing was the worst - what if it was something awful? What if he contracted something awful? What if this was a life altering moment? It was horrible. After jumping through all of those ER hoops, we finally saw a doctor who looked in Xander’s ears for a while, and eventually decided that he had an ear infection. He prescribed amoxicillin and advised that we alternate between ibuprofen and Tylenol.

It still took another four days for the whiney, clingy, changing-mood-swings-faster-than-we-could-blink kid to finally go away. But when he did it was like a huge sigh of relief swept over our whole house. Evenings with Xander became fun again. He remembered how to laugh at himself, and how to entertain himself. Zach and I were able to share glances of “oh my gosh, how cute is he?” and “he is so amazing!”

It was finally when Xander was feeling better that we both realized how different he was when he was sick. It was just this overall mood shift that was so striking. It also made us realize how truly lucky we are to have such a happy-go-lucky kid. When he’s feeling ok, it is rare for Xander to get mad. He of course gets upset if he hurts himself, or is left alone, etc., but he hardly ever gets mad for an inexplicable reason. He’s such a happy kid, and we are so lucky to have him!!

toddler, baby, parent, parents, parenting, mother, motherhood, mothering, sick child, ill child, ear infection, emergency room, mood change