Multi-tasking Mommy

There was one point today when I was performing a task for three different "jobs" at once. I was ironing (housemaker), watching Nadia who was in her bouncer next to the ironing board in the basement (mother), and talking on the phone with my department chair who called me with a curricular question (professor). So far I haven't really noticed the decrease in stress that hopefully working PT will bring about. I still feel like I'm juggling a lot and therefore not really able to do my best with any of my "jobs." Hopefully in time that will change. I feel like so much of the time I am trying to get Nadia to sleep on her own or play on her own so that I can get other work done (cooking, cleaning, unpacking, schoolwork, etc.), and I don't like that at all! I want to enjoy as many moments with her as possible rather than feeling like she's getting in the way of me getting other stuff done. I'm going to try to keep saying "no" to more stuff at work. When someone asked me to do something recently I did try to nicely remind this person that my pay had just been cut in half so my workload also needs to go down accordingly. Plus of course there is a fourth "job" (wife) but I wasn't doing any tasks for Paul at that given moment although he does want me to proofread one of his papers this afternoon. I should add that of all the tasks I have done today the one I have the least skill with is ironing. My mom does a MUCH better job than I do. :-)

The picture shown today was taken by Angela a couple of weeks ago in my office. Tuesday she came in to see me and said how much she misses Nadia and to please give her a kiss from her. I have to say I miss Nadia too when I go to school. The number of hours she & I are separated has not decreased because now we are apart during the driving time and also my office hours. She used to be with a babysitter 9 hours a week while I taught and even though I'm only teaching 3 hours a week during that time span now, she's with Paul those 9 hours instead plus she's also with him for 5 hours on Tuesday nights. I am glad though that she's either with Daddy or Mommy rather than in daycare.

Last night was a rough night. Tuesday night was great. She slept from 8:45pm to 4:30am and then 5:00-7:30am. Last night she woke up at 12:30am because her arm was again stuck between the crib and the wall. I am going to order a mesh bumper today. Thanks for suggesting that, Regina! Until that arrives I am going to use the pack n play instead of her crib. Thanks for suggesting that, Mom! Last night I nursed her and rocked her and such until 2:30am and then I just had enough and let her cry. Thankfully she didn't cry too long before she fell asleep.

I was reading Jo's schedule in her blog and thought we don't have a routine At All. I think though that next week I can start trying to get Nadia into a routine. I have no idea how easy or hard that will be, but I am going to try to get her into a schedule during the day as far as naps and such. I know that part of my routine needs to be to pump in the morning before I leave (MWF) as I realized on Wed I didn't allow time for that and should have. I want to stop using formula soon as my free samples from the hospital are about to run out, and I need to leave bottles for Paul to use while he watches her. The fact that she's not going to school any more will hopefully make it easier to get her into a routine. The only morning I plan to take her anywhere would be Tuesday mornings to Bible study.