Lord, I am tired! This cartoon says it all for me as, lately, I feel like I’m practically sleeping on my feet, two hands hoisting up that big ol’ baby belly. Once again, I am working both Israel and US hours, which makes sleeping kind of difficult. And, with a client and a web designer on the West Coast, getting to bed before Midnight is almost impossible these days.
Last night was the pits. I shouldn’t really blame work so much, as I blame the slice of coffee laced cheesecake I had for dessert. Now, I had no idea it was drizzled with coffee, until it was too late. And, even though I finished the slice of cake by 8:30 p.m., the damage was done. Lights out at 11:30 p.m. led to 4 HOURS of tossing, turning and eventually just giving in to the sudden caffeine assault on my body. Around 2:00 a.m., I turned on my laptop and went back to work. By 3:00 a.m. the effects were wearing off with some serious heart palpitations and shaking. By 3:30 a.m., I was finally drowsy enough to fall asleep.
Three hours later, Baby J. started calling for me from the crib. As mentioned in previous posts, the child will call, and call, and call for me until DH goes in to get her out of the crib and bring her into our room. Lucky for him, his 2 second wake up is barely a blip in his sleep pattern, and he is quickly asleep before Baby J’s little head hits my pillow.
I begged her for “1 more minute” but our child doesn’t understand that concept. Instead, she starts with the cheek stroking, and whisperings of “shoko, shoko” so that I get the hint that she’s ready to head into the kitchen for her morning cup of chocolate milk. I moaned and begged her for another minute, so the kvetching began. Then, ever so lovingly, she sticks her tiny little face in mine, smiles, and kisses me through her pacifier. A couple more face pats later and she’s not longer so loving as she stands up in bed, screaming for her shoko.
That got me up! And thus, my morning routine begins. It’s almost the same every day. We leave the bedroom and I close the door so DH can get another hour of uninterrupted sleep. I then make Baby J’s shoko, hand it to her, and put on her “musika”. A CD that we have been listening to, every single freaking morning except on Shabbat, for the past 4 months. I am ready to toss the CD out the window, but if she doesn’t hear this very music every morning, all hell breaks loose. With music playing and shoko in hand, Baby J. becomes a very happy child. She sings, dances around the room, puts her dolls into her carriages and races around the house.
I remember that it’s Thursday so I open the freezer to take out the proteins I plan on making for Shabbos. That’s when I discover that the chicken I thought was in there, isn’t. I have no idea how I lost a package of chicken bottoms but they are seriously gone. I pull out the 4 tiny lamb chops that cost me about a day’s worth of work, and 1/2 kilo of chopped meat, the last container of squash soup and brussels sprouts. When I went to put them in the fridge, I discovered there was no room so I had to then start reorganizing the fridge. Which, is hard to do, when there’s an 11 kilo little person trying to grab at stuff in the fridge. She begged me for a 0% yogurt, which are DH’s, and I just gave in. Unfortunately, all of her little spoons were dirty in the sink, so I had to improvise. I handed her a bright red, plastic measuring spoon, opened the yogurt, placed it on her little table and went back to work in the fridge. Strawberries rained down and yogurts fell onto the floor – fortunately NOT breaking open – and as I struggled with the groaning contents of our fridge (last night we did a shop, hence the stocked fridge) Baby J. decided to spill her yogurt everywhere. Quickly, I threw the proteins into the fridge, and ran towards the new pantry to grab some napkins.
My eyes are fighting to close with exhaustion at this point, but I pushed through. As I was grabbing for the napkins, I knocked over a tower of plastic shot glasses, which fell all over the floor. I scooped up what I could, put them back into the cabinet, and managed to grab Baby J’s hands before she could shmear some vanilla yogurt all over the couch. I mopped up as best I could and smiled as Baby J. helped pick up some of the rest of the shot glasses.
And that’s when I got started with making DH his breakfast, lunch and snacks. I try to vary it up so that he doesn’t get bored, but I tend towards the tried and true. This morning, I decided he deserved a good, filling breakfast of egg omelette on a whole wheat roll. Of course, as soon as Baby J. sees the egg carton, she starts asking for some “eggie” too, so I quickly make her one scrambled egg. So now her little table has her shoko, 2 small water bottles that she takes turn drinking out of, the vanilla yogurt and a scrambled egg.
Did I mention that the child gets fed breakfast at gan too? I’m clearly raising a Hobbit, she gets first and second breakfast.
At this point, Baby J. decided that the shot glass was a good receptacle for her eggie. And, before I could catch her, she decided it was the perfect vessel for her yogurt as well. So now, I’ve got yogurt all over her little chair and the floor, while she is walking around with Kiddush cups full of vanilla yogurt and eggie. My budding Top Chef, ladies and gentlemen, where it’s all about presentation.
So, with DH still sleeping soundly through the crash of the shot glasses, my constant disciplining of Baby J., Yuval HaMibulbal (Israeli child actor/singer) singing about different types of laugher, and I’m pretty sure another loud bang as I slammed freezer and fridge door in succession, I went back to making his food. Lunch was whole wheat pita with black lentil falafel balls, chummus and salad. I then peeled an orange and cut a yellow pepper into strips. And, as I’m loading them all into his work knapsac, I go through my mental list of things to do today:
- Put up another load of laundry
- Make beds
- Decide on my Shabbat menu
- Wash two sinks full of dishes, clear the drainboards
- Write SEO document for client A
- Write blog post for client B
- Follow up on two projects for client C
- Schedule multiple demos for client A
- Prepare agenda for 8:00 p.m. conference call with client B
- Shower and pick up Baby J. from gan
- Make dinner for the family (marinate the tofu or fish sticks, haven’t decided yet)
- Entertain Baby J. and do dinner, bath time and bed time routine
- Begin cooking for Shabbat
- Bake Challot for Shabbat (I have no choice, my three kilos of bread flour expire on the 5th and I refuse to throw them out! Too wasteful!)
- Participate in 8:00 p.m. conference call
- Clexane shot at 10:00 p.m.
- Client conference call at 10:00 p.m. (Thursdays are always exciting, I literally inject myself while on a conference call. It’s almost comical and I always say a little prayer that I don’t actually have to be speaking at the moment of shot. It hasn’t always worked in my favor, but it’s always interesting)
- Probably still cook/bake after call ends
- Unwind and hopefully get to bed before Baby J. wakes up and I have to do this all again!
With mind racing with the plethora of things I need to get done in one day, I leave Baby J. with her music, eggie and yogurt shot glasses and head into her room to pick out her clothes for the day. I lay out a clean diaper, a sweater, jeans, and a pair of socks and then go off searching for her extra pacifier. I find it and place it on top of the changing table, and then I head into the bedroom to wake DH up.
At this point, I am wiped. Its only been an hour, but it was jammed pack with both physical and mental activity! I make sure DH is up, tell him he’s on duty, and get back into bed. Baby J. doesn’t really love when I go back to bed in the morning and so she joins me in the room and entertains me. This morning, it was with an original song worthy of an American Idol golden ticket! It made me smile, but what I really wanted to do was go back to sleep.
DH managed to daven and get her dressed before she had a mini-meltdown. That’s when I know it’s my turn to help get her the rest of the way out the door. I helped her on with her winter coat and pink pom-pom hat, gave her a big kiss on the cheek, kissed DH and called out my goodbyes. I don’t remember hearing the lock click on the door as I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.
Two hours sleep in the morning is not enough, especially considering the day I have ahead of me. But, I know I’m in some pretty great company as thousands of other women fight the daily exhaustion to run successful households and hold down jobs.
I just wonder how the heck they do it.
(Drugs, must be drugs)
Sarah P. says
Wow — i’m exhausted just reading about your morning. Good for you for not melting down yourself!
quietlibrarian says
Good L-rd – what a morning! We all have days like this. If you get to the end without killing anyone else or yourself, have a pat on the back, then go to bed and remember tomorrow is a different day (and it’s nearly shabbos!!)
Rivki @ Life in the Married Lane says
Haha, drugs. You’re funny.
I can just hear Baby J’s cries for Shoko! Reminds me of my toddlers cries for juice (Juice! Juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuice!).
Somehow it all gets done. Some days with more energy, some days with a better attitude, but I’ve found that my ability to function on few hours of sleep waxes and wanes. Hopefully it will be the same for you, and in a little while you’ll find yourself thinking “Hey, I accomplished a whole bunch of stuff today and I feel great!”
Hatzlacha!