Seasons of "easy" are few and far between. If one is successful with whatever they are endeavoring in, they must learn to roll with the punches and deal with "hard".
Monday during the allotted time to go to the gym on the way to my TOPS meeting, I instead drove all the way back home (a different town) because I had forgotten important papers for the meeting. My one hour at the gym turned into 20 minutes.
Tuesday I drove my son to his weekly, 5 hour long Mother's Day Out program. I was then going to go to the gym, spend concentrated time working on my book, then go to the gym a 2nd time before picking baby up. However, when I walked in the MDO building, the receptionist caught me and told me I must have not been informed---they were closed this week for Spring break. No gym for me. I went home and pouted.
My gym days are Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Friday, today, my mother needed me to drive her to run an errand that was going to take about 2 hours. It wasn't her fault. She doesn't drive. This errand needed to be done. But I was getting tired of life cheating me out of my gym time. Hubby is very backed up with work (which is a HUGE blessing and I am not complaining because we could use the money) and could not help me in the childcare department.
So...............something rose up in me and I came up with a crazy plan. I drove mom to run her errand-- and dropped her off there WITH my three kids. I told my teen daughter I would pay her if she would help with the baby. And I went to the gym FOR AN HOUR.
Our gym is divided into three sections. The first section had a guy riding an exercise bike and watching some boring show on it. The 2nd section had some guys lifting weights and I walked right past them, jiggle hips and all, and found my favorite treadmill and the remote to that tv (which was not on) and I spent the next hour walking and watching HGTV.
Then I picked mom and the kids up. Mom wanted ice cream and so she and the teens got ice cream and I did not (go me!)
And we got home about 10 p.m., which was about 25 minutes ago.
Point being: today was not exactly easy to deal with the gym and there was junk food temptation but I'm super proud of how I allowed myself to be taken care of and didn't throw myself down on the train tracks of self pity.
In other news, I took the memory card from my cpap in to the office to be read today, as insurance won't pay unless I meet their usage requirements. They require that at least 21 days out of 30, that the cpap is in use at least 4 hours. I wear it every night. However, after baby wakes and has a bottle and ends up in bed with us, I don't put it back on. It's hard to wear with the baby in the bed and almost impossible to put on with one hand while holding the baby. However, the report showed that I didn't get 4 hours per night enough nights *sigh* Thankfully, insurance is giving me another chance, so I guess I'm going to master the art of tending to baby while wearing the cpap. That, or I will master the art of poking hubby in the rib and saying "get your kid!" Ha. Yeah. No. I don't see that being very likely. Thankfully, Abby wants baby to move to her and sleep with her after he turns one, which is TUESDAY........so I am SO going to let her. I tell you, tending to a baby at age 36 is not the same as it was at 21!
And with that, I wish you all a good night. Thanks SO much for reading!
-that TOPS lady
Good job on pushing thru to get to the gym AND skipping the ice cream. Really great job. :)
ReplyDeleteRe: Mom's transport needs. Isn't there some way you can help her be more independent of you? Is there not a transportation service she can use? What would happen if you, for whatever reason, were absolutely unable to drive her? Is there a back up plan? Even if you like being her go-to guy, you need a back up plan--for her sake.
The baby. You know that your daughter will not last long, right? And she shouldn't. A teenager should not be having her sleep interrupted like that--and neither shojld you. The child needs to sleep thru the night. Perhaps you could feed him well before he goes to sleep and if he still wakes up in the middle of the night, go into his room, lay him back down--and walk ;way. There's a whole protocol on how to do that, but it which involves waiting a specific amount of time (while he screams) and going back, laying him down, walking away, waiting, laying him down...etc. Long night for your both so pick a night when you don't have an early morning appointment. It usually takes a few days, then all night sleeping happens. I'm thinking you can find the details online somewhere. This is something you CAN take control of. Really. It is. Please don't make it your daughter's problem.
That sounds a little harsh, and I don't mean it that way, no tone of voice, you see. It is hard, but you can do this. Just like you problem solved to get to the gym, you can do this.
Deb
Awe, happy birthday to your sweet little man!
ReplyDeleteI say if your daughter wants to help, let her! I am 13 (nearly 14) years older than my youngest (surprise) sibling. When she was an infant I would watch her all weekend when my parents took the middle siblings to swim meets. It was a pretty good scenario. Babies sleep and eat, teenagers sleep and eat. :) Even if she wants to take the baby for a night a week, that would be helping you tremendously, and it would be interesting to see the difference in your cpap results. Let us know how it goes!
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