One day a week Carter goes to spend the day with my in-laws. When we are ironing out the details about which day he goes, my mind is going nutso making a list of all the things I can/should get accomplished on a day where I’m baby-free. These days are always on days I go into work early, but despite that, I generally have 7.5 hours all. by. myself.
It seems like a lot of time, huh?
After Jason pulls out of the driveway with my baby securely fastened in the back seat, I generally spend about 15 minutes really, really missing Carter. The house is so quiet without him terrorizing my kitchen chairs and cabinets, throwing toys, climbing on things, chatting up a storm where I only understand every 5th word.
Don’t get me wrong, I miss him a little bit all day long. But those first 15 minutes are particularly gut-wrenching, and it’s the same way every single week.
I promptly make coffee and a massive bowl of cereal and plop down on the couch to catch up on whatever show I fell asleep during the night before or, depending on the smut level, the show I purposely avoided watching so Jason wouldn’t make fun of me.
Four bowls of cereal (and maybe 2 hours) later, I’ve caught up on blogs, the news, maybe written a post myself, know all about the latest celebrity goss, have had Facebook recommend I friend an ex-boyfriend, an ex-boyfriend’s wife and a friend of a friend of a friend who I barely recognized in high school much less 10 years later, know what the weather will be during the run I’m planning for the afternoon and am really, really dreading the housework that inevitably needs to be done.
Cleaning the bathroom. Blah.
Washing dishes. Yawn.
Mopping the floor. Boooooooo.
I fondly remember things like sleeping in and mimosa’s…then promptly remind myself that it’s Wednesday and I’m pregnant, which doesn’t count out some more sleeping but, unfortunately, eliminates the likelihood of enjoying a mimosa on my morning/partial afternoon off.
So I online shop but never buy anything. I update our budget, go back to my shopping cart at said online store and still don’t buy anything.
I read HelloGiggles, catch-up on Twitter, look off at the kitchen and the stack of dirty dishes, think about getting up but know if I do I’ll have to pee and then I’ll have to look in the bathroom mirror and realize my pants are starting not to fit…and nothing about your pants starting not to fit feels good whether you’re pregnant or not.
So I stay put. I haven’t even began to play on Pinterest yet…
Eventually it gets to be about 10am and I get up and get to work. Sometimes I get my hair done on my “mornings off.” Other times I make doctor’s appointments, run errands that are just easier to do without Carter or spend 2 hours at the gym where I don’t have to feel guilty about someone else watching my child so I can workout.
Except for someone else is watching my child so I can workout, it’s just not the nursery workers.
I always get at least one room of the house wicked, wicked clean and fully expect Jason to come home from work, immediately notice and shower me with compliments about how awesome of a wife I am.
Stay-at-home mom does not equal house maid in my book, and while I’m more than happy to take on an additional share of domestic responsibilities since I’m home more often than he is, I still want/need lots and lots of appreciation and/or praise for the work I do. Both because I’m needy and because unless it’s one of these mornings off, I’m doing it between keeping our kid alive and relatively well-behaved.
And, I know I’ve said this before, but on some days, the alive thing AND the relatively well-behaved thing are not small tasks.
At some point today I will be cleaning, napping, running or reading. Eventually I’ll be coaching. What I will not be doing is diaper changing, chasing, block tower building, or “I’m gonna get you!”-ing.
And while today I’ll enjoy the small break, tomorrow morning, with all the stinky diapers and baby talking and block tower building and huge Carter hugs and kisses that comes with it won’t be able to get here fast enough.
How do you enjoy or take advantage of some downtime?
Go check me out over on Mom’s Talk Network blogging about all the questionable things in our kid’s fast food meals. I’ll, sadly, never be able to eat Chicken McNuggets ever again (and if you know me well, realize that this is a truly devastating development).