The Life of a Stay-at-home Mom
Today was an absolutely insane day at my house.
24 hours ago, I had my Monday morning all planned out.
Jayce was to have ABA therapy from 8:30-10:30 AM. Then I would take Jayce, with a packed lunch, over to my friend Becca's house at 10:40 AM. She would watch him for me for 40 minutes until the school bus came to pick up Jayce and Louis at 11:20. During that time, I'd drive over to my husband's company at 11:00 AM to be escorted to the Nurse Practioner for a free (to us) medical appointment and prescription for my self-diagnosed sinus infection. I would be in and out of the appointment in less than 20 minutes (based on former co-worker accounts) and home in time to do some "30 Day Shred" with my friend Tarah.
Perfect!
But of course that did not happen today. If it had, would I really be blogging about it?
Instead, my day went something like this:
6:30 AM (but feels like 5:30 AM because of DLS)- go in Jayce's room to wake Jaina up for school. "Mommy, I don't feel good!" as she reaches for the tissues. It appears my daughter caught the same cold after all. Dammit. However, she doesn't have a fever. And I have absolutely NO time to take her to the doctor today (besides, what doctor actually treats a cold? NONE!). Unfortunately, Jaina has missed so many days of school this year for numerous reasons, she really can't miss school unless she has fever, vomitting, or diarrhea. Or has a doctor's note. Since none of the above applied to her, off she needed to go to school. I started a shower for her while rummaging in the children's medicine cabinet to find a decongestant that did not taste like grapes. She hates grape flavored medicine.
7:00 AM- Jaina is dressed and out the door. Lunch was hastily packed. I wrote a note in her folder to explain to her teacher why I was being a bad mom and sending her to school despite knowing she was sick. In the note, I promised to pick Jaina up after lunch if she continued to feel crappy or started running a fever.
8:00 AM- home from taking Jaina to school, getting Jayce changed and in the bath. The phone rings. My friend Becca has come down with the dreaded stomach bug. Not only can she not watch Jayce for me, but she really needs help with her kids instead. Ugh! I felt so torn. I've been waiting for this NP appointment since last Wednesday! I promise to pick up Cassie from her as soon as I'm out of the NP's office.
8:30 AM- Jayce's therapist comes. With the head cold we must have given her last week that she came down with over the weekend. Jayce runs off to work with her. I start the 3 loads of laundry I need to finish today.
9:00 AM- Brian calls. "Pookie? Um, I had to cancel your NP appointment today. Apparently I deleted some important email from HR about the proper protocol for making employee's spouses new patient appointments at the clinic. They can't see you today. Sorry!"
9:01 AM- Contemplating on how to now make my husband's life as miserable as I felt knowing that I could not get my much needed antibiotics due to his poor planning. GRRRR!!!
9:02 AM- get out the phone book to call my regular family physician. The office that I've been using for the past 8 years. The one that overbooks patients and has an average wait time of 2 hours. The one that only books appointments same day and fills up within the first 30 minutes that the phone lines are open. The one that costs $80 just to be seen and for some reason, insurance never really pays much on.
9:20 AM- After waiting on hold for 20 minutes, telling 3 separate office staff my name and birthdate 3 separate times, trying to convince them that Dr. B (the woman) has ALWAYS been my doctor and I'm not sure why Dr. B (the man) is now listed on my file and how honestly I don't care WHO I see 'cause I just want a damn appointment! "I'm sorry, we're swamped. We don't have any more appointments today. What are your symptoms? Well, I can't get them to call anything in if you are having chest congestion (oh why oh why did I tell them that my chest hurt???) so we'll have to work you in. Be here at 10:45 AM."
9:21 AM- I promise I'll be there. Then I realize something.... what on earth am I going to do with Jayce?
9:30 AM- Get a hold of across the street neighbor who is an absolute angel. She agrees to watch Jayce for me at 10:30 as soon as his therapist leaves. She has no problem putting him on the bus. She is truly such a wonderful person!
9:45 AM- call the transportation office to ask if they can pick Jayce up at my neighbor's house, not mine. Thankfully, they agree without argument. Surprising, but good!
10:00 AM- run around the house like a chicken with my head cut off trying to do 5 billion things at once: rotate laundry and throw another load in, load dishes in the dishwasher, finish getting dressed, finish drying my hair, finding the novel I'm in the middle of on my nightstand so I can take it with me, finding my cell phone, packing Jayce's school bag, finding Jayce's socks and shoes.
10:20 AM- Crap! Jayce hasn't eaten lunch! Pack a peanut butter sandwich, craisins, goldfish, and apple juice to take to neighbor's house.
10:30 AM- kick therapist out with a brisk, "See you tomorrow unless something comes up!" and run across the street with an unhappy Jayce who didn't get enough Zelda time on the Wii this morning. Thank neighbor profousely!
10:40 AM- walk into the doctor's office. There is a line backed up to the door to even sign in. Oh, that's so not a good sign.
11:30 AM- watch in empathy as a very sick 20-something year old woman breaks down crying at the receptionist's window because she's been waiting for two hours since her appointment at 9:30 and questions whether her doctor is even there. I feel your pain, girl! Been there done that on December 22nd, 2009. Except I had 2 kids with me and I waited 3 hours that time with strep throat.
11:45 AM- Jaina's school is calling me on my cell phone that I'm not even supposed to have on in the lobby. Its the school nurse calling to tell me that Jaina feels just awful and can I please come pick her up? I said, "Of course! Let me just figure out how I'm going to do that... um.... let me call.... my mom? Well, she doesn't get off work until noon. Let me call Brian... wait, he probably can't take off work... okay, tell Jaina that someone will come get her but it may be 12:30 before we can!"
11:46 AM- first call to my mom's cell phone. "Hey! I know your phone is turned off while you are at work, but as SOON as you get this, please call me back! I need you to go get Jaina from school ASAP! Thanks!"
12:00 PM- My name is called to go back to an exam room. Nothing clears out a doctor's office lobby faster than lunch time or quittin' time!
12:08 PM- Second call to my mom's cell phone. "Hey! Hopefully you'll turn your phone on soon! I need your help! Call me back, k?"
12:10 PM- Third call. "Why haven't you turned your phone on? Please don't tell me you are having lunch with Kathy or that you left it at home or that its not charged!"
12:15 PM- Doctor walks in. Takes one look at me and says, "You have a sinus infection. Where do you want me to call the prescription in to?" I'm out the door 5 minutes later.
12:20 PM- Fourth call. "Mom? Disregard those last messages. I'm on my way to get Jaina now!"
12:30 PM- Pull into the elementary school and run as fast as I can into the building. I get to the front of the nurse's station and no one is there. Well, except for another parent who has come to get her sick kid, too. Finally, the nurse walks back in with a tray from the cafeteria. I kinda feel like I'm the reason she didn't get her lunch break!
1:00 PM- Ah... home! After stopping by Burger King to get some fries and soda (the best apology I could think of to get Jaina to forgive me for making her go to school while she was sick AND leaving her to wait for 45 minutes before I could go get her), I make Jaina a bed on the couch and turn a movie on for her.
1:10 PM- Becca drives over to bring Cassie to me. She has a doctor's appointment at 3:45 PM and her husband will pick the kids up from my house soon after.
1:50 PM- The boys, Lou and Jayce, get off the bus at my house. Lou does not handle changes of plans very well, but as soon as he saw that his sister was with me, he decided he didn't mind being at Miss Jessie's house :)
2:30 PM- I give Cassie a bottle and let the boys play Lego Batman on the Wii.
3:00 PM- Jayce's afternoon therapist arrives.
3:45 PM- Becca's husband calls to check on the kids. At the time he called, I felt on top of the world! I had a sick quiet girl resting on the couch watching a movie, one little boy upstairs doing ABA work, one little boy happily playing trains, and one happy baby army crawling on my floor.
4:30 PM- baby gets fussy so I try to feed her some gerber stuff without a high chair. Yeah, it was messy.
5:00 PM- Lou tells me he wants to be done playing at my house. Jayce's therapist leaves.
5:30 PM- Becca calls to tell me that she has finished with her appointment and that they were going to run to Costco for a minute before her hubby came to get the kids. I told her that Cassie was getting tired and fussy and that Lou wanted to go home.
6:00 PM- I finally got Cassie to sleep by walking around the house with her in the crook of my arm. Wow are my arms out of baby holding practice! You would think with all the strength training I'm doing in my arms and upper body I would have handled it better!
6:30 PM- Jayce wakes Cassie up from her pallet on the floor. Suddenly he's very interested in her. He wants to hold her and hug her tightly with his arm in a vice grip on her head. She does not like this and starts to try. Jayce tries to make her feel better by hugging her tighter. I finally pry him off the baby and settle her back down. Jayce leans over and is grabbed by pudgy little baby hands. "She's grabbing me! Why is she grabbing me? Its not nice to grab! Bad Baby!" I calmly try to explain that babies explore with their hands and she didn't know it was not nice to grab. It completely went over his head.
6:45 PM- I realize that its almost dinner time and I haven't made anything! And I haven't called Brian to remind him to pick up the prescription! Cassie starts crying again, so I grab the Mei Tai baby wrap from my closet and put her in it. She's instantly happy. I call Brian quickly to remind him and get out fixings for Tacos.
7:00 PM- Brian walks in the door, looks at the baby on my chest and promptly says, "Really." I don't know what that means and by this point, I don't really care!
7:15 PM- Lou and Cassie's dad comes to pick them up. In his hands are gorgeous yellow flowers from Costco. They totally brightened my day!
7:30 PM- dinner
8:00 PM- bath
8:30 PM- bed
9:00 PM- blog and facebook
And if you managed to get through this post, I think you deserve a medal!
24 hours ago, I had my Monday morning all planned out.
Jayce was to have ABA therapy from 8:30-10:30 AM. Then I would take Jayce, with a packed lunch, over to my friend Becca's house at 10:40 AM. She would watch him for me for 40 minutes until the school bus came to pick up Jayce and Louis at 11:20. During that time, I'd drive over to my husband's company at 11:00 AM to be escorted to the Nurse Practioner for a free (to us) medical appointment and prescription for my self-diagnosed sinus infection. I would be in and out of the appointment in less than 20 minutes (based on former co-worker accounts) and home in time to do some "30 Day Shred" with my friend Tarah.
Perfect!
But of course that did not happen today. If it had, would I really be blogging about it?
Instead, my day went something like this:
6:30 AM (but feels like 5:30 AM because of DLS)- go in Jayce's room to wake Jaina up for school. "Mommy, I don't feel good!" as she reaches for the tissues. It appears my daughter caught the same cold after all. Dammit. However, she doesn't have a fever. And I have absolutely NO time to take her to the doctor today (besides, what doctor actually treats a cold? NONE!). Unfortunately, Jaina has missed so many days of school this year for numerous reasons, she really can't miss school unless she has fever, vomitting, or diarrhea. Or has a doctor's note. Since none of the above applied to her, off she needed to go to school. I started a shower for her while rummaging in the children's medicine cabinet to find a decongestant that did not taste like grapes. She hates grape flavored medicine.
7:00 AM- Jaina is dressed and out the door. Lunch was hastily packed. I wrote a note in her folder to explain to her teacher why I was being a bad mom and sending her to school despite knowing she was sick. In the note, I promised to pick Jaina up after lunch if she continued to feel crappy or started running a fever.
8:00 AM- home from taking Jaina to school, getting Jayce changed and in the bath. The phone rings. My friend Becca has come down with the dreaded stomach bug. Not only can she not watch Jayce for me, but she really needs help with her kids instead. Ugh! I felt so torn. I've been waiting for this NP appointment since last Wednesday! I promise to pick up Cassie from her as soon as I'm out of the NP's office.
8:30 AM- Jayce's therapist comes. With the head cold we must have given her last week that she came down with over the weekend. Jayce runs off to work with her. I start the 3 loads of laundry I need to finish today.
9:00 AM- Brian calls. "Pookie? Um, I had to cancel your NP appointment today. Apparently I deleted some important email from HR about the proper protocol for making employee's spouses new patient appointments at the clinic. They can't see you today. Sorry!"
9:01 AM- Contemplating on how to now make my husband's life as miserable as I felt knowing that I could not get my much needed antibiotics due to his poor planning. GRRRR!!!
9:02 AM- get out the phone book to call my regular family physician. The office that I've been using for the past 8 years. The one that overbooks patients and has an average wait time of 2 hours. The one that only books appointments same day and fills up within the first 30 minutes that the phone lines are open. The one that costs $80 just to be seen and for some reason, insurance never really pays much on.
9:20 AM- After waiting on hold for 20 minutes, telling 3 separate office staff my name and birthdate 3 separate times, trying to convince them that Dr. B (the woman) has ALWAYS been my doctor and I'm not sure why Dr. B (the man) is now listed on my file and how honestly I don't care WHO I see 'cause I just want a damn appointment! "I'm sorry, we're swamped. We don't have any more appointments today. What are your symptoms? Well, I can't get them to call anything in if you are having chest congestion (oh why oh why did I tell them that my chest hurt???) so we'll have to work you in. Be here at 10:45 AM."
9:21 AM- I promise I'll be there. Then I realize something.... what on earth am I going to do with Jayce?
9:30 AM- Get a hold of across the street neighbor who is an absolute angel. She agrees to watch Jayce for me at 10:30 as soon as his therapist leaves. She has no problem putting him on the bus. She is truly such a wonderful person!
9:45 AM- call the transportation office to ask if they can pick Jayce up at my neighbor's house, not mine. Thankfully, they agree without argument. Surprising, but good!
10:00 AM- run around the house like a chicken with my head cut off trying to do 5 billion things at once: rotate laundry and throw another load in, load dishes in the dishwasher, finish getting dressed, finish drying my hair, finding the novel I'm in the middle of on my nightstand so I can take it with me, finding my cell phone, packing Jayce's school bag, finding Jayce's socks and shoes.
10:20 AM- Crap! Jayce hasn't eaten lunch! Pack a peanut butter sandwich, craisins, goldfish, and apple juice to take to neighbor's house.
10:30 AM- kick therapist out with a brisk, "See you tomorrow unless something comes up!" and run across the street with an unhappy Jayce who didn't get enough Zelda time on the Wii this morning. Thank neighbor profousely!
10:40 AM- walk into the doctor's office. There is a line backed up to the door to even sign in. Oh, that's so not a good sign.
11:30 AM- watch in empathy as a very sick 20-something year old woman breaks down crying at the receptionist's window because she's been waiting for two hours since her appointment at 9:30 and questions whether her doctor is even there. I feel your pain, girl! Been there done that on December 22nd, 2009. Except I had 2 kids with me and I waited 3 hours that time with strep throat.
11:45 AM- Jaina's school is calling me on my cell phone that I'm not even supposed to have on in the lobby. Its the school nurse calling to tell me that Jaina feels just awful and can I please come pick her up? I said, "Of course! Let me just figure out how I'm going to do that... um.... let me call.... my mom? Well, she doesn't get off work until noon. Let me call Brian... wait, he probably can't take off work... okay, tell Jaina that someone will come get her but it may be 12:30 before we can!"
11:46 AM- first call to my mom's cell phone. "Hey! I know your phone is turned off while you are at work, but as SOON as you get this, please call me back! I need you to go get Jaina from school ASAP! Thanks!"
12:00 PM- My name is called to go back to an exam room. Nothing clears out a doctor's office lobby faster than lunch time or quittin' time!
12:08 PM- Second call to my mom's cell phone. "Hey! Hopefully you'll turn your phone on soon! I need your help! Call me back, k?"
12:10 PM- Third call. "Why haven't you turned your phone on? Please don't tell me you are having lunch with Kathy or that you left it at home or that its not charged!"
12:15 PM- Doctor walks in. Takes one look at me and says, "You have a sinus infection. Where do you want me to call the prescription in to?" I'm out the door 5 minutes later.
12:20 PM- Fourth call. "Mom? Disregard those last messages. I'm on my way to get Jaina now!"
12:30 PM- Pull into the elementary school and run as fast as I can into the building. I get to the front of the nurse's station and no one is there. Well, except for another parent who has come to get her sick kid, too. Finally, the nurse walks back in with a tray from the cafeteria. I kinda feel like I'm the reason she didn't get her lunch break!
1:00 PM- Ah... home! After stopping by Burger King to get some fries and soda (the best apology I could think of to get Jaina to forgive me for making her go to school while she was sick AND leaving her to wait for 45 minutes before I could go get her), I make Jaina a bed on the couch and turn a movie on for her.
1:10 PM- Becca drives over to bring Cassie to me. She has a doctor's appointment at 3:45 PM and her husband will pick the kids up from my house soon after.
1:50 PM- The boys, Lou and Jayce, get off the bus at my house. Lou does not handle changes of plans very well, but as soon as he saw that his sister was with me, he decided he didn't mind being at Miss Jessie's house :)
2:30 PM- I give Cassie a bottle and let the boys play Lego Batman on the Wii.
3:00 PM- Jayce's afternoon therapist arrives.
3:45 PM- Becca's husband calls to check on the kids. At the time he called, I felt on top of the world! I had a sick quiet girl resting on the couch watching a movie, one little boy upstairs doing ABA work, one little boy happily playing trains, and one happy baby army crawling on my floor.
4:30 PM- baby gets fussy so I try to feed her some gerber stuff without a high chair. Yeah, it was messy.
5:00 PM- Lou tells me he wants to be done playing at my house. Jayce's therapist leaves.
5:30 PM- Becca calls to tell me that she has finished with her appointment and that they were going to run to Costco for a minute before her hubby came to get the kids. I told her that Cassie was getting tired and fussy and that Lou wanted to go home.
6:00 PM- I finally got Cassie to sleep by walking around the house with her in the crook of my arm. Wow are my arms out of baby holding practice! You would think with all the strength training I'm doing in my arms and upper body I would have handled it better!
6:30 PM- Jayce wakes Cassie up from her pallet on the floor. Suddenly he's very interested in her. He wants to hold her and hug her tightly with his arm in a vice grip on her head. She does not like this and starts to try. Jayce tries to make her feel better by hugging her tighter. I finally pry him off the baby and settle her back down. Jayce leans over and is grabbed by pudgy little baby hands. "She's grabbing me! Why is she grabbing me? Its not nice to grab! Bad Baby!" I calmly try to explain that babies explore with their hands and she didn't know it was not nice to grab. It completely went over his head.
6:45 PM- I realize that its almost dinner time and I haven't made anything! And I haven't called Brian to remind him to pick up the prescription! Cassie starts crying again, so I grab the Mei Tai baby wrap from my closet and put her in it. She's instantly happy. I call Brian quickly to remind him and get out fixings for Tacos.
7:00 PM- Brian walks in the door, looks at the baby on my chest and promptly says, "Really." I don't know what that means and by this point, I don't really care!
7:15 PM- Lou and Cassie's dad comes to pick them up. In his hands are gorgeous yellow flowers from Costco. They totally brightened my day!
7:30 PM- dinner
8:00 PM- bath
8:30 PM- bed
9:00 PM- blog and facebook
And if you managed to get through this post, I think you deserve a medal!
Wow - that was quite a day. Next time, call me! I had class from 11:30 to 12:20, but I was free other than that. I would have been happy to hold a baby or two for you.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the trip down memory lane. As a single parent who raised 3 children, I know exactly how you felt today. So glad you got through it with your sense of humor still in tact! I will say 'good job' because it really was and you deserve to hear it.
ReplyDeleteOh my you were busy today!
ReplyDeleteHope you and Jaina feel better soon!
oh my goodness. this post stressed me out so much! what a crazy day you had. you are a super mom & a super friend. wow. glad you survived your day!!! p.s. sinus infections are the WORST!! my husband has one right now.
ReplyDeletejust so you know i read every word! and now i'm tired :) actually i quite enjoy reading things like this and totally know that one day it will be so intriguing to read back on days like this b/c memories really do fade and details really do seem to get lost...
ReplyDeleteHey, I win a medal! Wow, I'm tired for you Jessie. And to know you did it all with a sinus infection too. I enjoy keeping extra kids every once in a while (watched siblings, 3 yrs and 4 mths) from 9am to 4pm one day last week. It was eventful but went better than expected. The next day with just my two was heaven!
ReplyDeleteYou made it. Through what has got to be one of the toughest days I've heard of (barring death, huge accident, etc). Congrats and here's to hoping those meds kick in really fast *HUG*
ReplyDeleteI couldn't put it down!! LOL
ReplyDeleteJust reading that made me tired... you are super woman!
ReplyDeleteSounds Exhausting!!
ReplyDeleteOkay, you have me exhausted. Hope it calms down soon!
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness, what a day! I have to admit that I was jealous that you get to leave Jayce while he has therapy...and lo and behold, the Bear's ST suggested that this morning. So I'm sitting here nervously, listening for chaos! So glad you got flowers - it's amazing how a bunch can brighten your day. Thanks for stopping by my blog :)
ReplyDeleteStopping by to tell you that I like your new profile pic on BF :)
ReplyDeleteTerri (the jelly lady)
I LOVE YOUR BLOG! You are such a great Mom! Hope things get better soon! Feel better!
ReplyDeleteI popped over from MckMama Community.
ReplyDeleteWhat a day you had. Glad you made it through.
Hope you had a restful night too.
I hate days like that! But isn't it crazy how insane the life of SAHM is? I think some working parents think our lives are filled with bon-bons every day. :)
ReplyDelete