Temporary single motherhood.

[rivka]

Michael has been gone for about 24 hours. He didn't take the baby with him.

It was an opportunity too good to pass up. A bunch of gifted blind teenagers at science camp are building and launching a rocket with the help of NASA, and Michael has gone down to Wallops Island, Virginia to document their final preparations and launch. They'll be taking some kind of meteorological observations - air pressure, temperature - using instruments they modified themselves to present audio output. They'll be launching at 6am tomorrow, weather permitting - weather.com gives a 30% chance of rain - or 6am Thursday if they can't launch on Wednesday. It should really be a lot of fun to see, and showing willingness to do these extra projects should serve Michael well at work. Too good to pass up.\

Yesterday and today, at least, are nanny days. I'll have eight hours off from childcare, starting any minute now. Tomorrow I'm home with the baby all day, and if the kids miss their launch window and Michael has to stay an extra day, I might start feeling rather grim. We'll see how it goes.

Alex celebrated our all-girl slumber party last night by falling asleep promptly at 7:45... and then waking at 9, 10, 11:30, 3, 5, and 6:45. This is a baby whose usual recent sleeping pattern has been to go to sleep at 8, wake up to eat at 4 or 5am, and then go back to sleep for another couple of hours. I don't know what the hell was up last night. Part of me (the guilty part) wonders if it's a reaction to me going back to work, but she was cheerful all day for the nanny and for me when I got home. She napped well for me in the early evening and ate well. Sure, she knows me and loves me. But she's not yet shown any unhappiness when I leave, while I'm gone, or immediately after I get back. She's only three months old, and I don't really credit her with the emotional and cognitive sophistication necessary for a delayed reaction to my absence.

I guess it was just one of those nights.

Comments

[richtermom.livejournal.com]

When I went back to work around Squeaky's 5 month birthday, she started reverse cycling, even with a couple bottles of pumped milk and diluted juice and (gasp we started a couple weeks early) cereal. And she still does it occasionally around growth spurts -- she often sleeps through the night now, but between teething and spurts, I'm still surprised when she doesn't get up at all between 8-9 p.m. and 7ish a.m.