Man plans…
10 Jul
You know that expression, “man plans, God laughs?” I had one of those moments today. Or maybe today was a “God never gives you anything more than you can handle” days. It definitely was reminiscent of some sort of cliche.
I woke up this morning with a long list of things to do to get ready for my first day at my new job tomorrow. First up was getting Michaela off to daycare so I could do the other things on the list. I did that, went into the hair salon for a quick ‘do, picked up my dry cleaning, stopped at home to check the mail and pick up some clothes I needed to return. Got back on the road, returned the stuff and was turning my attention to what was to be the highlight of my day–getting a manicure–when my phone rang. I knew when I say the name of the daycare come up on my caller ID that it couldn’t be good. They NEVER call. Sure enough, Michaela had thrown up a couple of times and I needed to go get her. The manicure and my plans for the rest of the day–going to the grocery store, getting new headshots taken (by the oh-so-talented Scott Papek), boxing up stuff to take to my new office–flew out the window.
Michaela was in good spirits but clearly feeling unwell. She made it all the way home before throwing up on two rugs and the hardwood, which had just been cleaned. I stripped her down, cleaned up the mess, put towels down in our bed and put on some Curious George. We didn’t have any PediaLite, bananas, or bread for toast, no flat 7-UP, no eggs… (In our defense, we just got back from a week-long vacation last night). Fortunately, since Mike was out of town and out of cell-phone range, Kami was here and she was able to watch Michaela while I ran to the store. I got home and learned that Michaela’d thrown up the water Kami gave her. Minutes later, Michaela threw up the PediaLite I got her. By the time it was 6:30, she’d thrown up eight times. Eight times in four hours!
Oh, and tomorrow? The day I start my new job? Michaela can’t go to daycare. The rule is no daycare until she’s been vomit-free for 24 hours. And Mike is out of town until the afternoon. So the careful childcare schedule I’d worked out, was out the window.
I called the doctor and the advice nurse listened to me describe her symptoms and asked me a lot of questions before suggesting we didn’t need to come in and instead I should give her a tablespoon of PediaLite every 10 minutes for an hour before upping it to two tablespoons, etc. We tried that and she was finally able to keep it down; I also gave her a few saltines and a banana. Michaela went to bed at her normal time, and hopefully she’ll stay asleep and feel better tomorrow.
I’d already been feeling stressed out about making the transition from our relatively loosely scheduled lives to a more structured one (necessary because I won’t be working from home any longer), and with all this happening and the daycare plan disrupted, I felt overwhelmed. Right now, the change feels so big that I am having a hard time imagining what it will actually be like. I know it will be fine, and I’m not in any way worried about the work–just about how to juggle a fixed schedule and a frequently-traveling spouse and a small child who has needs, too. But I guess that’s the problem that all working moms (and dads!) face. It’s become very clear that though Mike and I are working parents, by virtue of my working from home and his working for himself, our experience has been different than many, maybe most, other people’s. I knew that, but didn’t fully understand how lucky we were until now.
As for Michaela, and my first day, thankfully, my mom lives near us and can watch Michaela tomorrow. Mike also has changed his flight so he’s coming home much earlier than planned. And I have some time now that Michaela’s asleep to get ready for tomorrow. Gonna work out my schedule, pick out some clothes, and hopefully get some rest!
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