Mom-cation

What do you do when someone is willing to watch your child for a whole week?

Uh... that's not a hard question. You take them up on it of course!

Rick's mom and dad had the week of New Year's off from work and offered to spend it with Ada since our nanny was on vacation too. Rick and I had to work and were eager to take a break from diapering and feeding and all that baby stuff. And I needed a Mom-cation.

Talk about weird. Not only is a Mom-cation fun, nice, and relaxing, it is also lonely, worrisome, sad, and empty. We tried to sleep in and made it until 9 at best. Our bodies aren't made to do that anymore. We spent most of the time making shelves for the basement (see previous post). That wasn't very relaxing, but it also didn't smell like poop. We got to catch up on the laundry since we didn't have four loads of diapers and baby clothes to do. Oh, I got to ride in the front passenger seat of the car for the first time in months (I usually sit in back with Ada). And the highlight was that we went to brunch together at a local diner, and we went to dinner and a movie! Too bad we were tired by the time we got home at 10 and went straight to bed. It was nice knowing we could have stayed out until all hours of the night without a curfew. It was also nice not having to rush home at the end of the work day to relieve the nanny.

It wasn't as nice knowing that Ada was sick and wasn't drinking milk and wasn't eating well and was fussy and all that. I felt like a negligent mother. And it was sad every time I thought about coming home to a smiling hug-muffin, knowing she wasn't there to greet me. It's tough to adjust to that. And it's really weird going to the grocery store and not wanting to take every kid home with you that you see. Know I know why people steal kids. Not because they are trying to be mean, awful people. It's really just because kids are so dang cute that you just want to smother them with love and eat them. Weird. I know. Needless to say, we couldn't leave early enough on the day we went to pick her up. And I couldn't get enough cuddle time with her when we finally got to grandma's house. It was great to have her back.

Moral of the story: Mom-cations can be good and refreshing but I think you have to do them more often in order to get comfortable with the idea and make it easier. Just remember to take time to enjoy your "time off".