B announced last night during dinner that he and I are going away for the weekend. His dad noticed that B had put a weekend trip on his calendar ages ago and asked if we had ever managed to go away. When B told him that we hadn't, his dad got upset. He reminded B that it's important for us to have time together and gave B the key to the condo in Corpus. So Steve is staying here Friday night with the kids, and my m-i-l is staying Saturday night.
I'm not sure I'm ready though. We're just now getting Campbell on a good sleep schedule, and I'm worried that having grandparents who are willing to get up with him in the middle of the night will set us back. Plus, I stopped trying to pump milk weeks ago, and I don't have any left in the freezer. Campbell still won't take formula, so he could end up being one hungry baby by the time we get home on Sunday. I also worry that after a weekend without nursing, Campbell won't want to anymore. And while I'm looking ahead to the weaning process, this isn't how I wanted to do it. The silver lining in this is that I'll have to pump while I'm gone, so I'll have a supply of milk in the freezer again.
The odd thing is that I'm not at all worried about my f-i-l taking care of the three kids. Steve isn't prone to panic, and he's pretty good about winging it if he needs to. Ever since my m-i-l left him, he's really stepped up as a grandfather, taking the girls to his house for overnights, even giving them baths and washing their hair. I'm not sure my father would be up for such activities, and he was a much more hands-on father than Steve was.
It's my m-i-l I'm worried about. First, I'm going to have to clean the house, top to bottom, so that she doesn't have anything to make her pinchy face or snide comments about. Debbie came over a few weeks ago at the end of a looonnng, rainy day and commented that the girls' room was far messier than B's had ever been as a child. I wanted to scream. Second, she's prone to panicing about things. I just know we're going to get some phone call at some point. Like the time Ella managed to lock herself IN Debbie's apartment, and Debbie couldn't figure out how to get her back out again. I had to drive up and talk to Ella through the back window. It took me 15 seconds to get Ella to unlock the door, but Debbie had been reduced to sitting on the stairs crying. Or the time she left us 3 messages in 15 minutes about how Lily had climbed into the porta-crib and was refusing to get out. Debbie had had her mastectomy two months earlier and still couldn't lift things, especially not kids, but Lily was more than capable of climbing in and out on her own. By the time we called Debbie back, Lily was already out of the crib, but Debbie was still in tears. So there's precedent for my concern about phone calls.
Then there's the worry that she just won't be able to figure things out. Last weekend she took all three kids to B's grandmother's house for the day. Before she left I told her THREE times how to mix Campbell's cereal, and she still managed to do it wrong. How hard could it have been - add water to the cereal until it's a thick paste, then stir in some fruit or sweet potatoes. She forgot the bit about the water and just mixed it with sweet potatoes. Not surprisingly, Campbell refused to eat it.
When B talked to his parents last night about arangements, his dad said, "Just leave me instructions. I'll figure it all out." Debbie wouldn't get off the phone, asking question after question. B kept saying, "Mom, we'll leave instructions. You can send me an e-mail with all your questions, and we'll answer them." She still kept asking for instructions, like she was going to remember anything at that point. I wouldn't have.
So my challenge will be to relax while we are gone and not worry about what is happening here. Campbell may refuse to drink formula, but at least he eats other food and drinks water from a sippy cup. He's not going to starve or get dehydrated while we're gone. And as Heidi pointed out, if he gets really hungry, he'll probably take the formula. The girls, of course, will be just fine. Steve will feed them "Old MacDonald's" for lunch and dinner if they ask, and pancakes with chocolate syrup for breakfast. Debbie will do whatever she does with them. Everyone will survive. And I'll get to spend the weekend at the beach.
No comments:
Post a Comment