24 Days Of A Single Wife

We are now less than 24 hours away from Jason coming home, and the kids and I could not be more excited. Today is day 24 and this evening at 8pm when he lands could not come fast enough. I know he will have to travel again, but this particular trip just felt so long and drawn out for me. This last weekend alone just about broke me in more ways than one. I mean, it was my fourth weekend sans Jason.

The sleeping situation has once again gotten way out of control and I’m just too tired to even begin to fix it. Gemma is suffering her third ear infection since January, and her sleep is just way off. I’ve been nursing her in the middle of the night because I knew she was in pain  and unfortunately, it’s turned into a habit once again. The one day she decided to sleep till 630, Siella was up at 5:30! In this house you just cannot win on sleep. I’ve surrendered and just accepted it at this point.

Ryder, my oldest has been flat-out not listening these days and it makes for extremely long days and nights. I find I’m constantly repeating myself over and over for him to do the simple things we do everyday like get dressed for school, brush your teeth. There’s zero urgency for him. I just spoke to my friend this morning about this situation and she was having a similar problem with her son, until one day, she purposely made her son do these chores on his own time making him 45 minutes late to school. He received a late pass and had to explain to his teacher why he was late. And he never did it again. I just might do this as I’m out of options!

Siella usually hits a wall by noon because of her early wake up and just refuses to nap. I can bank on her falling asleep in the stroller while I am on my way to pick up Ryder from school, but that leaves for an insane bedtime of her not wanting to go to bed. This past week she refused to fall asleep in her bed and I’ve been letting her go into my bed to sleep and then would transfer her. Anything that would just make her fall asleep, right? This has now lead into her coming into the living room, grabbing a blanket and falling asleep on the couch next to me. It happened twice and honesty I shouldn’t have let it but I was exhausted. And now tonight when she tried to sleep on the couch again, I knew I had to stop this habit immediately! It didn’t end well with screams and eventually waking up Gemma.

Despite suffering from her third ear infection, Gemma is officially walking. She walks back and forth, all over our apartment and I literally sit there and stare at her in amazement, really. How is my baby walking already. In just three short weeks she will be turning “one”.

And much as I wanted to cry my eyes this past month on numerous occasions, I held back and swallowed my tears . Our babysitter also dropped a bomb on us this week that she needs to cut her hours because of school, and these new hours are just not working out for us. As much as I am in denial about this; it’s time to find a replacement.

Last night for a good 10 minutes before bed there was no crying, no screaming, no yelling, no fighting..and I completely surrendered and took it all in. It was like this big shiny reward that somehow was handed to me for a job well done. I hope as they grow a little older these 10 minutes of bliss will turn into hours, than days, than months. It is hard raising three young kids and especially without a husband. This past month taught me so many things about myself but one in particular..we will get through the tough times, just breath, and these challenges will pass. So excited to have my partner back and most importantly an extra hand…phew that was one tough month!