Yesterday in about an hour I single handedly de-Christmased our little world and let me just say I am so relieved to have things back to normal around here. As a non-Christian, I celebrate Christmas because to me it is a cultural holiday and one that is kind of hard to ignore considering the way it permeates our culture starting in late November. I have hippie friends who send out ‘Happy Solstice’ cards and while I do recognize the solstice if I were going to send cards out in respect of one it would be the summer solstice since I am classic Leo who worships the sun and the summer solstice is my favorite day of the year. I understand why my friends send out these messages on their holiday cards but to me Christmas is the reason for the cards, the reason I spend time with family members that seriously dislike me, the reason I eat baked ham and pea salad with mayonnaise, the reason I buy crap (for those of you that can resist this powerful cultural pull I say more power to you!). Don’t get me wrong there are things I love–the Christmas tree, the carols (I especially love the religious ones such as ‘O Holy Night’), the lights (the more the better in my book although we don’t actually put them up ourselves), the general good will which does seem to come through despite the edginess of how amped up everyone seems to be, seeing family and old friends. But I’m done this year and ready for life to go back to normal.
I am seriously stressing about my child care needs for this Spring semester. Baby L is going through a growth spurt so is nursing like mad plus she has just been generally cranky for the past two weeks (maybe teething, a cold or just the general overstimulation of the holidays) and no one else seems to be able to handle her unless she can just sit quietly on their lap. I cannot secure alternate child care until I am sure my schedule is set and as an adjunct I know this may not be the case until the day that classes actually start so I have to rely on my parents for at least the first week or so. Literally I have had my schedule changed the night before I had to teach a class; it is the way of the adjunct world unfortunately and the reason I left it to get my more secure high school teaching position so until things are set I cannot start looking for a mother’s helper or nanny who can come to my house two afternoons a week (I do not want to do a group setting so the girls spend the winter sick). I am just going to have to live with the uncertainty of all this but I am feeling a little angry at the people in my life for their inability to handle baby L if she is not sitting quietly compliant. She is a baby people. My dad and mom and even the handyman seem to think the magic cure is to hand her over to me to ‘feed her’ and she’ll stop fussing but a lot of times she just latches on for a minute or so for comfort. And I won’t be here to comfort her when I am at work. So, they want to overfeed her while I am away which puts a lot of pressure on me to have to pump extra which of course screws with my supply because they have fed her 12 ounces in 4 hours and she doesn’t feel like eating again for a while. I hate this. I hate it so much. I just wish I didn’t have to go back to work outside the home until this fall when she is securely eating solid foods and a bit older so can sit by herself in a bouncy seat or swing.
But it is another beautiful bright sunny day so we are going out for some Vitamin D therapy so I can stop worrying about this for a while. Hey, Happy New Year as well.
2 Comments
December 31, 2008 at 12:05 pm
I hear you on the Christmas thing…we’re not religious either so it’s cultural for us as well. Me, more so than Mr. EM, he wouldn’t celebrate it at all if it weren’t for the 3 of us. I can’t get into the carols though, I can only tolerate the rock holiday songs! We have an Allman Brothers concert on video that I usually watch when we put up the tree. There’s nothing festive about it, but for some reason it puts me in a holiday mood.
I also can sympathize about your baby-sitting needs and the stress you’re under. My youngest was a “mama’s boy” and didn’t really like anyone but me as an infant. He was also a marathon nurser and everyone would just pass him back to me when he got fussy with them, “Oh, he wants his mama. He must be hungry again!” While I didn’t have the scheduling questions you have, it was still stressful to put him in day-care at 3 months. I thought the sitter would hate both him and me at the end of the first day. She didn’t, it was all fine. Baby L. will have a hard time at first, but babies are very adaptable and she’ll get used to spending a little time away from you and your parents will have no choice but to get used to entertaining her to keep her happy while you’re away. It will be stressful at first, but it will be a change that will be good for all involved. Good luck with it…might want to stock up on IPA to get through those first few weeks!
Happy New Year!
May 7, 2009 at 2:27 pm
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