New Job

So I guess technically I'm a working mom again, but not really because my "job" is taking care of a sweet girl from church who is three weeks older than Jeric while her parents are both working. I will call her Jane on the blog, which is not her real name but her mom requested that I use a fake name, which I am all to happy to do. Today is the first day Jane is here with us. She came at about 7:45 this morning and will be here until about 5:30 when her dad picks her up from work.

And what a first day! Especially when it came to nap time. It took me almost 3 HOURS to get both Jeric and Jane to sleep. Both need me to hold them in a quiet place to go to sleep (Jeric nursing, Jane with her blanket and pacifier) -- which means I can't do both at the same time. Poor Jeric, I knew he would forgive me for leaving him as soon as I started nursing him, so I put him in the downstairs playpen with some toys and a movie and took Jane upstairs to the other playpen and rocking chair. She would almost go to sleep but since she was a bit worked up from being in an unfamiliar place, she would wake up and cry as soon as I tried to lay her down. After almost half an hour of that, I left her because I knew Jeric would be crying. She cried the whole time I was gone, but it only took Jeric about 3 minutes to fall asleep, and he's still sleeping. I went and got Jane and brought her downstairs and sat in my glider and rocked her for over an hour until she fell asleep and started snoring, at which point I was finally able to lay her down. [At one point when she was nearly asleep I heard Jeric start fussing from the other room and I whispered a prayer -- "Please just let him stay asleep!" -- and he did!]

So it's been about half an hour since Jane fell asleep. Hopefully they'll both be asleep for a while longer, but I know they will be hungry as soon as they wake up! Today has been rough and tomorrow probably will too, but it was expected and will get better as we establish familiarity and routine. Wish us luck!