October has been a rough month on us and on our routine. The first three weekends we traveled to see family in different states. In between travel, there was little time to get back into normalcy. As soon as we finished unpacking, we were packing up for the next trip. Then A came down with a horrible and aggressive pneumonia which sent her to the hospital via ambulance. Two days after coming home from the hospital, we got smacked with Hurricane Sandy. While we are very grateful and thankful we did not lose power nor sustain any damage to our house, it still tossed life up in the air a little bit.
All of these things have left a 19 month old and her Mama feeling very much on edge. I'm a control freak. I like routine, I like schedule, I like predictability. I've found that A is very much the same. (My guess is most toddlers are.) Because of this turmoil, she is not sleeping well. Her two hour naps have turned into one hour of crying in the crib until she crashes for barely a cat-nap. Bedtime is a disaster and she's back waking at 3am, leaving both my husband and I exhausted. At first I was quick to blame it on her being sick. But then I realized it has more to do with her routine, or lack there of, than anything else. If I have a hard time dealing with turmoil and chaos in life, how can I expect her to?
That was one of the good things about daycare. It didn't matter how chaotic of a weekend we had, I could always count on daycare to force her back into a routine no matter how difficult of a task that was. But now it's my turn. Today was day one, again.
I may not have a chance to blog as much as I'd like over the next week or two, and I certainly haven't been online much over the past few weeks. I have to find our bearings first.
But this is a month of gratitude and thanks, so while life seems chaotic and my anxiety level up, I am thankful that I have what I do and that these are my biggest problems right now. Perspective is always helpful in times of stress.
Thank you for all the love and support last week when A was in the hospital. xoxo
