I knew ahead of time that throwing a newborn into the mix would complicate my whole relationship with work. I would love it a little less, or at least be more inclined to leave it AT work, which would really bite me in the butt when deadlines come due. I knew that when I would need to bring work home it would be more difficult to get it done - you can tell the internet or a favorite TV program to wait an hour or two. Not so much with an infant.
Oh, but how much more difficult it would be I wouldn't find out until the actual time came.
My first foray into working from home came Tuesday night. I had a meeting to prep for the next day, my final formal observation in the morning. and just a couple of things to get done. No problem, I'd just stay up a wee bit later. Actually, that night happened to be no problem. Until 4 AM when the Little Man decided that that would be an awesome time to wake up for the day. I dragged myself into work, muddled through my observation (which went horribly), muddled through my meeting, and then muddled through the rest of the day when I realized...hooooo boy I have another last-minute-meeting set up for the next morning. And this one would take a lot more work.
I stayed after school a couple of hours to get as much done there as possible. I got home, spent time with my kid and then...the Little Man decided not to go to sleep at a reasonable hour. He was hungry. And we're low enough on our milk storage that I couldn't just ask my husband to pop a bottle in his mouth so I could get my work done. So I stayed up a couple of hours later than I would have liked to, finishing up the documents for this meeting.
The Little Man again woke up at 4AM. I cried.
No really, I did.
But I dragged myself into work at the usual time, got through the first part of the day, when the student whose parents I would be meeting with came up to me.
"My parents can't come today." He said.
"What." I replied. I didn't even make it a question. Just a vocal tic of disbelief.
"My brother got called in to work and my mom doesn't drive."
"Get on the phone, call them, and see if there's anything we can do." I said (his family does not speak English). I didn't mention this before, but I feel it's a key part of the story: the English-speaking brother and the kid's mother had showed up on Tuesday in person to schedule this meeting and they chose Thursday to meet.
I couldn't believe that I had stayed up so late on so little sleep, spent time away from my son in my own house, and worked so hard to prepare for this meeting just for the parents to flake out.
He called, and I got my answer: believe it. Meeting rescheduled for the next week.
Now it's Saturday afternoon. I have more work to do, this time writing my final exam and my review activities. Since waking up this morning at 7 (thank you, Little Man!) I have gotten precisely ONE page finished.
The kid won't nap. Ok, let me amend that. The kid won't nap for more than 15-20 minutes unless I'm holding him. The rest of the time he's hungry, wet, bored, or needs to burp. The landlord is coming by tomorrow to clear the lot for fire season, so my husband is outside doing some last-minute yard work. So it's just me and the Little Man inside hanging out. Why am I not working on my final now? Because as I'm typing this, the baby is asleep on the boppy on my lap, and I know that the moment I put him down he'll wake right up. It's been happening all morning.
It's a learning process. I'll learn to get my work done during his micro-naps. He'll learn to sit contentedly (or maybe not so contentedly) while I make myself a sandwich or fold some laundry in-between naps. It's all a dance and I'm just learning the steps. Just please don't change the beat before summer vacation or I might have a meltdown.
I could've written that second to last paragraph. I can't imagine adding work on top of it. You're amazing.
ReplyDelete