Was to hire our 15 yr old neighbour / babysitter to come for 3 afternoons per week during the rest of the summer. She's been twice so far and it's made an *enormous* difference to my general sense of wellbeing. I'm no longer stressed about G going back to work, I'm not stressed thinking of how I'm going to get through the day with the 3 of them to worry about, and I'm not feeling alone with someone else over the age of 8 to talk to!
More importantly, the boys are very happy, especially Harry. He's got a new best friend to play with, someone who can give him 100% focus and far more energy than his poor sleep deprived mother has right now.
Not that I'm removing myself from the equation, far from it. I remain with them, but I can sit and comfortably feed Tabitha without having to get up and take Harry to the loo or deal with whatever other immediate crisis arises every 5 minutes. We've been to the park every day so far too and Harry has someone who can lift him into the swings but he still has his mummy right there too.... know what I mean?
Today I'm going to take Tabitha and visit a friend leaving the boys at home with the babysitter, but I have no worries on that front at all.... so all is great! :)
Last night I was quite proud of myself as we arrived back from the park at 5pm and the babysitter went home.. and within 20 minutes I had managed to take Tabitha out of her car seat, change her, feed her, get Harry washed and changed, get Dylan organized with a sweater, pack a bag, and go out to meet friends for Dinner by 5.25. Not bad for a new mum of 3.
We met with friends for dinner down in the town center where they have a "Wednesday Night Concert Series'. Dinner was great... ... then we strolled into town. The street is closed off and they have lots of activities for kids including bouncy castles, chalk to draw on the road, huge bubble wands for them to make bubbles with, pretend tattoos, drinks, etc. They had a jazz band playing in the main area and we had a nice walk up and down listening to the music while the kids had a blast. Must do it again next week. Tabitha even managed to stay asleep or content until 8pm when we got home, only starting the nightly screaming round when we got there..... not bad at all.
Posted by katie at August 9, 2007 01:53 PM