Going Bananas: Part II

So, to continue from my previous post: Lately, I haven’t been able to shake the feeling that we we’re doing just ain’t working. Thus, on Wednesday morning, about 3 minutes after my boss got in, I plopped down in her office and made my case for changing my work schedule.

“As much as it kills me to give up my compressed Friday,” I said (I get every other Friday off by working an extra hour each day, “days are too long for Charlotte. I drag her out of bed every morning, and I think getting that extra hour in the morning could help things run more smoothly. She’d also spend less time at school that way.”

I asked for a 2-week trial run to pin down the best timing. My boss did not hesitate and backed me up, and I felt much better about this whole working mommy thing. Maybe I just needed to tweak my schedule. Yes, it will cost more (gas, parking) with us not carpooling, but we need to at least try it.

The week dragged on. On Thursday, I had the joy of (mandatory) all-day training on Microsoft Office 2010 in downtown DC. This irritated the crap out of me, as I needed the desk time at work to actually complete my work, plus half my family works for Microsoft—I’ve been working with every new version of MS Office pretty much within hours of it being released. I didn’t need training on how to customize my toolbar. As Charlotte had been battling a cough and waking up fairly often throughout the week, I struggled to keep my eyes open in the class as we oh so slowly practiced how to click our mouses (mice?).

That previous paragraph had nothing to do with anything. I just wanted to complain about it.

On Friday, Charlotte’s immune system finally caught up with us. The child woke up with a fever. I had an all-day thing planned with a print vendor in Southern Maryland, full of meetings (and a tour of various types of printing presses, which was actually super fun and interesting and totally worth being a Bad Mommy). Chris knew I had to go into work, so he stayed home. I left Charlotte in tears (both of us), her crying “Mommy! Mommy! MOMMY!” and feeling like my mommy heart was balled up in maternal pain. Oh, it killed me. It shouldn’t have—there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with a sick toddler staying home with her daddy. Luckily, Chris had left his computer at work, which meant he couldn’t try to work during the day! Hooray!

Chris texted me updates throughout my meetings, and the pediatrician diagnosed an ear infection.

I got home as fast as I could that evening (it goes a lot faster when you don’t have to stop at school), and all was well. I slept in Charlotte’s bed with her on Friday night (she has a double-sized mattress on the floor), which eliminated the late-night crying for “MOMMY!” So, we all managed to get some sleep.

Last night, Charlotte slept solo and only woke up twice.

I’m thrilled it’s still the weekend, Charlotte is on the mend, the Niner game is today, and that it snowed Friday night. I can’t wait to try out my new work schedule tomorrow and drive to work during daylight. It was a loooooooong, sleep-deprived, weird week last week, but it nudged us to make some changes. Here’s to NOT going bananas THIS week (and GO NINERS!!).