Work, School, Baby

For the first time, I am juggling work, school, & Baby. For this past week, I have been teaching ESL part-time, going to my summer class at USC, and taking care of Baby. I'm lucky, though. With Robby gone, I'm fortunate enough to elicit help from my parents, who love the opportunity to spend more time with their grand baby. Plus, I've got a small class of friendly foreign students (6 kids from Spain & Italy), a light teaching schedule (3.5 hours a day), & a light teaching load (no homework in this summer ESL class). But what happens after the first week? I get sick!

This schedule is good practice for this fall, when I begin teaching full time & continue taking classes at USC. I have both dreaded & excitedly anticipated these days for many months now. I have never handled such a full workload. Although I have class one evening a week for 6 hours, USC's EdD program is very demanding - lots of reading & analysis, professors with high expectations, & long papers to write at the end of each term.

With the lack of sleep - Baby has been waking up 3 hours - and the commute from Orange County to Marina del Rey, my body is unaccustomed to so much activity. My parents have been generous enough to offer to sleep with the baby through the night. My mom has a small ice chest full of bottled breast milk & a bottle warmer in their bedroom, & she has set up a little diaper-changing station, so they are prepared for the Baby's midnight waking and midnight snacking. Oh it's easy, she says. They have slept with him for 5 nights now, & I hope they don't become too exhausted from the interrupted sleep.

When I get better, I'll take him back to my room, where he'll sleep next to me...where I can listen to his rustling and squeaking and snoring. At least for now I'll be able to sleep through the night & get rid of this cold.

Without my hubby & Baby sleeping near me, I find myself repeating aloud, "I miss my babies" for a few moments before I fall asleep.