Part of Z-man’s job requires that he travel quite a bit. Most of the time he’s only gone 2 days every other week, but 3 or 4 times a year he has longer trips; thankfully his next one isn’t until April.

When Princess was a baby these trips were excruciating. She was a very high needs child; we called her superglue baby. Even going to the bathroom was difficult when Z-man was at work. Showers waited until he was home and even then I had to listen to her screaming for me from the living room. Daddy was person non-grata with her then. When he was out of town life was hell. I didn’t get any kind of break from the constant neediness of my darling girl and I would start to come undone around the edges and by the time he came home I was extremely frayed.

When Cookie arrived things actually improved. Princess was in pre-school half days and Cookie was a mellow child, content as long as she was a part of everything. I could set her in her bouncy seat in the bathroom with a few toys and take long hot showers. She was a social creature and loved taking trips to the park and the stores. At the same time, Princess had learned to play independently and would often play in the family room for the entire time it took me to prepare dinner. My husband could be gone for a few days without the world falling apart…well, except the house. Keeping up on the house work too was just asking too much.

Now we are all in the groove. When Z-man leaves we have “mommy and girl time”; the patterns of the house don’t get disrupted like they used to. Sure, now mommy does all the cooking (not my strong suit) and mommy does the bedtime routine (something daddy always does when he’s home), but other than that not much changes. Ok, so the girls usually end up in bed with me, but I don’t mind because it’s really lonely in there without my hubby. There are still the days when he gets home and I hand off the parenting baton and go lock myself in the bathroom, but for the most part I really feel like I have a handle on things.

Today he is gone on one of his bi-monthly trips and as I was getting the girls ready and out the door this morning I thought about how this is all going to change again when the baby comes home. Three kids sounds like so many some days, especially when Z-man is gone. I found the transition from no kids to one to be tough, and the transition from one to two to be easy… now I wonder what the transition to three will be like.

Thankfully the one thing I’m very confidant about is that no matter what life hands us, we will adapt and grow to meet the challenge.

posted at 11:26 AM  
Labels: Kids, Parenting