Working Full Time

The past 2 weeks have been hard...really hard. With the hospital going to computer charting all of us were required to work full time for 2 weeks. After having the last 6 months off and working 1 shift during that time going back to work was a real shock for all of us in the family. We were luck enough to work out babysitting so that wasn't a huge stress. Matt was able to go to work late and get Hallie to get her ready for school and to the bus so our babysitter just had the 2 kids. Em didn't take to kindly to me being gone. She woke up multiple time in the night for Matt and for the babysitters she stopped napping and was super fussy. One of the days I had texted our babysitter to check in and she let me know that Em was super sad, spitty, and refusing to sleep that she didn't know what to do for her. I had a break down. I told my pod partners I needed a minute and locked myself in the bathroom and just bawled my eyes out. I called Matt to see if he could go home and see if he could get her to settle in but he was in Salt Lake for the next couple hours so he couldn't help immediately. I felt terrible, frustrated, and was at a total loss at what to do. I could pretty much see my house out the pod window but yet I couldn't do anything to help the situation. Once I had my break down I pulled myself  together and tried to walk the babysitter through some things she could try. Luckily one of them worked and she took a short nap for her that got her through when I came home form work. I would never choose to work full time the stress that comes from little sleep, lack of babysitters, and littles struggles is not worth any amount of money to me. I don't mind working a couple times a month but that is plenty for me.

Now after the fact we are having some problems with Hallie. She is struggling with anxiety. It has started to manifest in bad stomach aches. She has had problems here and there but the day I started back to work she called me crying that she was really sick and needed me to come get her. I was able to talk her thru it and she made it thru the rest of the day. But since then the tummy aches are almost a daily occurrence. I talked to her teacher and she had noticed the same thing and was planning on talking to me to see if I was noticing the same thing. She gave me and suggested some books to read and help me talk to her. So we will address that and try to help her find a way to cope with that. Anxiety is no stranger at this house and it is no fun. As for now Im back to working a couple times a month so we will see if we can settle back into a "normal" routine for us.