Dateline 12-5-2016
/As much as I tend to gripe about how shitty my life is, today was the first time that I had to wake to an alarm clock since, I don't know when. Since I work from home and set my own schedule, I normally get to sleep when I want to, wake when I wake and plan my day accordingly. This morning, however, I told my youngest sister that I'd watch my nephew for a couple hours so she wouldn't have to wrangle him in the waiting room during my mom's doctor's appointment, where my sister couldn't leave for some reason.
I usually go to be around 4:00 in the AM which makes a 6:30 in the AM wake time an interesting dilemma. Do I try to go to bed early? Do my regular thing, sleep for a couple hours, struggle to stay awake watching the kid and crash again when the adults return? Or, stay up all night getting everything done so that I could just call it a day at 9:30 in the AM.
I aimed for option three but by the time bedtime struck there was no stopping me from hitting the hay. Even after years of this self-employed schedule I still have an amazing sleep anxiety that causes me to wake fifteen minutes before my alarm goes off and two hours' sleep I jumped out of bed fearing that I failed my one task where someone else needed me.
Nope. I ended up waking before any of the people that actually had places to be as I entered a silent house. After the adults left it was just me and the kid. He slept for about a half hour while I watched TV trying not to crash, giving him free reign over the house while I snored.
There was a funny moment when he first woke up and I was asking him about his diaper. He's old enough that he only needs one when he sleeps and apparently last night was a night a need because he seemed embarrassed that there was an issue to deal with and kept pretending nothing was wrong.
Part of me just wanted to let it go because I haven't changed a diaper since my sisters were babies, but I couldn't let him go two more hours with pants filled with poop. Luckily it wasn't a huge mess and he was able to clean himself and then take a bath.
I felt kind of like Adam Sandler in Big Daddy, letting the kid call the shots. After the bath, he had yogurt and candy for breakfast and he played until everyone returned without a single fussy incident, but that kid loves me so I wasn't all that concerned.
Once everyone returned I snuck off and went back to bed where I fell into a deep slumber and now here we are, I feel nice and refreshed, if only I had something to do.
Oh well, we'll see what happens and as always I'll keep you posted when it does.
Talk to you tomorrow,
The Wicker Breaker