Going Home Alone

It has been a crazy few days here. First I'm proud to say I mostly did everything I needed to do over the weekend. I managed 15 minutes a day in my kitchen, which included getting rid of some more old food, organizing the canned food and baking stuff in my cabinets (WHY do I have four cans of evaporated milk and what can I do with them?), and throwing out some pot lids that no longer have related pots. Unfortunately I did not do any work in the kids' room. At all.

On Sunday I misjudged one of the narrow pathways between the clutter. Unfortunately, the baby's highchair was sticking just into the pathway and I banged my pinky toe on it. Hard. I think it might be broken. It's all bruised and swollen. I've been taping it to the other toe and it feels much better, but it does still hurt. See kids, clutter is dangerous!

My hubby takes the older kids each year on a special trip, each one separately. He and the Girl are away right now, they come back tomorrow and he leaves with the Boy on Friday. My in-laws are nice enough to watch the Baby and the child who is not with Dad. Of course, the Baby is still nursing, so for the last two nights, I stayed over and commuted from Long Island. As such, nothing got done at home, since I haven't been there.

Anyway, after much internal debate, I have decided not to stay by my in-laws tonight. Instead, I am going home alone. This is only the second time in probably 8 years that I have been home, alone, overnight, with no kids and no husband. The first time was just about two years ago. I was nervous then, but not as nervous - the Girl was already 4 by then, whereas the Baby is just 13 months and still wakes up at night. I know he will be fine, but I didn't really want to burden my in-laws with that. Still, my mother in law kept saying to go right ahead, so I'm taking her at her word.

And what am I going to do with my night off? Declutter!!!!!

At least that's the plan. I thought about doing 15-20 minutes in each room, running through the place, organizing and neatening. Then I realized what I really want is to clean up my bedroom. Really clean it up. So after picking up some takeout, that is what I am going to do. Wish me luck.

Hubby has the camera, but I'll try to get a "before" pic with my cell phone, at least.

The Crib Thing

Let me explain that last comment yesterday about the crib.

Our kids are 8 years (J), 5 years (S), and 6 months (B). We have never owned a crib.

When J was born, we had the best intentions. We were living in a one-bedroom apartment, so we didn't have a nursery to furnish. Hubby's grandma had made us a beautiful yellow bassinet and we planned to use that in the beginning, and get a crib a few months down the line.

J slept in the bassinet for a night or two, but he was fussy and would cry. I ended up cuddling with him one night (I believe my excuse was "he's cold,") and he went right to sleep. About two weeks later, I figured out how to nurse him while laying down and dozing off myself, and that was that. He stayed in the bed. We never bothered with the crib because we didn't mind co-sleeping.

When J was 2, we moved to a larger apartment (2 bedrooms) and I got pregnant again soon after. During the pregnancy, we worked on transitioning J from our bed to a toddler bed. Then when he was 2.5 he developed asthma and somehow went back to sleeping in our bed (I wanted to watch him breathe). S was born and we tried the bassinet again, but half-heartedly. Most nights we had both of them in bed with us. When J was 3.5 we got him a big-boy bed and worked on the transition again, since he was ready to start pre-K, was potty trained, and so on. But S stayed with us and the idea of buying a crib went bye-bye again.

So now B came along. The big kids have bunk beds and sleep in them most nights (though little miss S protests a lot). We decided that B would be the one to sleep in the bassinet and even get a crib. Hubby's sister went so far as to buy the crib for us - months ago - and is just waiting for us to give her the ok to have it delivered. B was sleeping in the bassinet most nights - or at least starting out there until the overnight-nursing session. But I go back and forth. I really don't mind having a baby in the bed - it's the toddler and pre-school age when it gets tough. But there is a lot of pressure to have a crib this time around - from hubby as well, as he is tired of sharing. It's just that I'm the one doing the overnight work with the baby, and I'm also the one who has to get up early every day. So why not make it easier on myself?