Labor Day

Today is Labor Day which, according to reliable Wikipedia sources is...

a United States federal holiday observed on the first Monday in September that celebrates the economic and social contributions of workers.

And Lord knows I've been making some economic but MOSTLY social contributions as a worker lately.

So I definitely have earned my day off - I had tons of plans this weekend to really enjoy our three days off with a graduation party, two birthday parties and a visit with my middle brother who is in town from Maine as part of his "moving back to Texas" plan. But all this fun and excitement got derailed with the little one woke up looking absolutely terrible on Saturday morning. She hadn't been sleeping well on Thursday and Friday nights but we attributed her wakefulness to her two first teeth coming in through her bottom gums. But by Saturday morning the teeth were in but she was still fussy and red-eyed with a runny nose. That night as I was getting ready to go to my friend's graduation party I walked into her bedroom and took one look at her pathetic little face sitting there curled up in Craig's arms and I made my decision - I took off my party dress and put on shorts and a t-shirt...we were headed to the Acute Kids Care office to see what was going on with her. Less than an hour later we walked out with the diagnosis of "croup" which basically means she has a lot of congestion in her chest...at least that's what I gathered. She had an oral steroid while we were there and when we got home she got a nice warm bath with lotion and a little baby Vick's on her chest. We raised up her mattress with a blanket so that she could sleep with her head elevated to help with the drainage. She slept through the night for the first time in several nights. Whew. Yesterday she was better but she took a TON of naps. I think she was just so exhausted from not sleeping well due to the congestion and from her body trying to fight off this virus. This morning she woke up and the bags under her eyes are gone and even though she still has a VERY runny nose, I'm okay with it because I think that all the congestion is finally making it's way out of her body.

In other Labor Day news, I have been working my butt off for the past two weeks. I know that the start of school ishectic for all teachers but I think that middle school volleyball coaches have it the worst. We have try-outs the first week of school (while the football teams don't make any cuts) and we have games the second week of school with the 7th graders only having two practices before we put them out on a court (while the boys have two full weeks of practices before they have a scrimmage). It's a lot of stuff crammed into a small amount of time. I don't even want to calculate how much time I've been spending up at school...

Monday: 7:00 - 6:00, practice, school, practice = 11 hours
Tuesday: 7:00 - 8:30, practice, school, practice, Open House = 13.5 hours
Wednesday: 7:00 - 8:30, practice, school, 7th grade games = 13.5 hours
Thursday: 8:15 - 7:30, school, 8th grade games = 11 hours, 15 minutes
Friday: 7:00 - 6:00, practice, school, practics = 11 hours
TOTAL: 60 hours, 15 minutes

I know there are those critics out there that say that teacher's shouldn't complain about their job or their salary because we get so much time off during the year. Maybe we do...but that's 60.25 hours a week that I'm devoting my time and energy to raising and developing YOUR child into a functioning member of society while I have other people watching mine.

Which opens up another topic - last week was hard because I didn't see Natalie too much. I would get home with just enough time to quickly change clothes and sit in the chair with her and read Harry Potter while she drifted off to sleep. Oh the doubts and worries this brought up... Will she remember me? Does she know that I'm "Momma" and different from all the other women that are helping to take care of her right now? Will we have a bond even though I'm not around very often right now?

I know that biologically she and I are connected in a way that no one else shares with her - I carried her for nine months and my voice will forever be a source of comfort and security to her. Rationally, I know that she knows who her Momma is and although she can be comforted by other people (which in the long run is a GOOD thing) I am and always will be number one in her book.

At least I hope.