Mommies Don't Get Sick Days

How being a stay-at-home-mom is different from working (this is certainly not a complete list):

* I don't have to look nice for my boss. He appreciates my work no matter what I'm wearing.

* The hours are much longer now - if you think a Blackberry doesn't give you peace, try the Ferber method.

* The commute is much shorter, but leaving the house now requires one extra hour for packing the diaper bag, changing the baby's diaper one more time, loading him into the car seat, remembering you left something on the counter, unloading the baby from the car seat to bring him back in to pick up what you left on the counter, running back out to the car, loading the baby back into the car seat, remembering you left something else inside and debating whether it's worth going back for, deciding it's not, then finally leaving because you only have 1.5 hours before peanut needs to eat AGAIN!

* No annual reviews, just daily kisses to let you know you're doing a bang-up job!

* Lunch hour -- hahahaha!! And liquid lunch has taken on a whole new meaning.

* No paycheck, no commission, no benefits. (Daily kisses, giggles and new "tricks" make up the new payment package.)

* No sick days

And so it was yesterday that I had to call the hubby to come home from work to sit with peanut while I went to the doctor's office for a tetanus shot courtesy of the nice slice to the finger I gave myself the night before making dinner. Between a terribly sore finger (no stitches, but I think that's because the liquid bandage we used on it after an hour of bleeding simply glued the sucker shut) and a sore arm from the shot and the relief after spending all morning worrying whether the finger was infected or the shot would be bad for the baby since I'm still nursing, I was ready to call it in for the rest of the day.

But no rest for the weary. Hubby headed back to work and peanut and I went about our business. Luckily, he took a longer nap than usual, so mama indulged a bit and had one herself (ah, naptime, add that to the SAHM benefit category). In the beginning, naps are a necessity for mom -- you're up all night, you really do need to sleep when the baby sleeps because life is unpredictable. Now that we're in a pretty good routine of morning and afternoon naps, I use those times to get some work done around the house and spend some quality "me" time. But every once in awhile, you have a day like yesterday and you just have to take a nap. Boy, did it feel good, too!

Today is back to business as usual - I have a very demanding boss!