Sciencewomen

Very little can go wrong on Tuesday and Thursday mornings if I am going to be able to drop Minnow off at daycare and get to my lecture on time. Since Fish leaves for work at 5:30 am, the child waking, loving, tending, and delivering to daycare all fall on my shoulders. Which means that thorough preparation the night before is critical. And on nights when I am frantically writing the next day’s lecture, it’s Fish’s job to wash out the dirty bottles and get things ready for the next day.

Last night (despite a reminder) he didn’t do his job.

Minnow didn’t sleep well and I couldn’t have gotten more than four hours of sleep. So when I put her in her crib at 6 am, I prayed she would sleep til we have to leave at 7. I got through the shower, but as I was stepping out, I heard her wailing. Dripping wet, I raced into her room to comfort her. Finally I got her calmed down and proceeded to get ready to go. A diaper change for her, both of us got dressed, and we headed downstairs at 6:58 am. All that was left to do was put the dog out, grab the ice packs out of the freezer and bottles out of the fridge and we’d be on our way, just in time.

Only, the baby food wasn’t packed in her daycare bag and there weren’t any clean bottles for me to pump into today. By the time I got bottles cleaned and food packed, we’d missed our window of opportunity to go to daycare, so we went straight to the university.

And right now she’s playing on my office floor while I hold office hours.

I’ll share how class went later. At the moment I need to take her to daycare, finally. And, trust me, Fish is going to hear about it later.

Comments

#1 makita
October 16, 2007

On several occasions I had to take my oldest son to class when he was about 8 months old. Interesting, to say the least. Only, I wasn’t teaching, I was a student. Luckily my son has always been rather independent, and he would just sit there and keep himself occupied.

My husband occasionally f’s up too. I suppose we all do, but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating when he goes about his day as per normal, while we’re scrambling to get through the day.
#2 ScienceMama
October 16, 2007

Ugh, the daily bottle washing is such a drag. Husband and I inititally had a deal: I do all the pumping, he does all the bottle washing. But practically speaking, it often doesn’t work out for him to wash the bottles (maybe he’s working on dinner, or maybe he’s got his hands full with Bean in the bath) so I often end up doing the bottle maintenance.

On our first day taking Bean to daycare, we actually forgot her bottles at home and Husband had to drive back home to get them…

I’m eager to hear how Minnow’s first lecure on -ology went!
#3 LM
October 16, 2007

Give him heck! Tsk. Men.
#4 justapie
October 16, 2007

I am sure Minnow had fun… I look forward to reading about your class.

By the way, if you are still taking requests for Mommy Monday, I would be really interested in hearing how daycare is working out for you both.
#5 JYB
October 16, 2007

My wife and I are both public school teachers so we have very inflexible schedules. It’s my job to take the baby to daycare and my wife picks her up. More than once I’ve gotten to school just as the bell rings.
#6 hypoglycemiagirl
October 16, 2007

Before I know what happened during class I say like this; maybe stressy and embarrassing now, but you’ll probably laugh at it in just a couple of years. I may change my mind if your next post is a story about a complete disaster. Then it may take a couple of more years till you can joke about it. But I fully support the idea of making him never forget doing his job again.
#7 Writer Chica
October 16, 2007

I hope class and office hours went well with Minnow.
#8 anothersciencemom
October 16, 2007

I’m impressed you gave him such an important duty. I believe in the if-you-want-it-done-right-do-it-yourself rule.
#9 Drugmonkey
October 16, 2007

have y’all run across those microwavable autoclaving bags for pump bottles n stuff? comes in handy for those times when all you have time for is rinse and sterilize. also good for work-based cleaning…
#10 KJ
October 16, 2007

There are presterilized storage bags that work really well. I keep a box of them in my bag at work to use as a backup. Plus, they are nice for freezing.
#11 Jane
October 16, 2007

I really appreciate hearing all of your working mama stories, but I do have to say, the more I read, the more panicked I am about returning to work.

I hope you give Fish hell when he gets home.
#12 ScienceWoman
October 16, 2007

justapie: I’ve been meaning to do a Mommy Monday post on daycare, so expect to see it in the next couple of weeks.

anothersciencemom: I too tend to believe “if-you-want-it-done-right-do-it-yourself rule” but in the case of a choice between lecture writing and washing bottles, fish is far more capable of washing bottles.

drugmonkey: I do use the microwave sterilizer bags during the day, but I’ve found that a rinse and sterilize doesn’t work very well if you let the milk harden onto the sides of the bottles as happens when the pump bottle gets empty into the feeding bottle and then sits overnight…

KJ: You pump directly into a bag?

Jane: It’ll be OK. 90% of the time things are fine. And Minnow hasn’t even been sick in her new daycare, which is awesome!