Jose came home on Saturday from his second work trip to Moscow. His first trip was ~1.5 years ago and I wrote about the anxiety I felt at the prospect of being on my own with (then) 18-month-old Emma for 9 days. Now things have changed again and I had two kids to wrangle, including a 7-week-old!
The trip had obviously been in the works for a while, so we had reinforcements flown in — my mom! She arrived last Monday and was of course a huge help. It’s been smooth sailing with her here, and I’m loving that since she’s now retired, she has more flexibility in her schedule and can visit outside of just summer time! Still, Jose left on Friday the 16th so I was on my own with both kids for an entire weekend.
If Emma had still been an only child, I don’t think I would have been anxious at all. If it had just been me and Charlotte, again, I don’t think I would have been nervous. But both? My first extended period of time with both kids on my own? I was definitely experiencing some low level panic.
Charlotte is in both her easiest and hardest stage, I think — easiest because she stays wherever you put her and basically just goes with the flow; hardest because she eats all the time and still wakes up in the middle of the night. She got stashed in the swing a lot during our solo weekend while I entertained Emma, but fortunately she was amenable to that. On the flip side, Emma didn’t get as much attention either because I had to feed and calm Charlotte every few hours, but fortunately she is able to entertain herself fairly well these days (with some guidance and/or suggestions from me).
So everything turned out just fine. (Of course. The rational part of me knew this all along.) We hung out at the house, I was liberal with screen time, and I arranged to meet some friends at the park to enjoy the weather. I even managed to take both kids to the grocery store without anyone crying! I know this type of thing only feels hard because it’s new to me, but for that day, I felt like superwoman! In the end, while I’d obviously rather have Jose here, I also think these periods are good for me, and good for building my confidence in my parenting abilities.
And hopefully it’s at least another 18 months until Jose has to go to Moscow again. Ha!
Glad your mom was able to come! I find being home with the two of them a lot harder than it was with Isla alone – and it’s easier now than when Briony was tiny.
Every time I do any extended solo parenting, it reaffirms to me that I would not make a very good stay at home mom! I wouldn’t want to take an extended maternity leave like you did either. It’s clearly not my thing, and I admire those who do it!