A long month

Darren has been gone a lot for the last month or so.  Since he has to commute to work now it takes away a lot of his home time.  His schedule for May has him home only Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.  It's great for daycare, not great for being a family.  He gets to spend 3 days a week with Natali, but I am at work most of that time, so we only get 3 evenings together a week.  This past Thursday was my birthday.  I thought we might do something together, but it was not to be.  With the crappy weather moving in Darren had to actually head to work on Thursday night so he wouldn't get stuck due to the weather.  He left for the airport about 20 minutes after I got home from work.  I completely understand why he had to go, and I am not upset about it, but I was really disappointed that he had to leave.  We are both having to make some sacrifices right now.  I can't wait until September when he gets to quit the crappy commuting and be based back here in Dallas again.

Knowing how bad this month has been with Darren just being home weekdays I wanted him to get a different schedule for June with weekends off.  Not only have we been missing time together, but Darren has been missing some fun things Natali and I have done on the weekends.  We had dinner with Eric and Angela one night, we spent a long weekend in Sacramento at my sister's house, we went to San Antonio for a day visiting Darren's best friend from high school, and today we had a nice playdate with some other good friends of ours.  It has been nice being able to hang out with friends because it gets lonely without Darren around, but I know Darren really would have liked to do all of those things with us, so it sucks for him too.  We talked it over and decided we could manage ok if he bid for weekends off.  If he did that he would always get a 3-day weekend (Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Saturday, Sunday, Monday).  Then I would just have to shift my work schedule by a day to be home 1 day during the week.  That way he would get weekends off, we could still do part time daycare, and we would have 1 full day each week when we are all home together for the entire day.  Luckily for us Darren got a schedule for June with Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off each week, so I will be working Tuesday-Saturday and stay home with Natali on Mondays, and all three of us will be home on Sundays.  I am looking forward to it.  Anything would be better than the crappy schedule he has this month.  Of course, Darren did just inform me that he wants to trade a trip at the beginning of the month for a different trip on different days.  I am very supportive of whatever he wants to do, but it does disappoint me a bit.  The trip he wants to trade for would have him come home late at night on Monday the 30th, and then be gone again from Wednesday morning through Saturday.  This means he would only be home 1 day during that week, which doesn't work out for daycare.  Of course, the 30th is Memorial Day, a holiday for me, so it actually will be doable.  It is unfortunate for me though, because I was actually scheduled to take Natali to daycare that day anyway.  I was honestly really looking forward to it.  I love my daughter to death and I enjoy taking care of her, but it was going to be such a nice little break for me.  I had planned to drop her off and then come home and do some really good cleaning for a few hours and then go see a movie.  It was a good plan.  I sort of feel bad for wanting a break, but I honestly could use it.  I'm not complaining or anything, but in Natali's 9 months of life I have had 2 days away from her when we went to Vegas and my mom watched her when she was 3 months old, and then I had a few hours 1 night back in February when my mom watched her and we went up to Winstar.  Otherwise, my only time away has been when I'm at work and Natali is at daycare.  Work is definitely not what I consider a break.  Of course, spending my "break" day cleaning is not my first choice either, but I feel like my house is a constant disaster and I would love to be able to clean without worrying about waking up a sleeping baby, or trying to figure out what I can clean in the 5 minutes Natali is distracted in her exersaucer with Cheerios.  The house never gets clean this way.  Plus, I was planning a movie too, so that would have been a real break.  Oh well.  It was not meant to be I guess.

Anyway, enough venting.  I am a good supportive wife who recognizes the sacrifices we are both making for Natali.  I understand how great we have things in the long run and things could always be worse.  Natali is a very easy baby to care for, so its not like my time alone with her is difficult.  Although, it is a bit more exhausting these days now that she crawls.  That baby can move!  :-)