I've been back in class for 4 weeks now, so it's about time I blogged about it. Overall, things have been going pretty well! I do my reading during his naps, and, while I often don't have time to do all of the reading, especially since I often clean and cook during his naps, too, I wouldn't do all of the reading even if I didn't have an infant to care for, so it's working out fine. I'm only a part-time student, so I'm just taking two classes instead of the usual four. Of those two classes, I'm taking one as a directed study so I don't have to actually go to the class, and I'm taking the other one pass/fail, so I don't have to worry as much about that one grade-wise. It's a fantastic set-up!
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find someone to watch Ethan every week during my 2.5 hour class. The first week, a good friend watched him. The second week, my mom was in town so she watched him at home. The third week, that class was canceled. This past week, I decided to try an experiment. I have two friends that are going to watch him once a month which leaves 2 weeks with no one to watch him (my mom will be in town another week in March). With no one to watch him this past week, I brought him to class with me. I was a bit nervous, not knowing whether he would sleep or cry the whole time, but it went great! He was happy for the first 30 minutes, looked ready to fuss so I took him out for 10 minutes to get him to sleep, he slept for 30 minutes, and then he was (shockingly) happy for the rest of class! The first time he blew a raspberry, the professor started cracking up, and when he was smiling sleepily around the class after he woke up from his nap, the professor got distracted and started baby-talking to him. Definitely NOT what I expected from this professor since he's always been a bit awkward. About half the class is made up of some of my best friends at the div. school so I wasn't worried about them, and thankfully no one else minded having a baby in the room (one of the many good things about divinity school is that it's very family-focused), and at the end, the professor said Ethan was welcome back any time and was even disappointed when I told him it wouldn't be a regular occurrence.
It's definitely not easy. There's an added level of stress when I either have a friend watching him (Will he be OK with them? Do they know how to get him down for a nap?) or have him in class (Will he start crying and disturb everyone? Will I miss something important if I leave class?). It's also not easy trying to take notes with a wiggling infant in your lap. Plus, there are only so many hours of naps in a day so several times I've had to try to get him to entertain himself so I could finish an assignment. Hopefully that part will get easier as he gets older, and the term hasn't been too paper-heavy so it's mostly just reading and short writing assignments.
All in all, I'm glad I decided to go ahead and start back this term instead of waiting for the fall. I feel good about my grasp of the material, and I don't even think my grades will suffer. It's still up in the air whether or not I'll take 2 or 3 classes a term next year (which will determine whether I have to go back in Fall 2012), but I won't be making that decision until the fall classes are announced in March. Hopefully I'll be able to keep the trends of the past week up through the end of the semester!
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