What a day...

I feel the need to record yesterday's events for posterity and so, when I think I'm having a bad day, I can look back and perhaps it won't seem so bad. This is going to get long, so feel free to ignore this entry. To begin with, Ethan was up a couple of times during the night, so I didn't get as much sleep as I would have liked. Then he only napped 30 minutes for his first nap so I was faced with the following decision: Do I leave for class immediately after his next feeding as originally planned so I can spend some time with friends at Live at the Lampstand or do I skip it in order to let him get a decent nap at home? Since Ethan comes first, I decided on the latter. I had just gotten him down for a nap when I get an email from my friend who was supposed to be watching him during class, letting me know that she's sick and wants to go home but would be willing to watch him if I really needed her. Obviously, I told her to head home, and I'd just take him to class with me. Not ideal, but not a huge issue, especially since I'd done it before. As soon as I send the email, my iPod goes black and won't turn back on, adding just another thing to the list of what's gone wrong.

Ethan woke up after just an hour-long nap, but it's just in time for when we need to leave, so at least I didn't have to try to transfer a sleeping baby to the car seat. He is wonderful on the drive there, not making a peep except for batting at his toys. As I drive up to the parking garage, I say a prayer that it won't be reserved for an event like last time. Of course, the entire thing was reserved for a funeral, so I rushed over to the chapel circle in hopes of sweet-talking the guard. I apparently didn't think about the fact that the circle would be filled with funeral-goers as well. The guard said there was no way he could let me in, so I asked him where I could park since I had my son with me and needed to drop off a check at the bursar and take something to the chapel (both true, but I left out the part about going to class since the circle is essentially for drop-offs only). He must have taken pity on me because he pointed out the one available space and let me through. At this point, I knew I couldn't get to the chapel, so I headed to the bursar to turn in a reimbursement check they mistakenly sent me before realizing their mistake and sending me a bill for that amount. Unfortunately, the bursar apparently moved way across campus last year, so I guess I'm going to have to mail a payment and hope there's no issue because there's no way I'm going all the way there.

At this point, I'm really frustrated because I didn't get to do my fun activity, I didn't get to do either of my non-class tasks, and I'm terrified my car will be towed because the guard knows exactly where I'm parked and can see how long I'm there (though, since the entire circle was triple-parked, there's no way I could have left anyway, so at least I might have an argument). By now, I need to go feed Ethan if I'm going to get to class in time. Of course, he was too interested in his surroundings to nurse or take the bottle, so it took me forever to feed him. Thankfully, though, I got to see a lot of friends I hadn't seen yet (and who hadn't seen Ethan) during our breaks of walking around before trying to eat again. I finally get him to take all but the last ounce or so, so we head to class. He does well for the first 45 minutes until he starts fussing for a nap. I leave class, get him to sleep, and return. However, the nap only lasts 30 minutes, when that nap usually lasts 2 hours. Unlike the last time I was in class, he wasn't happy to wait until after class to eat again, and after about 40 minutes of waiting patiently, he started trying to nurse through my sweater, so I gathered all our stuff and left with about 20 minutes of class to go (though class had basically wrapped up, and most of that time would be used for an evening prayer service). He only ate half his bottle, so I decided to go ahead and leave and offer the rest of it when we got home. And (praise the Lord!) my car didn't even get a ticket! Plus, Ethan was an extremely happy baby, laughing loudly on the changing table to the delight of everyone within earshot. He even took a brief nap on the way home, so he got a total of 2.5 hours of naps, about half his usual amount.

As I feared, this lack-of-naps led to a rough night last night as he fought sleep and woke up twice within the first few hours and got up at 6 this morning. Plus, I was so stressed from the day that I didn't get to sleep until almost 2. Thankfully, I was able to get him to do a morning re-start so I got an extra 1.5 hours of sleep while he napped in the crib this morning, and he's been back to his usual schedule today. All-in-all, it could have been a lot worse, but it could have been a lot better. Hopefully my friend scheduled for next week will come through and I'll be able to park in the garage with no issue next time!