A Day Not at the Movies

This morning I went in to wake up my husband. I leaned in close, and he stared back at me, groggily.

Me (knowing he can't see anything without his glasses or contacts): I'm just a fuzzy blob, aren't I?

Him: No. You're a fuzzy cyclops.

My sister wanted to take the kids to a matinee movie and Cars 2 was playing, which she knew her son would enjoy. She was trying desperately to keep my 11-month-old niece awake so that she would nap during the movie.

Of course, 11-month olds often have other plans, and my niece zonked out during lunch. I actually did want to see the movie, but felt like between the packing day, the long drive, and yesterday's not-relaxing-for-me beach trip, I just wanted some "down" time, so I volunteered to stay behind with my niece.

Plus my sister really needs a break as my niece is going through a separation anxiety phase where Mommy must be present, and preferably in physical contact with her, at all times.

So off went my sister, my husband, and the four-year-olds.

Right as the movie was scheduled to start, my niece woke up. I was just about to panic when she dozed back off. She did, however, wake up fully about an hour and a half later, and NOTHING I did would settle her down. Since my sister wears her a lot in a baby carrier, I decided I would try walking around with her tied to me. I grabbed a sheet out of the linen closet, tied her to my back, and started marching around the tree in the front yard.

She finally quieted down. It only took a couple of minutes.

Unfortunately, if I quit marching around the tree, she started crying again. I thought maybe I'd take her inside and see if I could feed her.

She swatted away the bottle.

She spit the cereal all over me, proclaiming loudly, "DUM-DUM!"

Fantastic. My 11-month-old niece's third word is calling her auntie, "Dum dum."

I tied her back onto my back, went out to the car to get an umbrella (for shade), and started walking around the complex. It would have been a really nice walk and I would have kept going, but the extra weight was really hurting my back.

And just thinking that made me feel like I am whining about my back again, which I thought I'd gotten away from. When it's not hurting, I feel "normal" and don't think about it. When it is hurting, it is all I can think about--including how I don't want to do anything else because all I can think about is how much it will hurting during and how much more it will hurt after.

But at this point, my niece was winning out.

I finally caved and called my sister, who told me they were going to be leaving shortly and would come straight back.

When they arrived, I was marching around the tree again. My sister took over, my niece immediately calmed down, and I went and laid down.

Despite the migraines I know they cause, I caved and took pain medication tonight. I hurt so much I decided I would rather spend tomorrow trying to fight off a headache than unable to sleep due to pain.

Also, I've had this weird insomnia here. I've had problems sleeping, which have bothered me, but it's been magnified on this trip. The 400-page book I brought down to read (which was the only book I brought because I didn't even think I'd have the opportunity to finish it) I completed at 5:30 a.m. leaving me with about 1.5 hours of sleep last night, so the nap I took this afternoon (3 hours) left everyone wondering what was wrong with me, but still left me very short on sleep.

Yes, the book was good, no I didn't want to put it down, but I did anyway, multiple times, and when I still couldn't sleep, I picked it back up. After finishing it, I remained awake, staring out the window until the sky began to turn color.

Hopefully tonight I can level back out.