Overwhelmed

Did you ever have something happen in your life that you were hoping for, but suddenly, that brings forth a whole new set of worries and anxieties? That pretty much describes my household for the past 48 hours.

Mike got the job that he interviewed for this week. That's good, right? Yes, but...

They want him to start Monday. This means that next week I'll have both kids by myself plus still do all the errands we had scheduled that need doing before I go back to work the following week (which are significant). More crucially, it means that we have a totally different childcare situation on our hands.

Anne is signed up at our daycare for 2 days per week. We decided to ask my in-laws, who are retired (my parents still work and are unavailable to watch the kids during the week, unfortunately) if they could watch Anne 2 days per week, and maybe pick Henry up from school 2 days per week. We'd try to add an additional daycare day for Anne per week, and sign Henry up for after school care for 3 days.

Well, we were at the daycare this morning. They're full. :( This means that my in-laws are probably going to have to bail us out for an additional day per week until the daycare has an opening for us to add another day. And though I'm happy Anne will be with family more, getting lots of attention, I'm feeling really badly about imposing on them in this way.

It's not like we have much of a choice. My paid time off is totally used up from my maternity leave. Thus, our other options would be for Mike to not take the job, or to scramble to find another daycare that could take her, one which would be totally unfamiliar to us, and I'm just not comfortable with that.

*sighs*

Jobs are hard to come by in our area of the country, and we feel that Mike needs to take this and get some experience. Mike is my in-laws only child, and they've continually told us that they're happy to take the kids as much as we need, but I'm still battling with my feelings of guilt.

And everything is happening all at once. Mike starts work on Monday. I go back to work the next Monday. That next day, Anne starts daycare. And 2 weeks after that, Henry starts at his new Catholic school. That's 4 major changes in 3 weeks.

I'm stressing. Yesterday, I bit all of my nails off. Currently, I feel like crying.

But what can I do? Just hang in there, I suppose. I did pray for God's will, and Mike and I carefully discerned whether or not he should take the position, so we have to just have faith that we're doing the right thing.

:-(

In other news, Anne is now 12 weeks old and getting so big. Yesterday, while I was pumping some gas, I saw her in her rear facing carseat methodically working off one of her socks. She's suddenly aware that these flailing limbs actually belong to *her*. She's very cute.

And I do think she's going through some beginning teething. Whenever she has a dress on, she grabs the hem and shoves it in her mouth. Very ladylike, my daughter.

I'm hoping that dance will de-stress me tonight.