The Longest Day

Tuesday was two days after the summer solstice, but it was certainly the longest day I've had in a long time.

My husband, Scott, had one of his rare business trips, with his flight leaving at 6:15 a.m. Tuesday and, thankfully, returning home that night.

His early departure meant that when Ellie woke up at 2 a.m. and called for him, I needed to respond to her instead. We'd discussed his trip with her, but in the middle of the night, she apparently forgot about it and was beyond disappointed to get me instead of him.

"Iiiiiiiiii waaaaaaaaaant Scooooooooooott," she sobbed for just over an hour. (Yes, she tends to call us by our first names, and we're mostly OK with that. Mostly.)

The poor kid eventually cried herself to sleep.

Then it was, I think, the first time I had to get her ready for school/camp/daycare on my own. Since I didn't have a job I needed to get to, we didn't set an alarm and she woke up on her own about 6:30 a.m., 30 minutes later than normal. (And I was grateful for that, and that it wasn't one of her days when she woke up 45 minutes earlier than usual.)

The morning routine went fine -- she was delighted when I let her choose what clothes I would wear for the day -- and I dropped her off at preschool at 7:30 a.m.

I came home and immediately crawled back into bed for a couple hours more sleep, although I would have been happier with five or six more hours sleep. But I had a noon appointment with my internist (who, btw, had not heard of the NIH's Undiagnosed Diseases Program and was excited to hear about it), followed by a meeting with my lawyer to discuss next week's deposition on my 2006 car accident that left me with ongoing back and neck pain.

Back-to-back appointments on any day would have been Too Much for me, particularly such lengthy appointments (almost an hour with the internist, 90 minutes with the lawyer). But this day? I was crazy to even try.

After the lawyer, I went home for a little downtime before picking up Ellie. I had promised her a trip to McDonald's Playland after school, but I knew I just wasn't up to it so I bribed her with a "movie night" instead. She was delighted, since she rarely (if ever -- I can't think of another time) gets to watch DVDs on a week night.

We both enjoyed Enchanted, a movie we've watched several times before. Ellie was great about cooperating with getting ready for bed, but then came the hard part -- going to sleep without Daddy. I had this silly idea that if I let her stay up a bit later than usual, she would be tired and fall asleep faster. Nope!

We hit her bedroom for lights out about 8:30 or 8:45 p.m. I was beyond exhausted at that point, to the point that I was literally shaking/trembling. Ellie was a chatterbox (she gets that from her mom, who was notorious with college roommates for getting chatty as soon as the lights went out), and just didn't settle down the way I hoped she would. She talked, and sang, and fidgeted until finally, around 10 p.m., she finally gave up and fell asleep holding both my hands.

That last part was trickier than it sounds because it hurt even though she wasn't squeezing my hands particularly hard. But it was worth it, since it got her to sleep finally.

I was creeping out of her room about 10:20 p.m., just as I heard Scott coming into the house, a long, long day for both of us.

Today, I'm really paying the piper for putting in a "normal" day yesterday. I find it amazing that when I overdo things, not only do my mystery illness symptoms flare, but so do other ones. I started getting a killer sore throat during Ellie's staying-awake marathon, and by the time I got to sleep myself, I had major congestion and sinus pain.

My lawyer asked yesterday afternoon how I was feeling, and I replied, "Cruddy." Today, I'm wishing to go back to cruddy, which would be a major improvement. :-(

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Apologies to those who have left comments lately or sent email, both of which I'm horribly behind on. I will catch up, but it's not looking likely for today.