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pocketboook fatigue

(Warning: I'll be whining.)

I'm so over the constant fatigue that is already overtaking me. How can I be so tired?

How much more exhausted will I be when Baby arrives? Maternity leave will be like a little slice of stay-at-home-heaven, but I'm already dreading the inevitable (god, yes, it's completely inevitable) return to my full time job and the cost of good daycare.

(The superb places in Louisville seem to run about $190.00 a week. If I had $200.00 extra a week, I'd either have a much healthier savings account or a hell of a more stylish wardrobe. And probably an iphone.)

How do people do it? How do single parents do it? It defies comprehension.

I'm trying to get on some money saving budget, and the biggest thing that I can cut out is having Panera and Schlotzsky's and Qdoba and Chic-fil-A and Jersey Mike's Subs on my weekly lunch menu. It's hard to cut out those yummy lunch choices, though, when all I'm craving is Chicken Nachos or Greek Salad or Waffle Cut French Fries or Roast Beef and Provolone on The Yummiest Hoagie Ever.

I told you I would be whining. Also, I'll be going out for lunch. Now.

Comments

Sierra Godfrey said…
You just do it, hon.

Maternity leave IS a slice of heaven-- when people joke to you that you'll be on "vacation" -- laugh and go "yeah right" but then smile secretly to yourself BECAUSE IT IS VACATION. A three/four month AWESOME vacation where you pretend for a short while that you don't have to work. No joke. It's great.

Do take a long hard look at your finances and see if there is any possible way of staying home with the baby because if you are at all like me, you will die a little inside each time you walk away from your baby after dropping her off in daycare. You will never forgive yourself for it. But there is nothing you can do, because we have to work and eat and pay rent.

If you do have to work, then make sure you thoroughly investigate every day care center that you can. See if you can visit the baby during lunch and nurse (if you're nursing). That helps.
Unknown said…
So which of those fine establishments did you decide to visit today?

I watched my sister go through the same thing, tired as always. I guess the only thing after nine months is that you have something to show for being tired, the real deal, the thing that whines while you whine. Sounds like fun right?

I don't know how parents do it, let alone single parents. By the act of God I suppose. Day care is expensive for sure!

Buy a lotto ticket, I'm sending my luck via through the comment box!
MJenks said…
Yeah, I just took a peek at the financial times for the Jenks household and frowned. Too many eating out forays. Which sucks because I didn't bring lunch and the food nazis have taken over the snack machine in the break room. So, I'll be eating water today.

On top of that, I watched the US match this morning, so I would feel guilty about leaving an hour early. But when I get home, there's going to be some severe hurt put on some hot dogs...

As for the daycare thing...it's pretty much the one thing that has financially ruined us. Having to drive 30 miles to the daycare/school when gas was $4 a gallon buried us in a hole we'll never get out of. Hopefully it was worth it, so that my kids can earn scholarships for college...
OMG I love Schlotzkey's! (it was my first job btw) but they all closed here :(

I often wonder how single parents do it too... daycare is NOT cheap. I hope you're able to work things out! Hang in there girlie!
Roni Loren said…
I hear you. Daycare costs are brutal. In my area, the good ones are 250/wk for infants. I had one all set up and ready to go for my kiddo, then I had him. And like every other mother, the thought of putting his little butt in there, broke my heart. I convinced my sister in law to watch him at my house for the first 8 months (I worked from home at the time as a recruiter). Then when she had to go back to work, I still wasn't ready.

I thought there was no way we could financially manage for me to stay home because I was contributing a significant part of the household income, but when it came down to it, I forced my husband to sit down and run the numbers again. In the end, I stayed home. But we gave up a lot of things to do it--much of our eating out, vacations, impulse shopping, starbucks, etc. But it's worked for us.

Like Sierra said, you just figure it out--whether it's finding money for daycare or to stay home. Same applies for the baby-related stuff. How did I go 8 weeks with a colicky baby and two hours of sleep a night (yeah, my maternity leave wasn't so fun)? I just did it.

You'll get through it all and you'll do great. Baby Murphy is in good hands. :)
Ashley Stone said…
xoxo sending love!!!!
Travener said…
Don't worry about how much day care costs, honey. Once the baby arrives, you won't have the time to spend your money on cool vacations or opera nights or anything else. And even if you did, you wouldn't have the energy. So scarf those Quiznos down now.

Thanks for comments on the blog design. I didn't do anything special. All of a sudden these new design templates showed up on the Dashboard page and I just selected one.
Enjoy the exhaustion now, it only gets worse. I have no idea how people afford the cost of day care when it seems you have to make a lot in terms of salary to do so. And the worry of having to juggle day care, a job, and a sick kid seems like a nightmare.

I stayed home with mine. But I had four kids in six years, so day care was kind of a moot point. I'm now ten years behind my friends in terms of retirement and things like that.

Oh, well.
rachaelgking said…
WAFFLE CUT FRIES. YES.

You are a genius, woman.

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