Busy Hands

I'm working two days a week this semester. While I only actually teach 1 1/2 hours each of those days, with commute, prep time, lunch, and Chinese class, I end up being out of the house pretty much all day Monday and Tuesday.

Wednesday mornings, Lizbeth has a play time class at our school's Early Childhood Center.

By Wednesday afternoon, I'm exhausted.

Well, enter the 9th month. I now have to head all the way to the hospital every week for my prenatal appointments. The commute is about a half hour each way (if I can get a taxi right away). As I am teaching Monday and Tuesday, have Chinese class Thursday afternoon, and my doctor is out of office Thursday morning and Friday, this leaves Wednesday afternoon for for these lovely appointments in which they tell me everything is fine and to go home and wait some more.

Not to mention, the Chinese health system is very different than American. Instead of setting up an appointment, you just show up...and wait behind everyone else that is ahead of you. They also often only have one sonogram or NST machine going at once, which means the wait can be very long. On average, these appointments take over two hours, not including commute time.

So, on to my exhaustion. To make matter worse, Nathan comes home on the late bus on Wednesdays. Today I was so tired I put on the Little Mermaid for Lizbeth to watch. Thinking she was content and I would hear her if something changed...I closed my eyes on the couch. Oops. A half hour later I woke up to find she had gotten into the vaseline. It was all over every exposed part of her body, much of her clothes, in her hair, smeared across the toilet, bathroom floor, hallway floor, into the living room, on the pleather chair, and who knows where else...

I have learned my lesson. No sleeping when she is not. This is going to make Wednesdays very long...