Crunch Time

The end of the semester is nearing for me. That means that "crunch time" is upon me and all the responsibilities of my life are about to converge. My hope is to gracefully emerge from the next few weeks with my sanity, grades, and marriage relationship intact, but that isn't always the case.

The end of last semester, which also coincided with the end of my first trimester of pregnancy, didn't go so well. I got all the work done, but barely preserved my sanity in the process.

Tomorrow's the 19th and in 10 days I have to give a presentation for my only on-campus class. It's not a big presentation, just 15 minutes, and there's no paper to write, so in the grand scheme of things, its not so bad. But, there is a ton of research to be done for the project I am presenting, regardless of its length. I have 20 journal articles to pour over and gather research for a meta-analysis. The data gathering alone may take me an hour for each article, so maybe 20 hours. And then there's running results and putting together the presentation, probably another 20 hours. Now, if I were on campus for 40 hours a week I could have it done by Friday without too much hassle. But, such is not the life I have chosen, or have access to.

I have a sitter scheduled for two 3-hour blocks this week; it's summer semester and the pickings are slim. I may be able to get her to come for another block depending on what the end of the semester is like for her. And Hubs may be able to help some when he's home Friday, depending on what his own schedule looks like. So, I may get 15 hours of child care covered.

Any other time I find to work will have to be during naptime. I could say that I'll do some work after the Mogi boy is in bed, but being pregnant, that just isn't realistic. Especially if I've been chasing him all day as primary caregiver, demolition stopper, and feeding machine. It's a lot more likely that when he goes to bed I'll crash on the couch with a bowl of ice cream and then go to bed myself.

Oh, did I mention he's teething? The last few days have been overly demanding, compared to his usual personailty. Things I could usually distractic him from and he'd find something new to play with have been rationale for full-scale, lose-your-cool meltdowns. And the clinginess factor is way up.

So, although I said naptimes were when I'll be studying, they are unlikelikely to be as productive as hoped for several reasons: 1) Naps can be a lot less predictable when teething is involved. Two hour naps can become 1 hour naps and naps can be boycotted altogether. 2) The mom guilt factor skyrockets when he's teething and I hate to leave him with someone else. I know, I know, guilt is self-defeating, But, none-the-less, its an emotional battle that takes a toll on me. 3) By the afternoon naptime the likelihood that I need a nap  increases 20-fold during teething season.

So, wish me luck. Pray that the grace of God be upon me. That I have the physical strength to care for my son, keep our house running, and get my research done. And that when I do research I am amazingly productive! Oh yeah, and when I reach the other side of this project that I don't owe my husband a thousand apologies for being cranky and short-tempered!!