First 3 years
- take a couple hours of 'sanity check' and then study for the next 4-6 hour (I started school when my son was 2mo old. I found that I could ONLY study while he was sleeping. Trying to study while he was awake I beacame BOTH a mediocre mom AND a mediocre student)
4th year
- worked. I was mom all day, and then I worked all night. Oy. NOT a year I'd like to repeat. 3 hour nights as normal for months on end is NOT okay.
5th year
- studied
- house DIY stuff
6th & 7th years
- studied
- lesson plans (I started homeschooling my 1st grader, and I was TA'ing in school)
8th year
[1st 6mo]
- started writing for publication again. I all but LIVED out on my front porch with my laptop at night
- Hotelling with my son up at the mountians (aka talking, watching movies, swimming, etc. We'd go up 3-4 days a week and bring our books with us. 1 or 2 nights we'd sleep over just for fun. Cost $20 a night, kind of hostel style)
[2nd 6mo] (all hail broke loose and we half lived at children's hospital. My son has some mystery problems that had us up there a week here, a month there, 2 weeks here, another week there. The longest we were 'home' was 3 weeks from Feb to July.)
- At the hospital I hung out with other parents. Smoked more than I should. Ate more than I should (but seriously, whoever decided to have an omlet bar from 1am-4am is a SAINT)
- At home he still had 24 hour meds and monitoring. He was/is intermittant, so not enough for home nursing care. He'd only crash 3 or 4 nights a week, and we only had to be in the ER 1 or 2 nights a week. Since I had to be awake every hour on the hour I started spending a LOT of time on here just to stay awake.
9th Year ((found a med that worked! Yay! We've been home since July!!! -touch wood- and he's doing great. Downside; the med that works gives him some rather massive insomnia. He's not in bed until 2am-6am, and is up at noon. (Durn good thing we homeschool. Last year would have meant repeating the whole year, and this year he wouldn't be able to attend, yet.))
- Hang out with my son until 10pm.
- Study or Write from 10pm-midnight.
- Hang out with my son until he can fall asleep (we're gradually working out a routine that has him in bed around 2am most nights)
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The above may make it look like I'm a single parent. Technically I'm not. I've been with my husband for more than 10 years. He just chooses to work 80-120 hour weeks or spend his freetime elsewhere. Which I am GREAT about now... since over the past several years he's become increasingly abusive. For the first few "good" years he was around at least one night a week (we'd go "in" with a few other families we're friends with and bbq or potluck one night a week) and one weekend day while our son was awake...and sometimes more often. Ironically, I wanted him around a lot more years back, but now that he's actually *trying* to be around more, I wish he'd stay away. I just booted him for the weekend for raving on at the top of his lungs about what a terrible person I am for not "keeping to the plan" (home remodeling) while our son has been in the hospital. And how I'm a liar. And a burden. And our son is a burden. And all sorts of LOVELY, warm, cuddly things. Jerk. Oh yeah. This is after I've had major reconstructive surgery on my shoulder and have been highly medicated/ living at my mums for a week so she could take care of me and my son while I recover. I wasn't home 20 minutes before he started raving about there being no groceries. Really. When HE was the one here that week. And could drive. <rolls eyes>