Hit the Wall

Natalie phoned last week. She and the kids were supposed to drop by for a visit around 4:30 after their naps. It was not going to happen.

Baby Oliver takes an hour to breastfeed, Winnie was not in the best of moods, there was no food in the house for dinner, four loads of wash was waiting to be folded and she even had no time to pay the bills on line.

The baby is now eleven-weeks old, Winnie is a very active 3-1/2-year old and Natalie is just exhausted. Ethan has been working long hours and was even away several days on business. She had no back up.

She was overwhelmed.

She hit the wall.

I told her that she could get through this and will look back years from now and wonder how she did it all. It is so overwhelming. It is a lot of work. There is no time off. There is no performance review. There is no one telling you that you are doing a good job.

I also remembered that the doctor had told her to drink a beer to help with her milk. She had begun to look forward to one with dinner. So, I told her to call Ethan and ask him to bring dinner home and focus on that lovely, relaxing beer after both the little ones were in bed. She started to laugh. She laughed again when I said that we needed to teach Winnie how to fold laundry!

We got over that wall. I think I left her in better shape than when she phoned.