The past several weeks have been an interesting challenge for our family. My husband has needed to work overtime nearly every day for the past 3 weeks, even going in on weekends. I give the man a lot of credit; those 12-14 hour days can really wear on you, especially so many in one stretch. We’re not even sure when the end will be in sight.

While I am home with my daughter during the days normally, these overtime hours for my husband mean overtime hours for me on mommy duty. This also means that my daughter has had to come to work with me in the evenings; typically my husband (or another family member doing the evening care giving) will handle her bedtime routine while I leave for work. These days, she comes to work with me, I do an abbreviated version of her nightly routine, and I get her to bed approximately 3 hours late. Only then can I begin whatever consulting work I may have that day. I’m a habitual night owl, but these hours are long, even for me. Lately I’ve been getting to bed around 1AM or 2AM every night. I’m fortunate that the school is flexible enough to let me bring my daughter to my job. Well, they haven’t said anything yet, anyway.

Have I mentioned my daughter is currently getting her two year molars? I’m sure I don’t have to explain the layer of difficulty this adds to our situation. Let’s just say I’m surviving on coffee right now. Even my daughter has my drink order memorized.

The only thing benefiting from our current arrangement is our bank account. Otherwise my husband and I barely see each other, our daughter is way off her schedule, I’m clearly worn out and quite frankly, my daughter and I are in dire need of some space from each other. Luckily we got it today, when my in laws watched her for the day (when I picked her up she told me how much fun she had with Nana and Papa) and I had some personal time (after a meeting and some work, I had time to listen to music and paint my daughter’s big girl bed). It was therapeutic.

We don’t know how much longer these hours will continue for us. For now, will I wrap up this post…typed out at 1AM…with my thumbs…on my phone for later uploading, while trying (for the last two hours) to snuggle an out-of-sorts child back to sleep.

It’s a good thing Dunkin never runs out of coffee.