for us, it's from when she wakes up from her afternoon nap (4/430ish) until Josh gets home (6ish.) She's generally borderline grumpy and I'm tired and we both just can't wait for Josh to get home.
(Which is why on days like today when he tells me he has some stupid reception after work that he's known about for ages and just now remembers to tell me I get really peeved.)
(I wish there was a bar for moms to take their babies to for happy hour.)
Re: whats the hardest time of day for you?
Dropping him off at school, for sure. During the weekends, we don't really have a hard time of the day. He is fun and energetic all morning and takes one nap for about 2.5 hours in the middle of the day (11:30 to 2 ish) and that is enough to keep him chipper and happy until bedtime, which is around 730 or 8.
Hands down, bedtime is the hardest for me. Starting with the bath, they get so hyper, and they turn into little terrors, not listening to a word I say. They splash me while I'm bathing them, then love being naked, so after the bath they run up and down the hallway, which usually results in one or both getting hurt. I try to separate them to get them dressed and calmed down, but whomever's room I'm in, the other one keeps coming in and getting the other one riled up again. THEN when it's story time, if I try to read to one at a time, that doesn't work either, but if I read to them simultaneously they don't listen and play around instead. I have threatened "no books" a lot, and sometimes it works. But if it doesn't, it's even harder to get them to go to sleep once they're in bed, because they haven't had the wind-down time.
Of course when DH is actually home to help, this doesn't happen because we can divide and conquer. But when I'm by myself, which is most of the time, uuuuugggghhhh. I hate it, because bedtime is supposed to be this quiet, snuggley, together time, and it's SO not in this household.
Phew...Nanner that DOES sound stressful!!! Cheers to you for doing it on your own when DH is gone.
I was thinking the same thing. What a pretty baby!
AWWW - thanks ladies!
It's a toss up beween the 4-6 stretch when I'm exhuasted and he is holding out for dinner and bedtime and 7p-10 or 11p which SHOULD be my favorite part of the day except my DH is gone so often. I come downstairs, take care of the nightly dog and cat duties, grab dinner and stare at the wall/watch TV/read until I can fall asleep. I should be used to it after so many years travelling solo, but I'll never get used to this. I guess even when taking care of DS is so demanding, at least I have my little buddy to hang out with. Once he's asleep, it's lonely. A bubble bath always makes it better though.
Perhaps we should institute a BOTB happy hour
it's funny because I tend to do better during DS's waking hours when DH is away too. I suppose because I know I won't have the help so I'm prepared to go it alone. Weird.
even with DH home 24/7 I run out of patience at 5 o'clock. she's pretty much pulling my pants off wanting to be picked up, I'm trying to make dinner or do something and even if DH is helping, she wants me. Oddly when DH was working offshore 5 was still my out of patience time. Now he does all the bedtime stuff, so by 7 I'm done and can do what I please (or at least the laundry un-interupted).
Although when he was gone I was the opposite of ucalum, I loved post bedtime. I always had a bath, read a book and got to watch whatever I wanted on tv with no argument. I cherish my alone time.
Ditto this to a T!
Crazy Christmas Kids!