Monday, June 7, 2010

Question of the Week - Coming Back from Vacation

Did you all miss me? I was on vacation all last week! We went to the beach, which is my favorite place to vacation. I had only intermittent internet, and barely had time to even touch the computer. But that was a nice break for me as well.

I thought I would have time to write some posts offline, posts which have been percolating in my brain for months. And I did write one, which I will probably post later this week. But only one, not the half dozen or more I expected to write. Instead, I spent a lot of real quality time with my kids, my husband, and my parents, as well as my best friend and her family for half the week and my sister and her kids for the other half. It was a great trade.

I’m getting back into the swing of our regular routine. It always takes some time to do so, for me, Londo and the kids. I can’t even remember the last time we had a whole week vacation. Did I take a whole week with the Pumpkin when I was pregnant two winters ago? Possibly, but it could have been a long weekend. Other than that, it would have been the beach vacation two years ago (we didn’t go last year because I was only a couple weeks from my due date with the Pookie during our timeshare week, and I was not willing to chance going into labor while away from my docs and hospital). This was definitely the first whole week vacation since the Pookie was born and the Pumpkin started pre-school.

This week’s question of the week is:

What is the hardest part about getting back into your regular routine after being away from it for a long period of time (a week or more)?

I think for us, it’s probably the sleep, although the readjustment here is in large part to the allowances we had to make to all stay in the same room for a week. We had just been getting the Pumpkin to go to sleep by herself (that’s one of the posts I didn’t get to write yet), and the Pookie was doing really well sleeping through the entire night—and even when he would wake up and fuss, he would usually get himself back to sleep after a few minutes of fussing. Fussing that could have woken the Pumpkin sleeping in the bed with us.

So you see the issues. The Pumpkin was co-sleeping with us, and Londo had to lie down with her to ensure her going to sleep quickly and quietly. Meanwhile I nursed and rocked the Pookie into deep sleep to put him down, and I or Londo would quickly get up at any fussing to quiet him back down and get him back to sleep. These were big set backs, bigger than usual considering the progress we’ve had with both kids, which I will write about soon.

Luckily, our week at the beach is from Friday to Friday, so we had the weekend to help us get back on track in so many ways. The laundry is done, and just needs to be folded and put away. The dishes are… well… manageable, after cleaning out the fridge (holy smokes, there were some gross stuff in there!). We were able to go grocery shopping on Saturday and even make dinners Saturday and Sunday night! What a difference to have the weekend to help us get back into the swing of regular life.

What about you? How do you get back into your regular routines? Any tricks for the really hard stuff? What do you find the hardest about coming back to real life?

7 comments:

OneHappyCow said...

Was on vacay too the last 2 weeks. I changed up my travel but in a way that worked and allowed me some grace period to jump back into our lives. Makes all the difference. Glad you had a great trip, I did, too. The hardest part? Readjustment in general - for both me and my daughter.

geeks in rome said...

so glad you had a great time! the beach is heaven. I bet the kids loved it :)

sleeping in a different bed is always a challenge for kids. and the co-sleeping thing becomes a real drag on vacation. Who wants to lie down with babes at 7-8pm!!??

Hardest thing for us is the jetlag coming back east. six hours! so they want to fall asleep at 2am. ack.

but we found a great way to work them back. the first night we go out! all the cool things we never do because of early bedtime we do. dinner out, walk the streets, party. way more enjoyable than being frustrated that they won't sleep.

then each day we wake them up one or two hours earlier than natural waking time. then bedtime each night moves back one hour. in a week they are back to normal.

they are cranky, but it's just really nice to accept the slow process andd take advantage of it.

Cloud said...

Our biggest struggles around coming back from vacation tend to be with the morning routine, particularly with me leaving. It is nice to feel loved, but even nicer to get a happy wave and "bye-bye Mommy!" to start my day.

Anonymous said...

Glad you had a getaway! So needed when we're all so jammed packed with things-to-do in our regular lives.

And I think that's the hardest part for me both during the first day or two of vacation and then upon return. The first day or two I have a hard time winding down and getting used to the "lack" of things to do and then when I get back, I have a hard time winding back up. I'd definitely say the winding back up takes longer than the wind down. Winding up takes me weeks and to fully get back to my own routine (let alone Monkey's) sometimes over a month.

Still haven't found a cure for that.

paola said...

Jet lag here too. 10 but usually 'only' 8 hours depending on the season.

Last time ( 2 years ago) coming back coincided with DD turning 20 months and her molars coming thru so the first night was a really doozy for everyone. It took around a week to get back on schedule though, but luckily no repeat of that first night.

Otherwise I'd say it's the coming back to a dusty house. I'm allergic to dust mites so dusting and vaccuming is a top priority when I get back after a holiday, especially after a month away.

caramama said...

You know what? I take it back! The sleep readjustment is the second hardest part. The hardest part is going from spending all day (and night) with my kids every day to only spending a limited amount of time with them in mornings and evenings. And during those times, we are rushing to get ready for the day or ready for bed. I miss the quality, un-rushed time with my kids.

hush said...

I was on vacay last week, too! Well, not a total vacay, but DH and I both had conferences in the same city so we took the kids along and tried to make a vacay out of it...

Hardest part is the unpacking, and sorting through the collected mail, and doing all of the laundry, and getting caught up with email (for those of us who don't check it on vacay).

Learning I Have Hypertension

This past winter, I discovered I have developed high blood pressure. This came as a surprise for me, since I generally had always had blood ...