Family Visit

This weekend my cousin, my aunt and her wife visited to meet R for the first time. They live in Anacortes, WA, so it's not such a long journey for them. It was nice to see them but now I feel very tired. It's much more exhausting visiting with people now, because I must always be tending little R, or at least aware of how she is doing and be ready to intervene. So in addition to conversing with them and maintaining the usual niceties, part of my mental energy has to be devoted to R status reports. Also, R found it a little bit stressful to meet all these new people (my parents and sister were also there), especially because she couldn't nap properly and went to bed late, and thus was fussy, requiring extra care and attention from me as a result. I was glad to get home where everything is tidy once the visiting was over.

I might also be tired because I decided to drive to my parents' house and back both days. This was because 1. B was working at home to prepare for his upcoming trips; 2. B finds my aunt hard to deal with and could not escape if they came here; 3. I felt I would have more control over the length/timing of the visit if I went to them; 4. then I wouldn't have to worry about clean up/refreshments etc. I think it was a good decision but it did add some effort for me.

Once we got home, R continued to fuss and had a hard time falling asleep tonight, I think because she was overtired. She really didn't sleep at all while we were visiting. Now she is sleeping and hopefully will feel better tomorrow. I am planning on staying with my parents over the next week because B will be out of town for work again; but maybe I should rethink the length of my visit. I suppose I will see how R does in Walnut Creek (where my parents live), since I can always come home early.

Overall, though, as usual R behaved very well and charmed everyone with her calmness and cuteness. She didn't object to being held by all and sundry and didn't make any messes, get sick or cry much at all. We went out to dinner, and she behaved perfectly the whole time, even though she was awake and not in her baby carrier (better than my aunt, who tends to drink too much and get loud :)). She is such a good little baby!

I should go to bed early tonight to recuperate from the effort of the visit, so I can be fresh for R and B tomorrow. This morning I was so tired that I woke up B early (so he only got about 6 hours of sleep) and returned to bed until 11 am while he looked after R. Thanks B, you are so nice as usual!