Does time fly or crawl? The answer is yes. It depends on your perspective. A few days ago, my 9-year-old son commented about how the days were flying by. I thought this was especially funny because I thought the days were trudging along so slowly.
My husband, who is training to be a doctor and is in residency at a busy hospital, is in the midst of working a month-long stint of night shifts. Which means that when he comes home to our little apartment in the morning and wants to sleep, my job is to get our three kids out and about for the next eight hours or so.
We have been keeping busy at libraries and museums. We have had play dates at other friends’ homes and playgrounds. We have taken up geocaching as a family hobby. We have resorted to hanging out in the toy aisle at the store and stopping by a chocolate factory to get free samples of chocolate. My kids think this is fantastic: eight hours of awesome.
It is fun, but it is exhausting! I spend mornings packing lunches and making a big breakfast for my husband, who stumbles in hungry and exhausted himself. We head out the door and go from one activity to the next all day, only to come home and make dinner magically appear (crock pot recipes, anyone?) so we can eat before he heads back to work. Once I get kids to bed, I plan and prepare for the next day. I feel like I’m in survival mode!
And so as my kids feel like the days are so full of fun that they are flying by, I am craving the end of these night shifts and it just can’t come fast enough. It reminds me of how time is perceived – by different people, or even by the same person at different points.
When my water broke at 28 weeks and I was in the hospital on bedrest trying to hold my baby in a few more weeks, time seemed to stand still. A month felt like a year, and I’m pretty sure I aged that much! When my babies were in the NICU, time crept along and seemed slower every time someone asked, “When is he coming home?” But here we are 18 months later and I wonder where the time went.
And so to those of you who are still in the throes of a NICU stay and feeling like time just isn’t moving anywhere, hang in there. Snuggle your babies as much as you can and record some memories, because those babies just might grow into big kids before you know it.
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