Nanny Mommy: My Time Spent with Dark Mornings

It's never light out when I start my day. But now that the daylight hours are rapidly decreasing, there's a good two hours of predawn dark that I get to hang out with every morning. Having a baby and keeping a full-time job (Nannying, baby-in-toe) means I'm getting up earlier and running on less sleep than a college student during exams. What is this? Synergy? Caffeine? Utter willpower? Because whatever I'm running on it isn't energy.

I love my life. I have the most perfect little boy ever born (no bias here.) And I now have four littles under my nanny wings and I get to bring my son along to spend my day with them - this troop of children in whom I delight. Are they always easy or well-behaved? No. (Honestly, they are better behaved than most kids I've taken care of.) But even on days when one or more of the troop is having a yucky day, and even when a kiddo's bad day turns ME into grumpy, worn-out, puke-drenched Libby/Nanny/mommy, I still really love this. And I am blessed. And I get up again each dark morning and ready myself to start again because I am where I am supposed to be.

So here we go. The dawn is going to be creeping over the trees in ten minutes or so when I'm driving Roger and myself to work. And I'm going to be taking over daytime care of the newest member of the troop while her mommy goes back to work from maternity leave. I fully expect today to be long, full of challenges, full of spit-up and poopy diapers, and less full of serenity/quiet than I might prefer. But I am excited. I am going to go through the next several months of baby and toddler juggling knowing that soon enough these sweet little people get big, and I get to be there through it all. And I get to see my son and these kids I love almost as my own children learn to love each other too.