The Homesick Baby Blues

(Why am I naming days?)
07/26/15, Day 14,326 (Mercena Day 346): The Homesick Baby Blues

Today we cleaned up after the 2015 Flux Retreat and headed home. Clean-up day is always bitter-sweet because the Retreat is equal parts exhausting and exhilarating. I’m grateful to catch my breath and begin to process the whirlwind of activity, but miss the communal energy that is unlike any other week of the year.

Now imagine that experience if you were a baby! Mercena was such a trooper but as the week drew to a close, the newness and stimulation of the Retreat took their toll. First, naps became difficult, and then her night sleep regressed so badly that it took up to two hours of crying to fall asleep. We couldn’t tell if our various interventions helped calm her, or made things worse by making her think that if she kept crying, we’d come back. By the last few days, she had bags under her eyes and often seemed in a daze, and we didn’t look much better ourselves.

So imagine our relief yesterday when an overjoyed Mercena realized we were home. Her smile flashed back as she happily played, and then she went to sleep immediately for an 11+hour rest. After beating ourselves up over all the things we could’ve done differently, it seems all this homesick baby needed was to return to her room in Forest Hills.

We’re not sure what this means for future vacations—after all, she does need to learn to travel—but last night, we just took a big sigh of relief…until our Jenn-Air refrigerator started over-heating and we spent much of the rest of the night (with Sandra Mommom’s help) trouble-shooting our troubled appliance. No rest for the weary…

I’ve been blogging about the Retreat itself over here, but the only thing to add is the next few weeks are looking unexpectedly busy with Retreat follow-up and writing opportunities. Hopefully, I’ll continue to write here to center my frenetic schedule and hold myself accountable to the progress I hope to make.