Post-natal depression

Don't be strong, you mothers.
Scream for help. Be weak.
There in the strength of others
You will find the peace you seek.
Don't be strong, you mothers.
Cry out, cry long, cry loud -
Don't stand all alone with your baby
Weeping unheard in the crowd.
Don't be strong, you mothers.
Don't waste your strength on this.
Reach out, let others help you.
That's what they want. It is.

I'm so tired

I'm about to eat dinner, and go out to do the shopping and get back at 7:30 so Rob can go to a games night. I hope I can do it without losing my tiny mind.

On the plus side, it looks like Mum and I will be celebrating our birthday this year by going to Bath, spending an evening at the Thermae Spa, a night at a hotel, and a day wandering around going "Oooh, this was in that book!"

So that's good.

On the minus side, we are in our overdraft in an entirely planned, one-month-only cashflow-management way, and it's making nervous as hell. I do not do debt well at all.

Empirical

There's something I can do on a Tuesday which is convenient and free and gets me away from the house and the children and gives me contact with adults; I can go and do the grocery shopping from about 5:30-7:30, including travel time. If Rob feels very with it I can also stay late and help pack up the True Food Market, anything as late as 10pm.

And now there's something Rob can do on a Tuesday which is convenient and free and gets him away from the house and the children and gives him contact with other adults; he can go around the corner to a regular game-playing evening, from about 7:30 to 11:30.

This is definitely a good thing, but I do wish it were on any day other than a Tuesday. I really liked my evenings off - I used to have a cup of tea after the shopping, and talk to people. Today I was rushing back to let Rob go out and I missed most of the people I usually talk to.

Perhaps we can do every other week. On the 10th I'm at the market until at least 8pm because we're doing a "slings and real nappies demonstration" type event. We hope to sell slings, nappies, and incidentally FOOD, because we hope to bring people to the market.

There's going to be something for older children later in the summer, when they're on school holidays, I think.