My family just went on a camping vacation, so I should be well-rested, right? That’s the dream, but not reality with kids.

Vacation messed up the sleep routine of my child. Our days threw her off her routine. She had fear-of-missing-out and fought bedtime every night. She woke up bright and early at 5:30 am most mornings. We thought it would last for one or two days and then she would adjust. Nope, it lasted the entire vacation.

While the exhaustion started on vacation, it has been an ongoing shit show since. I don’t say that lightly either. We all have those weeks; these are just mine.

• My daughter hurt her leg while on the trampoline with cousins. She limped for a few days during which we constantly worried that it was something worse.
• She had to readjust to the more rigid sleep routine at home, which took a few days of painful bedtimes. It was like sleep training all over again.
• A rash that we thought was heat rash during vacation, turned into a full-blown, open-sore rash post-vacation. It turns out that it was two rashes! Oh good! Both were contagious and both were picked up at daycare. Ironically, she couldn’t go back to daycare until they cleared up though.
• Little work got done with my daughter home from daycare for a week and a half.
• I hit the point in pregnancy where I really feel pregnant and more exhausted. I will soon start to waddle.
• Water leaked in our house during vacation due to heavy rainfall. Now, we are dealing with damp walls.

And just when my daughter got better and could go back to daycare, I just developed small, painful blisters on my hands and feet. I apparently caught one of her rashes.

I’ve now consulted with the doctor four times since coming back from vacation.

Crap, can these intense weeks just end?

So, what are the things I’ve learned the hard way in the last three weeks?

1. Vacations are not always relaxing post-kids.
2. Kids are germier than I ever thought.
3. Continue to downgrade my expectations on what I can get done with kids.

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This post was previously published on A Parent Is Born.

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