Baby-Sitter Blues

I need a new sitter.

You may remember this post where I ended up dragging Her Nibs along to a deposition because the sitter wasn't there when I arrived. She aparrently never got my phone messages.

Well, she stuck me again a couple weeks ago by being unavailable for the time I needed. I let it slide, though, because I hadn't taken a job in over a month and we hadn't contacted each other at all in that time.

Last Wednesday, however, she shafted me again. I was scheduled for a double header with a deposition at 10:00 a.m. and another one at 2:00 p.m. I called the sitter on both numbers she gave me and left three messages between them, leaving the time I'd be dropping off and asking her to call me back.

She never called me back, and I was nervous. The Oracle and I discussed a backup plan just in case.

I'm glad we did, because I called the sitter when I headed out the door to her house, and she said she wasn't available. When I asked why she never called me, she said she didn't get my messages. Maybe it's because I'm angry, but I don't believe her.

Whatever.

Our "Plan B" was for The Oracle to watch Her Nibs while I was at the 10:00 a.m. job which was, thankfully, ten blocks away from his office. I dropped Her Nibs off at 9:30 and drove to the job. I was very lucky to find an open parking meter. I don't normally use metered parking, but there was a sudden lack of garage parking where I needed to go. I knew it was around there somewhere, but I didn't feel like I had enough time to hunt for it. Even though chances were good that my job would end in an hour, I paid for the full two hours of meter time.

"To make a long story longer," as a friend of mine says, my job ran over two hours. It's nothing but a miracle that I didn't get a parking ticket. The Oracle was at his wits' end with a baby sabotaging his day. What's worse is that by the time I picked up Her Nibs, I had less than an hour and a half before my second job was due to start at 2:00.

Taking her with me to the job was not an option. Not only is she a wiggly eleven months old, my 2:00 deposition happens to be with the same doctor and the same attorney as the fiasco back in July. What are the odds? If I show up with a baby on my hip, they'd never believe I'd been jammed up again by this same sitter, and I don't think they'd be as nice about it as they were before.

God bless my father-in-law. The Oracle had already contacted him during my prior appointment and he'd agreed to baby-sit, but when I called him again and whined about my time constraints he took it in stride and agreed to meet me at the doc's office to pick up Her Nibs. I really don't know what I'd do without him. He just keeps on saving my bacon.

Now today I'm scheduled for another double-header. This time they're at 9:30 and 4:00, and they're for the same case at a nearby law office. I call the sitter and ask her about it, telling her I'd probably pick up Her Nibs after the morning assignment and bring her back for the afternoon. I'm thankful that she's available to baby-sit, even though I know I need to find someone a bit more reliable.

Last night I get a text message at 10:23 p.m. telling me she can't baby-sit because she's in the hospital with contractions.

Contractions? She'd never told me she was pregnant. I suspected the possibility because I noticed a bit of a belly bump the last time I'd seen her, but it wasn't all that pronounced so I wasn't going to risk asking her about it. Sometimes I hate being right.

I fret to The Oracle for a minute. No, I wasn't asking him to take off or to take Her Nibs to work again, not after the last three-hour fiasco. I was upset, however, at the late-ish hour and my inability to find someone else to watch the baby. I had no choice. I call the firm and lay my bad news on the table. Thankfully, she's able to get the morning job covered rather quickly. I'm still on for the afternoon, but that job isn't until 4:00. I have all day to find an alternative or to once again burden my father-in-law.

Unpredictability aside, I sincerely hope and pray that the sitter and her baby are okay. I don't think she's all that far along. As I think about it, the chances are good that if this truly is a high-risk, too-early labor, she's probably going to be ordered to bed rest. Either way, I need a new sitter. Blech.