Busy_B

Awww! So I'm not the only one dealing with this! Thanks for all the great advice - I have been taking prenatal vitamins again (my little guy is still nursing) and it's made a noticeable difference in my energy levels; but I know I need to be getting more sleep as well. My perspective is so much more positive and optimistic when I'm well rested...besides, it's hard to study when my eyeballs are rolling in my head and my head keeps nodding, lol. As far as the discouraging "advice" from those second + semester students, I guess we will all have to prove them wrong, won't we? I'm just going to try not to worry about what's ahead and just take things as they come. I'm doing very well, even in classes that are giving some "traditional" students fits, so that gives me hope...and I like to think that my age and life experience is giving me an edge in the matter somehow...like maybe stress-management or multi-tasking or something, lol. Nice to meet you all!

:monkeydance: Hi everyone! I've been lurking on these boards for a few months and just today decided I might actually benefit from joining, so here I am. I am a single mother of three (ages 12, 5, and 1), with no family or friends nearby, so I really *am* doing this solo, and I just started school back in August. I'm taking mostly preqs right now: applied anatomy/physiology, medical terminology, gen. psych, math for meds, college math, anatomy lab, and computer essentials. So far I'm carrying all A's, and I am so proud of myself since I've been out of school for 12 years now, lol...but it's been really exhausting, too. My first responsibility is being my kids' Mommy, so I don't study until I have them all in bed for the night, which means I'm up until 2am and then sleep for four hours and get back up at 6am four-five days/week. While I don't start my actual nursing classes until Jan. in the meantime, I have a lot of questions about what's ahead of me. It seems like the second-semester-and-beyond students just make it sound as grueling and awful as they possibly can and I can't tell if they're being serious, or if they are getting some amusing satisfaction out of watching me squirm. They make it sound like I better kiss motherhood goodbye for awhile and basically hand my kids over to someone else until I'm done with school because that's the only way I'm going to make it! I don't know...I guess to me that's probably the worst thing anyone could say to me...it is absolutely the most discouraging feeling. There is this one student (she's second sememster I think), and all she ever talks about is how awful her son is and how her mom has to take him for a week at a time or she'll just 'lose it' on him (he's only 4) and the few other single moms in that class seem to relate to her but I just can't at all!!! I am SO attached to my kids - every day after my last class I just can't WAIT to pick them all up and get my little family home again!!! Is it possible to be a real, present and attached mommy AND a good student at the same time??? I don't want to have to have them with a sitter all the time, just the thought of it breaks my heart...my youngest is already in daycare from 8:45am-4:30pm while I'm in class and working...that's more than enough already!!! I really need some encouragement right now...