I forgot one more thing, there's been a few times since my sitch started where W was trying to act like her old self. You could tell it was draining on her just being upstairs with the rest of the family doing "normal" things like cleaning, watching a movie or taking care of D5. It was like she was forcing herself to do it and could only last a couple of days. Since her last IC, she's gone back to trying to be a good mom, but it feels genuine this time.
I know one of the things D18 said to her at IC was that she just wants her mom back. That was D18's reasoning for telling her cousin what was going on also - to get her mom back. I'm assuming that's what caused this change in behavior. It's nice because I haven't felt like a single parent for the past week. It doesn't impact anything regarding us, but it's nice to have her interact with her own children, even if it ends up being temporary again.
