Friday, June 23, 2006

Undestroyed

Gosh, for the length of time that has passed since I last posted you would think that going back to work killed – well, that is a little harsh – how about, absolute destroyed me.

Well, it didn’t.

I had myself so freaked out about going back to work that the drama I had created in my head was 100 times worse than anything I have encountered since I have been back.

I don’t know if this makes me a bad Mom, but the transition back was not that difficult. (That is easy to say 6 months later.) I didn’t cry when I dropped Mia off at daycare. Though, I did cry driving there one day. Mia adjusted extremely well. She didn’t cry and to this day has only cried l a handful of times when I have left her. Mia is having a blast there and I feel that she is probably way more stimulated then she is when she is / was home with me. Napping together = not very stimulating.

The most difficult thing about returning to work has been the pure exhaustion. Mia has been a very easy baby. She started sleeping through the night at around 4 months and logs a solid 9-10 hours every night. I was never that tired during my 6 months of maternity leave. Sure, at first I was up every 1-2 hours but I didn’t mind at all. I actually enjoyed snuggling and breastfeeding her during the night. I fondly remember those times. But the exhaustion of work was something that I was not expecting. I no longer have time to during the day to do laundry, dishes, grocery shopping. All of those things need to get done outside of the 9-5. And after not seeing Mia all day the last thing I want to do during the precious hours that I have with her is chores. So I come home and spend the time until Mia goes to bed with Mia. We play, eat, bath, snuggle and laugh. It is my favorite time. Mia goes down by 9pm and that is when I start doing all of the things that need to be done. I do an obscene amount of dishes (read - bottles). And an equally obscene amount of pink and white laundry (read – not mine or Rich’s). And somewhere in-between that I try to spend time with my husband, with myself and with the tv/computer/magazine.

I miss Mia lots during the day but having her at the daycare center at work allows me to visit her when it gets really bad. And, I still have days where I spend more time watching her on camera then getting any work done.

But, all in all, we are all doing great and were not destroyed by any of it.

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