Last Thursday was my first day back to work after over 4 months at home with our sweet little guy. I didn't cry, but oh man.
First, his sitter was sick and I had to find other arrangements just the day before. Thankfully one of my friends is a stay at home mom who used to work exclusively with infants for some high end daycare place.... so we paid her to watch him for the day. I got photo and video updates, he got a baby massage and did arts and crafts ( I'm now the proud owner of a baby clay footprint!)... So everything was going great until that evening.
Between working, driving home and picking him up, pumping, a quick 30 min at home workout DVD and a quick shower I maybe got to hold him for 15 mins because I had to start my evening pump and SCB had to put him to bed... (Notice dinner wasn't even listed there, lol).
Not getting to hold him that much made the next day dropping him off with his real sitter so much harder... But the pictures she sent me on my pump breaks helped and that night after work I played with him while I pumped so hubs could get a shower and I could get more time with him.
Unfortunately, Saturday's are just going to stink. I don't get home till 7:30 at night and its too close to his bedtime to play....
Well figure out a system but I think Mondays will be my favorite day of the week because I'll get him all to myself.
You are incredibly lucky to have been able to stay home with him for 4+ months. When I had my two kids the only paid time off you got was 6 weeks off for standard birth and 8 weeks for c-section. If you wanted more you could tack on any vacation you had. I was only eligible for 2 weeks vacation so I added that to my maternity leave, which left me with no vacation time for many months until the new year. Sadly, we couldn't afford for me to take unpaid leave.
ReplyDeleteSo keep in mind, no matter how difficult it is now, you were blessed to be able to have that amount of time off alone with him.
I only had 8 weeks disability and that was because of the C-section (otherwise it would have been 6) and I literally worked up to the point where I had to go to the hospital. I left work after an 8 hour shift and an hour later I was admitted since I was a week over due already..... The rest of the time I took with him was my vacation....
Delete(I never let my PTO dip below 160 hours or 4 weeks-- I treat that as my "zero" that way should I unexpectedly loose my job, I still get the equivalent of 2 paychecks before we have to tap our EF).... With the baby here now, my new "zero" is 200 hours to ensure we can cover any sickness or nanny mishap.... but i'm thankful for the time I got with him but I wouldn't have gotten it if I hadn't planned it out and worked the whole way through my pregnancy.
It's definitely hard and an adjustment for sure, but you all will get in the groove. And your new motto- TGIM (Thank God It's Monday)!
ReplyDeleteYup... TGIM is my new slogan!
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