Back to work

So, yesterday was my first day back to work.  I am really fortunate that I get to work part time.  I just work Wednesdays and Thursdays 8:30-3:30, and Friday's 8:30-12.  It's perfect.  Enough time to interact with others and get out of the house, but not be away from my baby so much that I can't stand it. I work as a Developmental Specialist for Help Me Grow, which is Ohio's Early Intervention program.  This means I do home visits for children birth-3 who have or might be at risk for developmental delays or disabilities.  I offer support and coaching to families to help them help their children to develop within the context of their everyday routines.  Literally, my entire life is BABIES, BABIES, BABIES!  It sure is a good thing I like them so much!

Despite this perfect set up, it was still really hard to go back yesterday.  Grandma came to pick Noelle up around 7:30.  There were some tears right after she went out the door, and a few on the drive to work.  By the time I got to work though, I was okay.  I managed to only call to check in twice, but no one picked up the phone!  As it turned out...Grandma, Grandpa, Noelle, and my 1 yo niece Caroline got to go on an outting to church that day.  I managed the whole day without hearing how she was doing.  The day went by pretty slowly, and I was OUT THAT DOOR at 3:30.  Noelle did pretty well.  She is not a fan of the bottle, but she will take it with just a little fussing (which she does occasionally at the breast as well).  The day at work was pretty low key...mostly just weeding through emails and catching up with all that I had missed. I pumped twice during the day.  My car actually is the easiest place for me to pump right now.  Everywhere else in the office that I could go, I have to figure out when the space is available to make it work.  My car, however, is my own space and I can go in whenever I want!  I have a nursing cover so it's super discreet.  Half of the milk I pumped the first time ended up leaking out of the bottles.  Apparently the "leak proof rings" or "colic rings" or whatever you want to call them (Avent bottles) are essential even if you are not turning the bottle over to feed at the moment.  At first I was very sad to lose that 2.5 ounces of milk, but decided to switch my thinking and say "that's ok, I'll make more, and it doesn't cost any money!"  Not too many things in life that you can say that about.  Neat, huh?

The hardest part was that Phil had an event at his school and had to work late.  So, I came home after working, had to walk the dog, do the diaper laundry, wash the pump parts, repack the diaper bag for today, give Noelle a bath, have some quality time with all the living things in my house (child, husband, dog, cat) and try to fit in a shower for myself.  Yowsers.....welcome to the working mom life!

This is me and Noelle yesterday morning before heading off to work.

Today was another long day of working, but Noelle seems to be sleeping well in her crib for the moment...so this momma is off to try to take a bath before catching some Zzzzz's!