Well, my maternity leave is over.
Last Friday was my first day back in the office. All week I was dreading it. I was anxious, I was sad, I had nightmares several nights about pumping at work. I bawled my eyes out for a few days leading up to. I snuggled Logan until he was like “mom, give it a rest!” I just couldn’t believe our time was up. 🙁
Friday came. My alarm on my phone didn’t go off for some reason but thankfully I had a built in alarm clock for 6am — Logan! But it was not a good start to the day. Nothing seemed to be going right but I finally got out of the door and made it to work on time. Carrying a crap ton of stuff.
A coworker left me a card and a little gift that was really sweet. Everyone was really supportive and understanding. I was able to hold it together (for the most part) and honestly I was so busy it was a good distraction and the only time I started to feel sad was when I was pumping and had quiet time to myself. Michael sent me a photo:
I thought he looked sad. Then he sent me another photo:
All better! Back to his sweet self.
So in a lot of ways it was easy to be back in the office. I was busy enough, but not overwhelmed, and could be distracted. It was nice to be working again and using my brain for something other than baby talk and changing diapers 🙂 — as much as I love doing that with Logan. Just knowing myself, I know that being home full time wouldn’t be best for me. As much as I want it to be.
When I first talked to my boss about maternity leave and options she brought up the idea of working from home part time and working in the office part time. She told me a story about someone she worked with years ago at a different office who came back from maternity leave and cried in her office all day for a week and then finally just packed her shit up and left, no notice, just quit. She couldn’t handle it. I remember hearing this story (when I was 8.5 months pregnant) feeling awful for that woman and then thinking that while I’d be sad, I didn’t think that would be me…
Fast forward to last week. Crying for a week! Instead of relishing every single second with Logan during our last week home I kept focusing on the sadness. And I got it. I understood what my boss was telling me.
My boss has been amazing in her support for family bonding, for breastfeeding, everything. These are issues that she feels strongly about and I am so grateful for that.
So the downside to work? Pumping at work kind of sucks. I was in a room that unfortunately didn’t lock and twice people attempted to come in. Then my boss saved the day and told me to use her office when I needed to pump. It really is a stressful, anxiety-inducing thing to be pumping at work (at least for me). I felt really vulnerable and not having a truly private room stressed me out! But, using my boss’s office I was able to pump the rest of the day with no issues.
I was able to drink a lot of water throughout the day. I pumped three times while at work. I didn’t eat enough and was really hungry but too busy to eat. That’s not good, I need to work on that!
Despite the rocky start to the day, it was actually okay and I did alright. I remember my job!! It was like a muscle memory thing. Once I started doing it again it all came back to me and I was able to do it without thinking about it. So that’s good. I got everything ready for working from home and (crossing my fingers that technology works at home) am ready to get started!
Friday afternoon I got a little surprise delivery:
Flowers delivered to my office from Michael! It was so incredibly sweet and thoughtful and it really made my day (and made me tear up a little bit at the thoughtfulness). It was so wonderful!
I was supposed to be off work at 4:30 but stayed late to get my laptop up and running (it took all day unfortunately). I raced home, anxious and excited to see my little guy! And kiss my other guy. 🙂
I asked Logan if he forgot about me and if he missed me and he giggled. We nursed and I smothered him in kisses and then Michael made the evening even better than it already could be and got take out sushi!!
Love me some spicy tuna! I’ve been craving sushi lately, too. Opened a bottle of wine and I cuddled with my little guy. So all in all, it was a pretty good day, despite the bumps in the road and the heartache of leaving Logan all day for the first time.
I feel prepared to go back to the office. I think it will be okay. I’m almost looking forward to it in a weird way. Having a schedule, structure and routine is basically my entire life. 🙂 So going forward I will be in the office two days a week and home three days a week for the summer. Michael will be working from home those two days, so that’s awesome. I feel so incredibly lucky and fortunate that we have this opportunity for our family!
Jan
what an incredibly sweet husband you have! Logan is adorable. You must be thrilled.
Jan
Lisa Eirene
It was so sweet of Michael!
Thanks Jan.:)
Lori
You are so fortunate to have an understanding boss! It’s great that she is working with you on transitioning back to work.
Lisa Eirene
Agreed. And this transition will definitely make it easier to go back full time. I’m sure it will be hard, but not as hard as it was last week.
Roz@lens3
AWWW! That is for both males in your life. Logan is PRECIOUS, and Michael? VERY thoughtful!!!
Lisa Eirene
Thank you Roz! You’re sweet. 🙂
Yum Yucky
Awwww! It’s definitely hard going back to work. I do feel for you, momma. Hugs and love to you!!
Lisa Eirene
Thanks. 🙂 It was hard but I got through it and it wasn’t too horrible.
caren magill
He’s a cutie. I can only imagine how hard that must be to leave him for the day. Good luck with the transition back to work!
Love me some spicy tuna, too!
Lisa Eirene
It was really hard! But we got through it.
Thanks Caren 🙂
emmaclaire
Okay, even I teared up over the flowers – Double Super-Special husband points for Michael!! It IS hard to go back to work – I’m glad for you that you’ve been able to arrange things so you both still get home time with Logan. He’s a lucky little boy 🙂
Lisa Eirene
Yes! Double special points! <3
Kalerae
Such a great hubby! And what an understanding boss. It creates a nice work-homelife balance for families. It’s so hard emotionally to go back…but I found that it transitioned fairly easily. Luckily by the time I went back I was only breastfeeding morning/night so my body (ahem…”the girls”) adjusted nicely and I didn’t feel that pressing need to pump….which was great, because I never could pump anyway. My body just refused….maybe I didn’t invest in a good enough pump. And returning is nice, it’s nice to feel valued on an adult level again, to have conversations that don’t include coo-ing….or to pee without having your child in the bathroom with you sitting on their vibrating chair…..Oh and sushi – probably the thing I missed them most while pregnant. We would still get it, but I’d stick with all the veggie options or ones with shrimp tempura in it….once pregnancy was over – it was game on! Hope the rest of your transition is smooth!
Lisa Eirene
Agreed! It is so important in those early months and I feel very fortunate to have this opportunity for bonding and having a balance. It would definitely be too hard to go back full time this early for me.
When I was pregnant all I wanted was sushi. I didn’t get the “Safe” sushi, like you did which was smart, because I knew if I even got near it I’d want the real stuff!
Kalerae
I do have to say when I told a friend (who happened to be Asian) that I wasn’t eating sushi she laughed and said “oh you silly Canadians!”…did you ever think about the fact that an entire country like Japan, the women still eat sushi/raw fish and manage to still reproduce healthy and happy babies?” and then gave me one of those looks that my parents gave me when I put my kids to sleep on their backs, like I was being utterly ridiculous.
Lisa Eirene
I said THE SAME THING! How could an entire continent of people just stop eating sushi when they get pregnant!??!