This is the real deal

Excellent news. So far in the new year, I committed to being a complete slug. I didn't exercise, clean, cook, grocery shop, or do anything besides basic baby care. I am happy to report that the rest healed me and I am no longer sick, just in time to go to work, and I don't mean that sarcastically because being sick at work sucks.

Saturday, being finally healthy and no longer having to cancel all plans, we attended a baby party at Carolyn and John's house. I often just refer to people as "friends" on the blog because ain't nobody got time to remember friend's names of blogs they read, but I feel we spend enough time with them that anyone reading needs to know who they are. Plus they have an adorable baby.



The party was at 12:30pm, and Eric was all like "parties in the afternoon?? Is this our life now?". Yes, yes it is.

We had fun but all the other babies were more like 7-8 months old, which is a huge difference from 3 months in baby time, so Dalton was a little overwhelmed. He shut it down.

This does not look like a comfortable way to sleep to me.

Now I know I've written all sorts of dramatic things about going back to work, and yes technically I did already go back, but tomorrow is the real, true test. See, I only went back for two days. One of those days Dalton stayed home with Eric, so while I missed him, I didn't have any concerns about him. The next day my boss declared take your kid to work day, so he came with me!

It was the best.

He slept on me in the Ergo for like 2.5 hours and basically was a superstar all day so my vote is that I can bring him every day for the next few months. But I can't so he's going to daycare and I'm having the same feelings of panic and desolation about it that every mother ever has. The only cure is just to do it and hope that by this time next week I feel better.

He's in a major "I want mommy" phase (?) and cries every time someone else holds him, even his dad, so I'm consumed with guilt and a broken heart over him crying for me while I'm not there. Good stuff. Eric is dropping him off because if that was my job I just wouldn't do it and then get fired. Today I'm trying to resist the urge to be "that mom" and call daycare and make her listen to a long list of detailed instructions about my baby.

The nice part was it led to lots of good cuddles this week. I think Eric and I are in a secret competition over who gets to hold him because we are both going to miss him so much.

 

A friend gave me the advice that for the first two weeks not to worry about anything but work and baby care. That's my plan. I'm prepared to live in filth and eat takeout.

I've learned that when you have a baby, the first thing everyone wants to know is "Is he sleeping through the night?". I'm considering hanging a sign around his neck that just says "I DO NOT SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT YET". Maybe going the extra step and adding a footnote that says "no I do not want to hear about how your baby slept through the night at 7 weeks due to your superior parenting". I know plenty of babies sleep through the night by 3 months, but my understanding is that it's also pretty typical for them not to do so yet. They are all different, almost like they are real people. I never had any expectations of full nights of sleep when I returned to work.

I'm working on just getting mentally prepared for the transition to daycare involving no sleep at all, and that way any I get is a bonus. High hopes, low expectations is key. In my child free life, I relied on a combination of sleep and coffee to be awake. Currently I'm planning to rely exclusively on coffee. I just made a huge batch of iced coffee to keep in my fridge at work. Any Steaders reading this, feel free to come get some!

In my one day of experience, pumping at work did not go well. I'm not married to the idea, but I was really hoping it would work out and I could send breast milk to daycare. I'm working on trying to look at it as another transition and see it goes over the course of a week and not freaking out over one bad day. Actually, that's pretty much the theme for the whole week. My mom got me one of those fancy pump bags that holds all the parts for Christmas, so that's pretty exciting!

Now I just need this little monkey to wake up from his nap so I can continue our snuggle fest!

 

 

 

Who's going back to work and dreading it tomorrow?