This is what happens to you when you're a first-time mom and you return to work after only three months of maternity leave:
Your baby, as sweet as she is, has woken you up several times last night. Not that you can blame her. She may not require night time feedings anymore, but she still yearns for that comforting touch from Mommy at around midnight, as well as a few sips from "the source" to help her ease back into dream land. She yearns for that comfort again at around 2 and again 4 and...you get my point. You wake up at 5:30/6 because your body has become so accustomed to waking up every one and a half to two hours to check on your little one, or because she has woken YOU up with one of those spastic thrashes of her tiny arms as she readjusts herself to get into that perfect position, which inevitably ends up being legs in yoga position and arms outstretched or tossed over her eyes. Oi vey!! Being a baby is hard work!!
You drag yourself out of bed ever....so...carefully so that the bed doesn't squeak or bounce or otherwise disrupt Baby's slumber. You peer into your bathroom mirror and find that the skin around your eyes seems like it has aged 10 years over night, but you shrug because, after all, those swollen eyes are the badges of honor earned by being an attentive mother. :) You smile to yourself, pull your badly bed-kinked hair back into a somewhat tidy looking pony tail and put on whatever's closest in your closet that isn't overly wrinkly and doesn't make you look too frumpy.
That one cup of coffee that you're allowed as a breast feeding mom has become your best friend these days and probably the only reason why you're able to walk around the office looking somewhat alert. You go about your day feeling like a zombie, but enjoying the feeling of being productive. Well, sort of, because let's face it, you're feeling nowhere near as productive as you felt pre-baby, but then again, work isn't as central to your life anymore so if you don't reply to every single one of those billions of e-mails that seem to fly into your inbox every second, it just doesn't seem to be such a big deal anymore. Work is work. Life, family, your sweet, SWEET little one is what really makes you tick these days.
On the way home, traffic seems to be ganging up against you. Doesn't everybody out there realize how urgently you need to get home? How cruel the long hours seem to be during the workday, separating you from your little girl?? Don't they realize how your breasts ache because they've become so engorged with the anticipation of your little one waiting, impatiently at home for Mommy's much awaited return?
When you're walking up the stairs to your apartment, you feel like you've been hit by a brick of complete and utter EXHAUSTION. Sleep deprived, after a very long work day, you become consumed by the thought of how nice it would be to take a nice, long nap. Perhaps the nanny wouldn't mind looking after your little one for just a little bit longer while you take a quick cat nap???
But then you walk into you apartment, you wash your hands and then finally get to hold your little girl and that overwhelming desire to sleep that you felt just seconds before seems so selfish. This little girl has been waiting all day just to spend time with you and now you want to spend a chunk of it sleeping? A second wind of energy rushes into you and you smile. This time, not work time, traffic time, morning prep time, but rather THIS time with the two of you staring into each others eyes and her giving you that toothless, grateful smile in reaction to you just being there with her....THIS is the time you treasure most. How can something like sleep ever EVER be a justifiable interruption? <3
Your baby, as sweet as she is, has woken you up several times last night. Not that you can blame her. She may not require night time feedings anymore, but she still yearns for that comforting touch from Mommy at around midnight, as well as a few sips from "the source" to help her ease back into dream land. She yearns for that comfort again at around 2 and again 4 and...you get my point. You wake up at 5:30/6 because your body has become so accustomed to waking up every one and a half to two hours to check on your little one, or because she has woken YOU up with one of those spastic thrashes of her tiny arms as she readjusts herself to get into that perfect position, which inevitably ends up being legs in yoga position and arms outstretched or tossed over her eyes. Oi vey!! Being a baby is hard work!!
You drag yourself out of bed ever....so...carefully so that the bed doesn't squeak or bounce or otherwise disrupt Baby's slumber. You peer into your bathroom mirror and find that the skin around your eyes seems like it has aged 10 years over night, but you shrug because, after all, those swollen eyes are the badges of honor earned by being an attentive mother. :) You smile to yourself, pull your badly bed-kinked hair back into a somewhat tidy looking pony tail and put on whatever's closest in your closet that isn't overly wrinkly and doesn't make you look too frumpy.
That one cup of coffee that you're allowed as a breast feeding mom has become your best friend these days and probably the only reason why you're able to walk around the office looking somewhat alert. You go about your day feeling like a zombie, but enjoying the feeling of being productive. Well, sort of, because let's face it, you're feeling nowhere near as productive as you felt pre-baby, but then again, work isn't as central to your life anymore so if you don't reply to every single one of those billions of e-mails that seem to fly into your inbox every second, it just doesn't seem to be such a big deal anymore. Work is work. Life, family, your sweet, SWEET little one is what really makes you tick these days.
On the way home, traffic seems to be ganging up against you. Doesn't everybody out there realize how urgently you need to get home? How cruel the long hours seem to be during the workday, separating you from your little girl?? Don't they realize how your breasts ache because they've become so engorged with the anticipation of your little one waiting, impatiently at home for Mommy's much awaited return?
When you're walking up the stairs to your apartment, you feel like you've been hit by a brick of complete and utter EXHAUSTION. Sleep deprived, after a very long work day, you become consumed by the thought of how nice it would be to take a nice, long nap. Perhaps the nanny wouldn't mind looking after your little one for just a little bit longer while you take a quick cat nap???
But then you walk into you apartment, you wash your hands and then finally get to hold your little girl and that overwhelming desire to sleep that you felt just seconds before seems so selfish. This little girl has been waiting all day just to spend time with you and now you want to spend a chunk of it sleeping? A second wind of energy rushes into you and you smile. This time, not work time, traffic time, morning prep time, but rather THIS time with the two of you staring into each others eyes and her giving you that toothless, grateful smile in reaction to you just being there with her....THIS is the time you treasure most. How can something like sleep ever EVER be a justifiable interruption? <3