All Mom's (and Dad's) in my opinion are "working" parents, but in this context I mean a Mom who has to leave her child with someone (Dad, Grandparents, Relatives, Nanny or Daycare) to do something that earns a wage.
There are so many things that are compromises when you are a working parent. So many things that before you went back to work you didn't even think of. I've already run head long into quite a few sticky situations.
I have completed my first full week back at work, and am a few days into my third "week" back. I know everything will run smoother once everyone gets used to the new schedule, but man oh man this is a lot harder than I thought it would be.
The original schedule we had worked out wasn't working so well, so we had to juggle things around. We are so so lucky to have amazing family around us to help with child care, there is no way we could afford full time daycare.
I miss my baby girl all day, and can't wait to go pick her up every afternoon. When I get home all I want to do is hold her. Which I usually do for about an hour after I get home, since I'm breastfeeding. Speaking of which, fitting in pumping at work, and keeping up my supply, has been a trial. Preping bottles, and knowing how much to bring for her to eat during the day has also been hard. There were a few scary days there where I thought it just wasn't going to work. I was watching our frozen supply dwindle, and knowing I wasn't producing enough to replenish it. Luckily my production went up a notch, so it's not looking so dire right now.
Lets face it, everything about this is hard. There just aren't enough hours in the day to do everything that we have to do around our work schedules. We just moved into a new house, which we still haven't unpacked because, really, who has the time to unpack boxes?! The laundry is clean, but we live out of the laundry basket right now.
I feel so disorganized and scattered most of the time. Getting out to see family and friends on the weekend eats up what little free time we have. There are so many things I feel like I'm missing out on, or not fully enjoying. I really hope this gets easier.
