Two weeks ago my blissful maternity leave came to an end and I went back to work. I’m fortunate that I really enjoy my job and the people I work with, but still, it wasn’t easy.
I was able to take three full months off with Hannah and it was so special to have that time to bond with her. I absolutely adore my sweet baby girl. Since we’ve been connected for so long it has been really hard to be away from her during the day.
Luckily I have been able to ease back into work and piece together my work schedule in combination with some kiddo things during the week. I’m in charge of taking Ben to his co-op preschool twice a week – one day I stay for the full time and the other day I drop him off and go work in a coffee shop. We’ve been sneaking some extra mama/Ben time in at the end of school and grabbing a coffee together.
I’m doing a moms group called PEPS that’s designed for mamas and their second baby. We meet one morning a week {babies and mamas} and it’s so nice to have that built-in time with Hannah during the week too.
So far the scheduling has been more streamlined than I expected and it’s really nice to get a chance to spend a little one-on-one time with both kids during the week. I’ve also been intentionally trying to limit the time that Stacey has to manage both kids at the same time. It really is difficult to manage the logistics of a two-year old along with a 3-month old.
We’re all still getting the hang of our new rhythm and waiting for it to change again {Stacey, our au pair, will be leaving us at the end of the month}. For now, I think our schedule is working out okay. Ben is loving both of his preschools and I’m happy that I get to spend some real quality time with both kids separately during the week.
It’s still hard to leave my kiddos during the day. I know the time goes so darn fast and I want to look back on this time feeling like I spent enough time with them and made enough memories. No one said being a working mom is easy – we can’t have it all!