Tag: first baby

Sleep? 

Admittedly, at the six-week point, I was no where near ready to go back to work…

…so, I didn’t. I had enough vacation time banked to take another four weeks. 

The last day of my authorized paid leave (the first six weeks) of absence was probably the longest of all. Hubby was finally succumbing to the sleeplessness and coming down with a cold, which left me to tackle every single baby task on my own. I know many moms probably do this day in and day out, but hubby and I had a pretty good shared system, and having to take his turns was a lot more overwhelming than I anticipated. Our little one was entering a growth spurt, and his feedings we’re advancing from once every few hours to about every hour and half. Since I was also caring for a terminally ill pet and pumping around the clock to stockpile for my eventual return to work, this left only a minute or two between feedings to sit still and recover. I needed a nap!

Everyone says you don’t get sleep with a new baby or they say sleep when baby sleeps, but seriously… Who ever tells you what really happens between feedings that WILL consume your day? No one, really. One doesn’t just snap her fingers and change a diaper, warm a bottle, kick the laundry behind the laundry room door, load the dishwasher, wash the endless bottles, express a new round of milk or anything else… It all adds up, and it all pulls you away from any semblance of restful sleep.

As another example, lunch one afternoon consisted only of a plate full of cucumbers, bell peppers and broccoli because we certainly didn’t have the time or energy to cook anything, and prepping the vegetables was all we could muster. Delicious? Yes. Protein-packed and filling? Not as much as we might’ve needed. But, eating at all? That made it into the “win” column.

So… Sleep? It’ll most likely happen when you literally can’t move another muscle. Now, to throw in work to that mix. I haven’t decided if work helps more or hurts more, yet.

When I wasn’t getting sleep, I became reacquainted with late-night TV until my mind felt numb. It was about this point my fellow mom friends mentioned some of their tips and tricks for staying sane during the wee hours of nursing and baby care. I completely forgot about my access to streaming content via my Amazon Prime account until this time. Once I realized I could binge watch several seasons of TV shows I’d been meaning to see or catch a movie, my empty DVR queue didn’t seem so grim. 

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Surprise! ‘Baby’s coming’

Preparing to have a baby also including significant planning at work in order to be out of the office for 6-10 weeks. {A paid six weeks is standard for my organization, but I was hoping for 10 weeks to maximize my time settling into my new role after properly healing from the ordeal of child birth.}

I kept telling everyone my little one was going to arrive early. I had in mind he’d arrive a month early (since I was about that early for my mom). Otherwise, I had no real reason for anticipating an early birth outside of IVF statistics (more on that another time).

Regardless, after a particularly long day of preparing a few Thanksgiving turkeys for two shifts of workers at my husband’s job, I apparently pushed myself into an even earlier labor than I expected at 33 weeks and 3 days. (I had a fantastic holiday with his team, but three days later we welcomed a preemie!)

So the preparation? I spent the months prior to my delivery divvying up certain subjects and accounts among my staff, but asked them to each take ownership beginning in December (the month prior to my due date). This was to allow us time to overlap before my personally anticipated early delivery… Haha… We didn’t get the overlap, but at least they were fairly prepared to take over the tasks. 🙂

They were all surprised to arrive at work with a message the baby had arrived, and then a few hours later see me in the office. I had to update my email message to those contacting me and file the personnel paperwork to be out for six weeks. Don’t worry, I didn’t stay long… after all, my preemie was in the NICU, and I desperately needed more time with him.