WM Five Weeks Later

I have been back at work for five weeks now, but one of those weeks was Spring Break when I happily slipped right back into maternity leave ways with my little one. Today I am at home sick with a sinus infection, a sore throat, a cough, and pink eye in both eyes. Yesterday when I went to to doctor and told him I have a baby in daycare, he responded, “Oh yeah. You’re going to be sicker than you’ve ever been in your life over the next year.” Elizabeth got a cold and cough in her second week at daycare and it lasted two weeks. She also had pink eye in both eyes. And now two weeks later, here’s Mommy with the same thing. It makes me sad that she is exposed to germs that she wouldn’t be if I was at home with her. But the reality is that I must work for now…we are working on a plan for me to stay home later, but that time is not now. We all have to accept it.

When I was at home with her on Spring Break after being back at work for two weeks, I looked at Jon and said, “Fact. Keeping her all day by myself is way way way more exhausting than doing my job all day and coming home to her.” And I have a pretty demanding job. Being a SAHM is so much harder than I thought it was before I had my baby. I have made it abundantly clear that i want to do it, but I feel the need to go on record about how much harder it is than working every day and paying someone to keep your child.

Now let’s talk about my baby. She’s four-and-a-half months old now and last weekend, she laughed for the first time ever! Hands down, it was the greatest moment of parenthood thus far for me and Jon. It was a true giggle, and she did it twice, but she hasn’t done it since then. (I guess we need to work on being funnier.) Everything the gets in her hands goes straight to her mouth. She loves sucking on her fingers and refuses to take a pacifier, much to my chagrin. She sleeps through the night and wakes up pleasantly in the morning, often rolling around and cooing until I come get her. She’s also rolling over from her tummy to her back, and no longer really cares about the witching hour (Thank goodness!). I view the evenings and weekends very differently now as they are the only time I get to spend with her. I miss her so much throughout the day, but I am working on transferring that sad feeling to being thankful and happy for the time I do get with her.