Back to work

Last week I returned to work after four glorious months of maternity leave.  I had a lot of work-related stress during my leave, which unfortunately lasted pretty much right up until the week I went back.  I can't really talk about what happened, but let's just say that it completely stressed me out.  Going back to work and leaving your little baby at day care for the first time is stressful enough, so I was extremely frustrated to be dealing with work stress on top of the ordinary apprehension about going back to work.    I was very sad to leave Lily that first day, but at the same time, it was a lot easier than it was to leave Frankie.  This time there were no tears!  I think everything is just a little bit easier the second time around, because you have already been there and done that and you know that everyone is going to be okay.  I knew that I was ready to go back to work, and I knew that Lily would be fine at school with her brother.   Sure enough, when I picked her up, she was smiley and kicking her legs and very excited to see me.  She has been the same every day since.  She is always happy when I come to pick her up, which makes me feel good about her being there.  She is having a hard time taking naps (which I expected), and now she begins her nighttime fussiness earlier than normal so we are having to readjust our nightly routine a bit.  We used to all eat dinner together around 6:30 p.m., but now I am having to start Lily's bedtime routine at 6:00, so I am starting to feed Frankie earlier, around 5:45, so that I can put Lily to bed by around 6:45.  It seems soooo early to put her down, but she has been doing well with the earlier bedtime, so we are going to stick with it as long as she needs it.

I was sick last week, which made going back to work even more fun.   The week started off rough, but it seemed to get better every day, and by the end of the week, I feel like we had a pretty good routine down.  It is crazy that we don't even get to change clothes until after 8:00 p.m., but we are surviving.  I took a hiatus on my half marathon training last week since I was sick, but I ran my 8-mile long run this weekend and will resume my weekday runs at 5:30 a.m. tomorrow morning.

It has been nice to go to work and get dressed up and use my brain in a more challenging way, but of course I miss my time at home with sweet Miss Lily.  It definitely makes me cherish our time together on the weekends that much more!  And I miss getting to watch TV.  And having time to work out.  And naps.