One of the hardest things I had to do when my maternity leave was over was leave JD and go back to work. I have always wanted to be a stay at home mom but it just made more sense with our jobs and schedules for my husband to. I was angry, scared, sad and resentful. I was the one up all night nursing him. I had to pump at work to provide him food. I was the one missing out on all his firsts. It was awful. I was so angry at everyone and everything when I returned that I made myself and everyone else miserable.
So how do you make the transition easier? For me what worked was frequent phone calls home to see and hear how everything was going. Paired with a pocket digital picture frame loaded with recent baby pictures and JD's sleeper. When I got home he'd smile and reach for me and we'd be inseparable until the morning.
For mom's who have to put their children in daycare say it helps to tour the facility and to drop in whenever they can. If they are close enough they come to nurse or give a bottle during their lunch. As the year progressed I was able to adjust with my separation from JD creating special time with the two of us in the late afternoon and evenings. A walk when I got home from work, bath time and we'd watch a baby Einstein movie together snuggling before bed. These quality moments made it much easier to leave in the morning. Now with the approaching deadline of my second maternity leave ending in two weeks I know that they are well cared for and loved when I am not at home and that it is not the amount of time you spend with your children, it is what you choose to do in the time you have with them.
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