First Week Back to Work

The first week back at work was pretty tough. On my first day back, Sophie decided to go on a hunger strike again against the bottle. I got a call from Jensen around 12:30pm calling for reinforcements because he and my mom were just exhausted from battling her all morning. Fortunately, I live really close to work and so I can easily make it home pretty quickly. I took over the bottle battle while Jensen took a much needed nap, and as I looked at her weepy eyes, I felt really guilty for deciding to return to work. She finally drank from it around 3:30pm. Then I went back to work to finish out the day, and we haven't had bottle issues since then.

Then that night, Sophie decided that since mommy wasn't home most of the day, night time = play time, and she was wide awake until 2:30am. Thing is she was so darn cute and I missed her so I wanted to play with her, but I knew I needed my sleep. For the rest of the week, her sleep schedule got all thrown off. Not only did she not want to go to sleep until past midnight each night, she would wake up around 3 or 4 in the morning for another feeding. She hadn't been doing that in over a month! We figured it was all because I was back at work, so she had figured out that she had to maximize her time with me by going to bed late and waking in the middle of the night. Sort of a sweet way to think about it that makes it less frustrating. :-)

I also noticed that my milk production started to decline as the week progressed, so Sophie may have been night waking more frequently because she wasn't getting enough at her bedtime feeding to last her through the night. Each day, the amount I was able to pump during the work day seemed to decrease by 2 ounces, so I'm going to have to start pumping more frequently. Nursing all weekend got me back up to speed, so I'm just going to have to be really intentional about keeping up my milk production. It is definitely a labor of love...

This week, we are starting to get a schedule down. Sophie and I go to bed around 8pm while Jensen finishes up some chores, and I wake up at 5am to feed her and to make it to work by 6am so that I can get home by 3pm. Jensen comes into work around 9pm and gets home at 6pm. This way, my mom is only alone with the baby for about 6 hours, and I get home early enough to help prepare dinner. We're trying it out this week, and we'll see how it works.

God is good to me

I am just amazed at how blessed I am. It shocks me sometimes as I wonder why God has been so gracious to me. Here's a rundown of unexpected blessings this year:

I had an awesome boss during training and I have an awesome boss now. After 2 years of not so great bosses at my old job, I appreciate them all the more. Both of them were incredibly supportive of me as a new mother, helping me to get an extended maternity leave and giving me a lot of flexibility. I have also been assigned one of the better technologies (antennas). It's one of the most straightforward and well-organized technologies here, so it makes my work pretty easy in comparison to some of my co-workers. And now that I am back at work (just started on Monday), I have my own office! Most people have to wait until they are Primary Examiners to get their own office. I thought I was going to get an office mate when the next new person came in, but I just found out that they are putting her in the office 3 doors down from me! It's really really nice because I am pumping milk right now, and so having a private space is a must. Otherwise, I'd have to pump in a bathroom stall. I thought maybe my boss somehow knew I was going to be pumping and arranged the offices this way, but I never mentioned that to him...

All this to add to the fact that I live a mere 15 minute walk from the office, work at the same place as my husband and get to have lunch with him, have a beautiful baby that is growing and thriving and already sleeps through the night, and have my mother here helping to take care of the baby. How many people have it this good?

All I can say is Thanks be to God.

Back to Work

I'm back at work today and completely unable to concentrate. I kind of don't remember how to do anything anymore, and I keep going to my picasa webalbums to look at pictures of my little sweetie. Missing her already....