1. Policies - When my mom watched Rose last week, she just watched her and that was it. Now we have to follow all sorts of policies! Both yesterday and today we've had very pleasant requests to follow policies that we didn't even know existed - like having the nipples already on the bottles (not just brought along with the bottles) and writing on each bottle the date/time the frozen milk was taken out of the freezer. Man, it's a lot to keep track of!
2. Sleep - Rose was routinely waking only once per night by the end of my maternity leave. It was lovely. Then last week with my mom she started waking twice per night. Not ideal, I thought, but definitely nothing I couldn't handle. But then Rose must have gotten nervous about daycare because Sunday night she woke up three times. UGH! I was sooooo exhausted last night that I was asleep by 8:15pm. Okay, I thought, surely she won't do that again -- and she didn't, because last night she woke up FOUR times. Seriously. I'm really hoping that it was a combination of adjusting to a new routine, of working so hard on finding her thumb, and because we had some pretty severe thunderstorms pass through the area last night. We'll see how tonight goes...
3. My irrational fears turned out to be irrational - I think I already confessed to you all that my biggest fear with daycare was that I'd be unable to recognize which baby was mine in the infant room. I'm proud to say that I had absolutely no hesitation in recognizing Rose either yesterday or today! Yay!
4. New work schedule - I used to work 9 to 6 most days, but now I've adjusted my schedule to be 7 to 3:30 (with the plan to either work through my pumping breaks or to take a little work home in order to keep my hours shorter like this). I'm not a huge fan of waking up at 5:30 (especially when I've been woken four times during the night...) but so far I really like this schedule! It just seems to fit my natural work-flow rhythms. Also, I really like that I don't have to deal with saying good-bye to Rose in the morning - I just take off while she's asleep (and I'm still half asleep myself) and then I get to look forward to seeing her in the afternoon.
5. Exercise - I miss all the walks Rose and I got to take during maternity leave! I still haven't figured out when/how I'm going to get any regular exercise now that I'm working (and I'm thinking running might have to wait until after the breastfeeding is done?), but the last two days I've hurried home at 3:30, quickly changed my clothes and frozen my milk, then walked over to pick Rose up from school. It's only about 1/2 or maybe 3/4 of a mile from our house, so it's not a ton of exercise but it's a nice little break and a chance for her and I to get some fresh air together. So I think we'll start there and I'll build in a little more exercise elsewhere once I'm more fully adjusted to all these changes in my routines.
6. Growing by leaps and bounds - I'm really enjoying being back at work because I love my job, I love having some time to myself, and I love looking forward to seeing Rose at the end of the day. The thing I didn't anticipate was how much more noticeable all her growth would be when I'm not with her 24/7. It was so cool to notice the amazing leap she made in finding her thumb just between last night and tonight! It makes me even more excited to see her tomorrow night to see what new skills she'll learn while she's at school tomorrow!
Okay, that's all I can think of for now. I'm off to bed again. Please send some good sleep vibes in Rose's direction!
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