Back to Work

Going back to work after maternity leave (a long, long time ago at this point...) was hard. It was much harder than I expected it to be. I expected it to be similar to going back to work after Carson, but it was approximately 100 times harder for me.

After Carson was born, I finished out the school year and all of the next one working only part-time, which was an ideal situation. But paying for part-time day care for two kids would have cost us money for me to work.

So...I went back.

Here's how the daily schedule went:
5:00am: wake up, get myself ready for work, eat, pump
6:00am: Brandon woke up Carson, got her dressed & started on breakfast while I finished putting lunches & bottles & bibs & clothes into bags for the day
6:30am: Brandon leaves for work, I wake up Declan. Feed and dress him.
6:50am: begin the tooth-brushing battle with Carson, which always ended with at least one of us in tears (but damnit, her teeth were brushed every day). Do C's hair. Another epic battle.
7:00am: load the car and head out (realistically, this was always more like 7:15)
7:50am: arrive at day care, drop kids off in their classrooms, head to my work
8:15am: arrive at work.
8:15-4:15: work, pump (I only got walked in on 3 times--and only once by a student), attend meetings, etc.
4:20pm: finish bus duty and dash out of school to pick up the kids (if I missed this departure time by even 3 minutes, it would easily add 20 minutes to my total trip time)
4:40: arrive at day care, attempt to quickly get as much information as possible about my children's days, interact with their teachers, classmates & other parents picking up, load car, begin driving home
5:30-5:45pm: arrive home, unload car, begin making dinner, feed Declan
6:30pm: eat dinner
7:00pm: begin bath time and bedtime routine
8:00pm: hopefully both kids are in bed. Brandon does laundry while I do dishes or vice versa. Then he works (my work return coincided perfectly with his busy season starting up) while I prep bottles and lunches for the next day. 10:00: I collapse into bed, hoping for only one or two nighttime feedings with Declan, feeling like I barely saw my kids--except in the rearview mirror--or my husband--except for a quick kiss goodnight.

I do not post this to complain. Many people keep far more difficult schedules than this and do it without the partnership that Brandon and I have. I am not complaining, because we chose for me to go back to work. We chose to have two children, God-willing. To complain about something you consciously choose for yourself makes little sense. The reason I post this is so I can remind myself why we made the next big decision for our family.

I have quit teaching for now.

And that's why I'm posting this. Because I know there will be days as a stay at home mom I'll feel like the day was hard. I'll be frustrated or overwhelmed or just plain tired of my house. I want to be able to look back at that schedule and remember one of the many reasons we made this choice....

And that's what the next post will be about!

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