Working Mama

Whew! The first week back to work is officially under my belt. To say it was difficult would be an understatement. The alarm went off at 5:15 a.m. Monday morning and I was ecstatic to have gotten a glorious 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Yes, you heard me right. Ivy chose to start sleeping through the night a few nights earlier. My child has impeccable timing. Not only did she sleep through the night but she continued to sleep while I showered and got ready - the best case scenario I had hoped for. When I was done getting ready, I woke her up and savored every minute of getting her ready for the day. I couldn't take my tear-filled eyes off of her as I fed her a bottle and explained to her what was going to happen that day and that mommy promises she'll be back in the afternoon to pick her up.

The dreaded moment finally came and it was time to go. I loaded all of our gear into the car and cursed myself for picking a baby sitter that lives less than 2 minutes away. I wasn't ready to leave her yet! She was all smiles for me as I said my goodbyes and Ann assured me she would take good care of her. The tears began even before I got back to the car and thanks to the cold that Ivy was still battling, there were plenty of kleenex on hand. It seemed surreal that this day had finally come. As I drove to work, I couldn't help but think about how different my life was since the last time I had been there. Everything I do now has a new meaning - to give my daughter the best life possible. And with that thought, I headed into the building to start my day. I made one call to Ann before lunch time to see how things were going. I breathed a sigh of relief when she picked up the phone and I didn't hear crying in the background. That would have broken my heart. Ann assured me that things were going well and Ivy was doing great.

The rest of the day went by pretty quickly and 8.5 hours later, I was out the door and on my way to hold my little girl. Dave and I decided we would both pick her up on the first day so he met me there. We walked in and all the kids were out back in the pool. Ann was sitting on the swing with Ivy in her lap looking happy as can be. Again, I breathed a sigh of relief and wasted no time picking her up and showering her with kisses. Ann said she did really well, although I'm pretty sure she would have said that no matter what because that's what I needed to hear.

The rest of the week went pretty much the same and each day when I arrived to pick her up, she was either sleeping in Ann's arms or being held by her and looking very happy. She continued to sleep through the night the rest of the week with the exception of Thursday night. I really couldn't have asked for things to be going any smoother than they are. I'm making the most of every moment with her now because the evenings go by so quickly and the next thing I know, it's morning and I'm dropping her off at Ann's again. Weekends now have a whole new meaning and I don't intend on letting her out of my sight! Just a week in the life of a working mom I guess!