The Good and the Not So Good

Our first week of me being back full time is behind us. I'm glad. It's arrival was inevitable, so the closer we got the more I was ready.

The Good
- Macy continues to be an incredibly easy baby. She didn't blink an eye at the abrupt transition from being practically attached to me for 3 months to spending four days in a row in a new place with new people. She didn't sleep much on Monday, but it got better each day and, most importantly, didn't seem to affect her nighttime sleep.
- Norah continues to do very well. She was very excited about Macy going to school with her and had a great week.
- I got thrown deep into work within an hour of my arrival on Monday morning (yes, I think this was a good thing). I spent about 90% of my entire four days focused on one project. I worked on it with clients that I really enjoy, and though it was intense we laughed a lot.
- Seth and I were a good team, working together each morning to get our family out the door. Two days we all commuted together. They dropped me off, Seth took the girls into school, and then went on to work. It is nice to have both of us more involved in the school situation.
- We managed to put food on the table every night without too much of a hassle.
- Macy continues to be an awesome sleeper, consistently going 10-12 hours a night. Once we put her down we don't hear a peep until morning. We don't even have to do pacifier runs in the middle of the night.
- Macy is eating 12 ounces a day at school and between three times at work, once right before bed, and once in the middle of the night, I have been pumping about 10-12 ounces more than that each day.

The Not So Good
- I went from seeing Macy all day every day to about an hour a day (not including drive time). It kills me, absolutely kills me. I know it is partially just an adjustment that I need to get through. And I know it is somewhat temporary, as her bedtime will likely change. But in the meantime it makes me sad. I miss her sweet little round face and cheesy smile.
- I. Hate. The. Pump.
- I felt household chores pile up throughout the week (pause as I go and put some laundry in), which means we'll have more to catch up on this weekend.
- My workouts were non-existent between poor sleeping (due to having work on my mind) and getting to bed later.
- I don't enjoy milk handling. Between pumping and Macy actually drinking a bottle, I do a lot of pouring, measuring, labeling, rinsing, freezing, thawing, pouring, measuring, labeling, rinsing and packing. Monday morning I added 30 minutes to our commute because I forgot to put the ready-made bottles in her bag. The final step, but a very important one.
- The bags I pack, unpack and carry on a daily basis include my computer bag, my purse, Macy's school bag, the pump bag and the bag to transport pumped milk. Add one more when Norah requests a snack from home.

Though the lists are somewhat even, overall the good far outweighs the bad. In fact, I would say that our transition is off to a very, very good start. I am still working only four days a week, with Fridays off, which makes a huge difference. Today I was going to take the girls into school mid/late morning for several hours (enough time for Norah to have lunch and nap two hours), but Macy slept in until almost 9AM, getting our morning off to a later start than I expected. So I decided to keep them all day. We met some neighborhood friends at the park for two hours, came home, ate lunch/fed Macy, and both girls have been sleeping ever since. During that time I made banana bread, did laundry, some office work, and now a little blogging. This afternoon we'll probably make a Target run and play until Daddy comes home and the weekend officially begins.

Just one new pic of Norah this time...