I returned to work on 11 August, 2 weeks before my maternity leave is over and started a part-time arrangement with my boss. I would work from Tuesdays to Thursdays and take my remaining maternity leave on Mondays and Fridays. This gave me a longer weekend to spend time with baby and family and at the same time, enabled me to get the hang of returning to my desk and coping with continuing to express breast milk for Werner while back to work.
On one hand, I feel I should spend some more time with Werner, on the other, I am worried about the sudden transition from the 3 months away to juggling full-time work and home all of a sudden. Additionally, one major trigger for making this decision is also due to the monotone of being a stay-home mom. Most people will think a stay-home mom has a good and relaxed life, but after 2 months plus, I really beg to differ.
It might be the strong sense of responsibility or the possessiveness or Werner being too much of a attention-seeker (Werner doesn’t seem to sleep long enough – 15 mins nap each time and he is up again, demanding attention), I suddenly felt stifled, can’t seem to have time for myself (where is my reading time? music time? grooming time? hair cut? facial?) and felt guilty whenever I had the urge to leave the house for the “frills” and leave baby at home or with my mom. All the above seems very frivolous as compared to the importance of mother-and-child bonding, but then again, aren’t all these little things important to make one feel happy and worthy? They are for me.
In order to try and balance my previous lifestyle with the addition of baby Werner, I started driving him out with me, strapping him in a carseat and off we will go on my facials, or off to meet friends for coffee. At times, he is a cooperative and inquisitive passenger, staring at the scenery that goes by. Once in a while, he starts squealing in the car and I try my best to pacify him while concentrating on the road. Sometimes I think I can be classified as a supermom! Haha..
Today, I am back to work full time and I’ve managed quite well so far. I carry my medela pump to work daily, provide more than sufficient milk for Werner by pumping milk at my desk 3 times a day (you should see what a multi-tasker I am at my desk), have traveled to and back from Guangzhou for Conference (pumping breast milk in the plane on my seat and bringing the chilled milk back in cooler box) and will be off to Turkey next week for a sales seminar (will be freezing the milk as it’s a 6 days trip – hope I will succeed). Overall, I am enjoying every moment.
Werner is 4 months plus now and weighing about 6.7kg when we brought him for his injection last week. He is flipping from front to back non-stop (eversince he acquired this skill last week), cooing and making so much “conversation” with us. It is simply a joy just to look at him. Every morning he wakes up, he gives me the smile that simply melts me. Makes me forget the night pumps I am waking up for. It makes my day. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment