Maternity Leave

Tomorrow Luke turns twelve weeks old and my maternity leave is over.  It has been a wonderful although often exhausting three months of newborn baby bliss.  I have mixed emotions about returning to work, mostly I am ready but am dreading the transition period while I adjust to working full time again on less than optimal amounts of sleep.  Unlike last time, I am not as nervous about Luke starting daycare, I know what to expect and know he will be in good hands.  So how did I spend this maternity leave?  Here are the top ten things that come to mind:

10. Recover from surgery

Thankfully this time around I felt back to normal by about six weeks post surgery.  Today I can easily lift Kate, sneeze, run up the stairs, etc. without feeling any pain.  I continue to be grateful for what a smooth process Luke's delivery and my recovery was this time.

9.  Catch up on TV shows

I spent a lot of hours in my chair in front of the TV in the first month.  I watched all six seasons of Parks and Recreation, which I can highly recommend.  I watched countless reruns of Say Yes to the Dress even though, as Matt likes to remind me, I do not need a wedding dress.  I fell in love with Wrangler, the puppy on the Today show, although I was not a big fan of the Today show itself.  Can anyone in my generation take Carson Daly seriously as a "real" reporter?  I can't.

8.  Catch up on household chores

At a certain point it stopped becoming necessary for me to nap every time Luke napped, and I found myself housebound for hours at a time.  I finally cleaned out my closet, rearranged the junk under the bathroom sink, organized the giant bin of every greeting card I've ever received, and swapped out Kate's clothes for the next sizes she will need.

7.  Visit with friends

Luke and I stayed very busy beginning in January when I became comfortable driving again.  There was one week where we had a different lunch date every day of the week.  He was perfect, always sound asleep in the stroller while I had an hour out to chat and catch up with friends.

6. Shop on a weekday

What a luxury.  Easy parking, short lines at the checkout, spacious wide open empty aisles to casually wander up and down with a stroller... if you're lucky enough to be able to shop on a weekday, I am about to envy you greatly as I go back to joining the working class masses who buy their groceries on Saturday morning and try to run into Target on a packed Sunday afternoon.  Luke was a great shopping buddy, he never once cried in a store and usually just gazed around in wonder or slept.

5. Skype with my Mom

Several days a week Luke and I would check in with my Mom via Skype in the afternoons.  It was nice to have a conversation with someone in the middle of the day and of course she always loved seeing Luke.  Once I'm back at work weekday contact is difficult to squeeze in a packed schedule.

4.  Drink coffee

Before I became a parent, I rarely drank coffee, usually just a sugary Starbuck's treat because I was meeting a girlfriend there to chat.  Once Kate was born I started drinking a cup every morning.  Since Luke has arrived, I'm up to two cups a day, every now and then three!  I'm still not even sure that I really like coffee, I definitely love flavored creamers or doctoring up a bitter cup with some chocolate syrup.  It is not a healthy habit, but it has become a necessity for survival during this period in my life.

By "drink coffee" I really mean drink creamer with a splash of coffee

3. Breastfeed

I never said this was a list of my top ten favorite ways to spend maternity leave, just the top ten ways I spent it.  The beginning weeks were no picnic, but having been through it before and knowing how much sweeter it would get helped me get over the adjustment period.  It also helped that Luke had a great appetite, a great latch, and his Mama wasn't completely stressed out about it.  On Friday at the doctor's office he weighed 14 pounds, 10 ounces and he's already in six month size clothing, so I think he's doing just fine.  I'm thankful that I have been able to do this again and am sad to think about the months of pumping ahead but know that it's worth it for the times I do get to nurse him at the end of the day.

Chunky monkey

2. Nap

The first month I took that overly given piece of advice to "sleep when the baby sleeps" to heart as much as I could.  I made sleeping my top priority, ignoring all the laundry, dishes, e-mails, chance to shower, and other things I wanted to do during my brief windows of free time and forced myself to lay down instead.  I never regretted it.

1. Snuggle my son

I held my little baby all day long.  There is nothing better and the moments go by too fast.  I will miss it.