We Made It!

Well, we all made it through my first week at work okay!  Olivia woke up early to see me off on Monday morning (if she looks exhausted, it’s because she is!  The child basically refused to sleep at all on Sunday night….not a great way to start your first day back at work.)

The first day honestly wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.  My colleagues at work were all very happy to see me and asked all about Olivia.  My secretary printed out all the pictures I’d sent them of Olivia and put them by my door.  (I love coming in every morning and seeing them!)   And sweet Matt sent me tulips (my favorite) to wish me good luck.  

Best of all, my wonderful boss told me that it will likely take a few weeks to get my portfolio back up, so I should feel free to leave early and go home when I don’t have work to do.  I took full advantage of this generous offer and was home by 4:00 almost every day this week.  I’m going back on a reduced schedule through the end of the summer.  So I will work Monday-Thursday from 9-4:30.  I think it will be the perfect balance of work and home to help us ease into this new role of “working mom.”

I guess Miss O was a little upset that mommy left her on Monday because she apparently screamed her face off for 20 minutes.  Mimi said it was induction by fire!  But, once she settled down, I hear that she and Mimi had a great time together.  They read stories, played, took naps and got in some good grandma-granddaughter bonding time!  Mimi dressed Olivia up every day in headbands so she was all cute when I got home from work!

For me, I think things got harder as the week went on.  I found myself getting more upset on the drive into work on Wednesday and Thursday than earlier in the week.  It’s certainly hard to call home and hear that someone else is reading or playing with O when I wish I was.  But, I know she is in very good hands and I think things will get better each week.   

I did get a nice surprise on Wednesday night when my dear friend Bethany unexpectedly came into town.  I was so happy to see her and let her bond with Olivia.  Her sweet son, Palmer, is a couple months older than Liv so its a real blessing to be able to talk to her about all issues related to being a new mom, and now a new working mom!

Then on Thursday, my mom brought Olivia to have lunch with me and Aunt Nazreen joined us.  Such a fun lunch date!

So, Week One ended on a good note and I am thoroughly enjoying my 3 day weekend.  I'm sure we will both have good days and bad days, so I am going to try very hard to take things in stride.  Even before we had Olivia, Matt and I would always comment that the best part of our day was coming home and hanging out together.  That is certainly even more true now that Olivia is there.  It’s such  a nice reward to the day to come home to a sweet, smiley daughter who (much to my delight and joy) remembers me and is oh-so-excited to see me!