Back to Work!

Wow, so it seems that maternity leave is now over.  It's been 12 glamorous weeks of PJs, spit up, trying to figure out and implement a routine (#epicfail, by the way), and conducting my days in a fog after long nights with the lovemuffin.  It's been hard and absolutely wonderful at the same time.  I am so grateful for the opportunity to spend this time with my incredible, amazing, sweet, beautiful daughter!

Katie is the sweetest little girl we could have ever imagined.  Little girls are just so DIFFERENT than baby boys - she coos and smiles so much, is extremely alert and focused and just loves, loves, loves to be cuddled and kissed.  Patrick has always just wanted to play, play, play - that's his MO.  Doesn't care too much for Mommy unless we're wrestling, running, and playing... he was even like that as a baby, to an extent.  It doesn't mean I love him less - I certainly do not! - but it's just less of a lovey dovey interaction that we have.  I'm glad that I now have one of each, so I can have the best of both worlds!

Speaking of the best of both worlds, I feel blessed to be a working mother.  For me, I love having a beautiful, fun, crazy family AND a great job that challenges me to the max and gives me the opportunity to help people, socialize with super intelligent people, and use my talents on a daily basis.  I mean, really...  how lucky am I?!  Being a working mom is super hard work - there are no breaks... you work hard all day and then come home to make dinner, eat, clean, bathe, soothe babies/ coerce to bed, and then prepare for the next (and maybe work a little bit to catch up from a crazy day of 100+ emails)...  but again, when I'm complaining about how crazy things are, and how tired I am, can someone please remind me that I'm *incredibly blessed*?

Monday is likely to be the hardest day in my life - first day back to work at 12 weeks post Katiebug, and Katie's first day at "school".  I feel a warm swelling in my belly (like I'm going to cry) just thinking about it.  With Patrick, I had gotten laid off while pregnant and didn't go back to work until he was 6 months old; and even then, I went back to an easy job that I conducted from home.  This time, I'm returning at 3 months to a job that, from what I hear, is going to be absolute chaos when I return (Dell had a record year in 2010, so we're hiring like crazy!) - gulp.  But again, I am blessed... just need to keeeeep reminding myself.  And Katie will hopefully love being surrounded by all the sweet kids at school who will absolutely love her.  I've taken her in a few times to pick up Patrick and all the kiddos rushed to come see her - it was really sweet!

Anyway, today I plan to spend contemplating the new normal for our family.  How is this all going to work, where can I squeeze time in to work out and take care of myself too, what are some meals that I can prepare ahead of time and throw in the oven when I get home, how on earth is this pumping at work and sending bottles to school thing going to work, etc. etc. etc.  I need to label all of Katie's blankets, bottles, etc. and think about the logistics of getting the kids to school and picking them up...  This is all going to be very interesting... I know people all over the world do this every day, but it's first time I'm going to be doing it with 2 very tiny children, so it seems like a big deal!  LOL

OK, time to get to work.  Have a great day and weekend, kids!  I'll post an update soon.

Love, Mer