Today was the first day of my fourth week back at work. In some ways it hasn't been as bad as I was expecting, but in other ways it's so, so hard. The first morning back I was a mess. I think I cried a lot the day before, I cried most of the morning, and I made Matt go with me to drop Eleanor off at daycare. I cried leaving her and pretty much anytime anyone at work asked me how I was doing. Matt, being the amazing husband that he has, had flowers delivered to me that first day back from him and Eleanor. As a bonus they were delivered by a friend who also owns her own floral business :) Dropping Eleanor off in the mornings has become a little easier, but I still miss her like crazy all day long. I'm finding I really cherish our evenings and weekends even more than I already did. I look forward to that time with her and don't want anything to interfere with that. I am definitely excited about summer break and spending the whole summer with her.
Luckily, Eleanor is in great hands at daycare. She's in a class of all girls (!) and is the youngest baby in the room. Because she's the youngest and all the other babies are crawling and/or walking, this means that Eleanor gets lots of attention and love :) She is always in a good mood when we pick her up in the afternoons, and is often just babbling away at the assistant in her classroom (she's the one there in the afternoons when we pick Eleanor up). And daycare has been great about using our cloth diapers! I think it's been much easier than they expected. As an added bonus, they also think the diapers are cute. The classroom assistant told me last week that each morning they look through Eleanor's bag of clean diapers to see which ones she has that day, just because the diapers are so cute :) I think that's funny because the ones I send to daycare are just solid colors, with the exception of the two prints that Bum.Genius makes, and there are way cuter diapers out there. But I'm glad they've been so willing to give cloth diapering a try and are making it work pretty easily.
Here's a normal day for our family:
4:45am - alarms go off and Matt and I get up
5:30am - Matt leaves the house. I try to be mostly ready by the time he leaves (which is why I get up when he does) in case Eleanor wakes up early. This has happened a few times and it throws the whole morning off :)
6:00am - I wake Eleanor up. I change her, get her dressed, give her her reflux medicine, and feed her. We then read books (usually a story from the Jesus Story.book Bible) and we "talk" (I talk, she babbles) until it's time to leave.
6:40am - The latest that Eleanor and I pull out of the driveway
6:50am - Get to daycare. Put away clean diapers and bottles, fill out drop-off sheet, lots of hugs and kisses for Eleanor
7:00am - Leave daycare and head to school
7:10am - Get to school and prepare for my kiddos, who arrive at 7:30
3:45-4:00pm - Leave school and head over to pick up Eleanor
4:00-7:30pm - Home! Eleanor usually takes a nap or two during this time, but we do lots of playing, reading, going for walks, etc. Eleanor also gets a bath every other night. While Eleanor is napping I run a load of diapers every other day and eat dinner.
7:30pm-ish - Eleanor eats for the last time and then goes to bed. She is still sleeping through the night, which is awsome. Some mornings she even tries to stay asleep after I get her out of her crib! There are mornings I have gotten her pajamas off, diaper changed, and clothes on and her eyes are still closed :) The girl loves her sleep! Matt and I aren't complaining about that, though - we like our sleep, too :)
After Eleanor goes to bed we get bottles together for the next day at daycare. We also wash bottles every other day.
The days are long and I'm exhausted by Friday. I struggle with feeling like I'm not serving my students at school well because I'm not staying as late as I used to (though I do stay later on Fridays because Matt picks Eleanor up then) and don't have the time in the evenings to work on things like I did before Eleanor was born. I'm hoping that things get at least a little easier to balance, as I also came back at a very busy time of the school year with assessments, report cards, etc.
And because it's not a post on the blog without at least one photo of Eleanor, here you go:
Luckily, Eleanor is in great hands at daycare. She's in a class of all girls (!) and is the youngest baby in the room. Because she's the youngest and all the other babies are crawling and/or walking, this means that Eleanor gets lots of attention and love :) She is always in a good mood when we pick her up in the afternoons, and is often just babbling away at the assistant in her classroom (she's the one there in the afternoons when we pick Eleanor up). And daycare has been great about using our cloth diapers! I think it's been much easier than they expected. As an added bonus, they also think the diapers are cute. The classroom assistant told me last week that each morning they look through Eleanor's bag of clean diapers to see which ones she has that day, just because the diapers are so cute :) I think that's funny because the ones I send to daycare are just solid colors, with the exception of the two prints that Bum.Genius makes, and there are way cuter diapers out there. But I'm glad they've been so willing to give cloth diapering a try and are making it work pretty easily.
Here's a normal day for our family:
4:45am - alarms go off and Matt and I get up
5:30am - Matt leaves the house. I try to be mostly ready by the time he leaves (which is why I get up when he does) in case Eleanor wakes up early. This has happened a few times and it throws the whole morning off :)
6:00am - I wake Eleanor up. I change her, get her dressed, give her her reflux medicine, and feed her. We then read books (usually a story from the Jesus Story.book Bible) and we "talk" (I talk, she babbles) until it's time to leave.
6:40am - The latest that Eleanor and I pull out of the driveway
6:50am - Get to daycare. Put away clean diapers and bottles, fill out drop-off sheet, lots of hugs and kisses for Eleanor
7:00am - Leave daycare and head to school
7:10am - Get to school and prepare for my kiddos, who arrive at 7:30
3:45-4:00pm - Leave school and head over to pick up Eleanor
4:00-7:30pm - Home! Eleanor usually takes a nap or two during this time, but we do lots of playing, reading, going for walks, etc. Eleanor also gets a bath every other night. While Eleanor is napping I run a load of diapers every other day and eat dinner.
7:30pm-ish - Eleanor eats for the last time and then goes to bed. She is still sleeping through the night, which is awsome. Some mornings she even tries to stay asleep after I get her out of her crib! There are mornings I have gotten her pajamas off, diaper changed, and clothes on and her eyes are still closed :) The girl loves her sleep! Matt and I aren't complaining about that, though - we like our sleep, too :)
After Eleanor goes to bed we get bottles together for the next day at daycare. We also wash bottles every other day.
The days are long and I'm exhausted by Friday. I struggle with feeling like I'm not serving my students at school well because I'm not staying as late as I used to (though I do stay later on Fridays because Matt picks Eleanor up then) and don't have the time in the evenings to work on things like I did before Eleanor was born. I'm hoping that things get at least a little easier to balance, as I also came back at a very busy time of the school year with assessments, report cards, etc.
And because it's not a post on the blog without at least one photo of Eleanor, here you go:
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| Eleanor was so tired one afternoon after daycare that she fell asleep while playing with the rings on her playmat |
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| I just got this toy for Eleanor last week at the recommendation of a friend. Eleanor LOVES it. Seriously. I've never seen her lift her head that high and for that long during tummy time. Here she's using it while in the Bu.mbo :) |
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