WEEK 2 OF BEING A WORKING MAMA AND A BEAR SUIT

Per your requests, this post will have photos of baby bear suit sprinkled in.. 

Before I went back to work, baby was doing so wonderfully with her sleep schedule and was sleeping longer and longer each week, with a good 6-7 hours of sleep at night by the 6^th week…But then the bottle came into her life. Although now she latches to the bottle, according to the daycare, she doesn’t drink enough, which means she had adjusted in order to get extra feedings when I’m at home with her, including the middle of the night. That little bugger got wise. It’s my second week back at work and while I still find it miraculous that I can survive and get through a workday on 5, 4, sometimes 3 hours of sleep, I am praying that she starts drinking enough out of the bottle during the day. Let it be heard...six hours of uninterrupted sleep is heaven.

On Monday,

 instead of the usual 8:00PM 11:00PM, and 6:00AM feedings at night, Sloane decided she would like to nurse at 8:30PM, 9:30PM, 11:00PM, 12:00AM, 1:00AM, 4:00AM and 6:00AM. It was like a free-for-all. This left me with about 3.5 hours of sleep and a very long work day the next day.

On Tuesday, 

as I was driving to work and feeling the blunt pangs of exhaustion, I reflected on how glad I was that it was a Friday. Pause. And then I realized it wasn’t.

On Wednesday, 

I felt particularly sad and bereft leaving baby at the daycare.

On Thursday, 

my phone somehow went missing, so I didn't hear the alarm, woke up an hour later than I needed to, hit every red light, and was late to work with no phone and having forgotten my lunch and all my snacks.

You would think a week like might wear a person down to her bones, but the thing with having a baby is that she makes everything totally worthwhile. Knowing that I can see her at the end of the work day, saying good morning to her as she wakes up and stretches like a maniac, and having time to nurse her in the evenings makes even the roughest days a good one. And with each day this week, there were things that made up for the squeeze.

On Monday, 

Sloane sat on her dad’s chest and smiled and giggled at him non-stop. We noted at how she kept trying to stay sitting up instead of leaning back like usual, and laughed at how she stared at her toes, all wide-eyed.

On Tuesday, 

I put her in a brown bear fleece onesie and felt victorious that my dream of dressing my baby like tiny animals was coming true. K. was considerate about how tired I was that night, made us noodles, and tended to baby while I napped in 30 minute intervals like a drunkard in between feedings.

On Wednesday, 

she smiled during her bath. She's been more and more smiley these days, but for some reason when she takes a bath she is all business and super serious. But on Wednesday, she smiled while I was washing her. And when K. came home, he spent his usual time playing and cracking up with her and she made sounds and faces that sounded and looked like her learning and practicing how to laugh.

On Thursday, 

a check-up at the doctor’s told us that she is growing as she should, and our little family went out to the Food Truck Court at the Hardywood Park Craft Brewery for a really nice evening.

So, even tiring weeks are good ones. And really, when you have a tiny baby bear around the house, you don't feel like complaining too much. 

papa bear and baby bear, of course. 

insert, post script, addendum...

I'd like to add, that on Friday, which is when I'm writing this, when I got home, I nursed, took these pictures, add some semblance of a dinner, and then went out to run errands with baby in tow, in heels (that's right, HEELS), to three different places before those places closed, which was all in the span of 1.5 hours. That's three stops of taking baby out of car, completing task, putting baby back in car, and driving to next location. I felt like superwoman.  But when I got home and the weariness set in, I felt like a feeble old lady And then while I was uploading the photos for this very post, S. exploded out of her diaper, with a poop so powerful that it went up to the back of her neck, out of her clothes and all over both of us. When I took off all her clothes so that I could bathe her, she proceeded to pee all over me. She is now blissfully asleep in my arms and I am pretty much spent and there are oh so many chores to do around the house, but I'm taking the time to write now so that I can stick my flag down in the land that is the end of this week and say, I survived! And   thank God it's Friday...

me and bear before going on our errands