Back to Life, Back to Reality

Back to life, back to reality

Back to life, back to reality

Back to life, back to reality

Back to the here and now yeah

Show me how, decide what you want from me

Tell me maybe I could be there for you --Soul II Soul, 1984

The inevitable has a habit of sneaking up on you. I knew that I only had 12 weeks off for maternity leave but those 12 weeks look so long in August. Not so much in October. I had been planning since I left to go back to work on November 2 so I started getting things done in October when Madeline had a more predictable schedule and I was physically able to run around town. The last week in October, one of the smart things I did was put Madeline in day care. I wanted to make sure that she could cope with the change while I was available to swing by. I also had exciting plans that week. I went to the dentist and the eye doctor. I also got a hair cut and my nails done. I also wanted the chance to do a few trial runs of getting out of the house. During my leave, getting out of the house could take 2 hours and I wouldn't care. However, I really needed to be out of the house by 7 AM. Was that going to mean I was going to have to wake up at 3 AM? Maybe. But after a few tweaks, it only took me 45-60 minutes. Not too bad in the great scheme of things. Then before I knew it, Monday November 2 came.

When I had gone on maternity leave the first time, I had come back to 700 emails. Yes, 700. This time I really thought I was going to come back to more because I am on a busier program. I had taken my computer home to at least check in on things but after just a quick call to my manager once in awhile, I soon decided that getting on my work computer wasn't necessary. I also knew that my first week back would be very slow at being efficient and getting back into the swing of things would be a work in progress.

Monday morning started at 5:00 AM. I had told Josh that everything that could be done the night before needed to be done. My purse was packed, pump was clean and lunch was made. Perfect. I got up at 5:00 AM (only after being back to bed for 20 minutes because Maddy had a 4 AM feeding) and got myself ready to go. The plan was to be done with everything I needed to do while I had two hands free by 6 to get the troops up. It almost happened like that. Madeline had decided at 5:45 that she wanted out of her bed. So I brought her downstairs while I finished breakfast and she sat happily in her bouncy seat. Then the real test started. I brought Maddy upstairs to get Abigail up at 6:00. Abby is normally a morning person (doesn't get that from me) but this morning she wasn't waking up on her own. I had to wake her up and get her dressed. Not easy to do with one hand but sometimes she is helpful and gets herself dressed. Thankfully, it was one of those days. I had them both downstairs within 10 minutes. I got Abby her breakfast and fed Maddy hers. We all got everything we needed to get done accomplished and was out the door by 6:50. I dropped everyone off and headed to work. WHOO HOO.

Of course I got NOTHING done on Monday. I come to find out that they had suspended my work account and no one could figure out how to get me back in. Called the help desk, a system administrator, the IT department, Human Resources and the Employee Service Center before I found out my MANAGER had to call the Employee Service Center to verify that I came back to work. I found that comical since he was out of town. But I was back at work. They told me to wait until Tuesday and I should be running. Nope. Had to call the help desk back (which they are hardly ever helpful) and it took my VP calling the IT director to get anything done. Finally I was able to get on my computer. But then I had to call back to get email up and running. And one more call to get my time card working. Ugh. Of course I finally get everything working to find out that my "replacement" during my leave didn't do much of anything. I now have more work to do than when I left but that is a whole other post.

The rest of the week outside work was pretty good. We had dinner every night, a clean and fed toddler and a happy baby. Now if I can just get Madeline to sleep through the night, we will be in business.