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Daycare drop-off & The first week back at work

By Dawn Sailors In Offspring (Baby things)

Today was a hard day for me. This was Vera’s 3rd day at daycare, but it was the first time that I was the one who had to take her. I thought it would be ok, since I’ve had a few days without her, but I was tearing up as I handed her over and I bawled the whole way to work. It is one thing to kiss her goodbye at home when Brett is loading her into the car (I cried then too), but it is a whole other thing to drive away from her.

Don’t get me wrong. I think our daycare provider is doing a great job and I am so happy we found an in-home provider that I trust. I know that in home settings have less supervision and guidelines than traditional daycare facilities, but I feel like for us it was just a better choice. I didn’t like the idea of young kids paid by the hour to watch my infant along with ten others. I wanted Vera to have love and attention from someone who takes care of kids because she loves them.

My first week back at work has been going as well as it can. I am lucky to work for a company that really values family and they agreed to let me work from home one day a week until Brett is out of school for the summer. (Lucky teachers!!) But I’m not sure if being home Wednesday made it easier or harder to take V to daycare today.

Otherwise though, it has been going well. After spending Monday trying to pump in the women’s restroom, I finally got up the nerve to ask my male manager if I could use an empty office so that I can continue to breastfeed while returning to work. Ask and you shall receive! That was the biggest worry for me, because I really believe that breastfeeding is the best thing for babies if there isn’t a medical reason not to, and I didn’t want selfish reasons like inconvenience to make my commitment waver.

Vera is sleeping soundly now, and my mom is here to watch her tomorrow, which means I’ll have a special lunch date to look forward to. I’d better get to bed so that I can wake up fresh and finish off my first week back to work strong!

I’ll leave with this, which has gotten me through this week smiling at work :)

Any advice out there from moms who’ve gotten back into the work force? Were you able to keep exclusively breastfeeding while working full time??