Here’s how you survive your first week back at work without your baby.
It’s a Friday night and I sit here with a block of chocolate and a glass of wine.
I’m in my fat pants (you know the pair I mean).
I’ve been back at work for one week and I’m exhausted!!!
But don’t tell anyone, they will roll their eyes and scoff at me! Because I’m supposed to keep it all together, right? I’m supposed to be able to handle anything, I’m a mother after all. But I’ll be honest, my first week back was hard and not just because of work but because my little one entered childcare. Here’s what my week look liked…
Monday
On Monday, I left my baby in the care of a complete stranger for the very first time and went to work and tried not to cry. I knew that if I thought about him that would be the end of me. So I decided to bury my head in my work.
That idea worked well on the short walk from childcare to the office however as soon as I walked out of the lifts on my floor, every single person asked if I was okay. I’m not joking… it was everyone! So I spent several minutes in the toilet cubical gathering ‘composure’ before applying bright red lippy and pretending I was ‘fine’.
The one person who knew exactly what to say had just returned to work from maternity leave herself. “Wanna talk about it?” she asked? “No,” I replied and we changed subjects.
At 10am I called the centre. He was sleeping, sound asleep.
The day was long…very long. I counted the hours from morning tea, the minutes from lunch time, and the seconds from afternoon tea. Everyone wanted to talk about my bub, which was sweet, but hard. Wasn’t given any work to do. I suppose that was a good thing.