Reflection: Working with Baby

The pilot episode of the Cosby Show, in addition to the hilarious econ lesson Cliff gives Theo, contains a scene where Dr. Huxtable tries to calm down a guy whose wife is in labor. I couldn't find a transcript of it, and I'm too lazy to play back my dvd and do it myself, but basically he says that childbirth isn't that big of a deal and tells a story about women in rice fields who have the their baby in the field and then the child immediately begins helping out. While I don't work in a rice field, I often think about that scene and laugh a little inside when I read online message boards when the topic of how long to take off work before and after childbirth. Barring a medical condition that requires bed rest or something, I don't understand the logic of taking time off before at all. I would have gone nuts tapping my feet wondering when he was going to make his appearance. (I kind of went nuts anyway, despite the fact I was still working and G3 was born on his due date - but at least I made money while quietly losing my mind, and the distraction of having a job to do was a relief.) And as far as after...yeah, I kind of think women that have normal deliveries and are whining about having to return to work after six weeks because they don't feel up to it are kinda crazy. (This is different entirely from not wanting to go back because they don't want to be separated from their child, that I completely understand.)
I worked until 5pm and checked into the hospital a few hours later, had my little guy the next day, and felt absolutely terrible for the next three days or so. Day four the weather was unusually nice for November, so I was outside pulling up tomato baskets and ripping up landscape fabric in the afternoon like it was nothing. I had no maternity leave aside from the two weeks vacation I had saved, which it turns out I didn't really need, but they were use it or lose it days, so I did stay home for two weeks. After a week and half, when my mom returned home and my husband went back to work, I was so bored and felt so ridiculous sitting at home doing nothing I almost decided to just return to work anyway. New babies don't do anything. They sleep, wake up crying, eat, need their diaper changed, and go back to sleep. Repeat this cycle around the clock. Boring! I remember sitting on the edge of my bed, watching him sleep and saying, 'Kid, you are adorable, but you sure don't do much do you?'
I was THRILLED when the two weeks were up. If I would have been at home for six I think I would have had to be checked into an institution because I would have gone insane. I am not cut out to not work. Two weeks from the moment my son was born, I was back at my office - with him in his bassinet beside me. Yes, I was insanely fortunate to be able to bring my son with me to work. It was awesome. He slept, I worked. He woke up, I fed him, changed him, he went back to sleep, I went back to work. Fabulous. Until he was two months old, I worked full time with him at my side. At that point, anticipating he would soon be getting more interesting, I switched to part time. Three days a week. Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. (On Thursdays G2 worked from home, so G3's hours at the office were cut to two days week.)
For several months it was really still more of the same...if I could do it again I would have stayed full time longer, especially since it was winter and too darn cold to walk him around in the stroller. In the spring when we could get out and about things got a bit better, and his advancing age finally meant G3 was getting more interactive. It started to get a little harder to have him at the office, but usually there were enough people around that it wasn't too bad. He loved watching all the activity around him. And then he got interested in toys, which helped. (And to make things even better, my in-laws moved to a house walking distance from my office at the beginning of the summer, and my mother in law graciously offered to begin collecting G3 on her way home from work in the afternoon on Mondays. This arrangement still continues, and it's great.) There are days that are difficult, sure, especially when he is teething, and I think, well, this is the end, I'm going to have to quit. But so far we've gotten through it. Truly how much longer I'll be able to pull it off, I'm not sure, but I'm enjoying having the best of both worlds for now.