My maternity leave has ended and last Monday I headed back to the office. My first day was better than I was expecting. Kingston slept well the night before, so I didn’t feel too exhausted, and he was asleep when I left so it wasn’t as hard to leave either.
While I was out they changed the software system we use so I spent my first week learning how to do my job again. It was like starting a new job all over. They only told a couple people outside of the office that I had returned so that I could focus on getting up to speed. It was such a huge help to not be constantly interrupted with phone calls and emails, I wish that I could always just focus on writing orders and not have to deal with the other junk! A couple of our vendors expressed how glad they were I was back and how they didn’t trust POs written by anyone other than me. Then a friend shared with me that she coincidentally met my main customer and he told her how lost EOI would be without me, that no one else knows what’s going on. It has been so nice to hear these words and know that even though I don’t always feel appreciated inside the office walls, the people on the outside that I work with on a day to day basis understand how hard I work to try to do my job perfectly, thus making their jobs easier and providing them with exactly what they want. I needed to hear that, I need to hear it more.
It’s been interesting to be pumping at work. The first four days I was able to pump in my boss’ office because he was out of town, but he returned on Friday. Since there isn’t anywhere else there that is a private area, my only option is to pump in my car. Not ideal since it’s so stinkin hot out right now, but thankfully my a/c is working and I have dark tinted windows. I did have an awkward moment when one of the times I was out there pumping a big truck pulled up behind my car and then the driver came over to my window. I had to stop, crack my window so that he could ask if I was going to be leaving soon, tell him no, roll the window back up, and continue with my task. So looking forward to more of these uncomfortable situations. Why is it only a law that companies with over 50 employees have to provide a place outside of a bathroom for mom’s to pump? Just because my company doesn’t have 50 employees doesn’t mean my kid doesn’t deserve fresh food. Maybe I can just hang some sheets from the ceiling and create my own little office.
As the week went on it became harder to leave in the mornings as sometimes Kingston was awake when I was leaving and a couple nights he didn’t sleep as well which made for sleepy days for me.
Working full time with a newborn is exhausting and doesn’t leave much time for anything else on a week night. What this means for you my dear readers is that my posts are probably going to get less frequent due to lack of time and well, I don’t think you are all coming to read about my boring work days. Hopefully, I’ll be able to still write about fun weekend adventures (that don’t include washing dishes and catching up on laundry : ).
