Surviving the first week back to work

Well, we survived my first week back at work and Eden's first cold and fever.  It was extremely hard, maybe the hardest week we've had since she was brand new!  Michael and I referred to that time when she was just born as survival mode, and we both agreed that these first few weeks with me back at work are going to be the same thing.  And illness really pushed it to an intensity level I wasn't prepared for!  It was a pretty horrible week, I have to say.  But we are surviving, and now my confidence level is just a little higher (I think).

Feverish little one watching mommy & daddy rehearse, past her bedtime

Click if you want more detail in the form of my rambly unorganized thoughts...




Sick: It was pretty much confirmed that she picked it up from Suzuki, because the teachers were talking about how several other babies had it and how those babies went to the doctor who said it was just a cold.  Which is good, because she had a couple of bad nights coughing and I started worrying about pertussis.  Ironically, what made me feel better was that *I* got sick, and since I've been vaccinated against pertussis, my getting sick implied to me that whatever she gave me was not pertussis.  I don't know enough about vaccines/ immunities to know whether this actually has logic to it, but it kept me from taking her to the doctor a THIRD time--and now her cough is pretty much gone.  I have staved the symptoms of mine off pretty well by taking as much Emergen-C + Echinacea + Zinc + Airborne as I possibly can.

I just looked back at the previous paragraph and I think it may be one of the shittiest paragraphs I've ever written.  Oh boy.  Hopefully it made some sense.

Daycare - I mean school: You can't take a baby with a fever to daycare, and you're not supposed to take a baby who is "too uncomfortable to enjoy regular activities" to daycare either.  Hence, Eden stayed home til Thursday.  But Thursday she spent 5 hours at Suzuki, and Friday she spent a full 9-hour day there.  Both days her teachers said she did well.  I was so afraid she was going to get sent home sick, so I am really glad that didn't happen.

Work: The sick made going back to work extremely rough.  Like really really rough.  I worked from home my first three days back.  The first day she was well enough to go to daycare we had a TERRIBLE morning, I didn't leave the house until 10:45 AM, forgot her bottles and had to go back and get them, then forgot my pump parts for work so Michael had to bring them to me.  But by the end of Friday I felt like, ok, work - I remember this.  And I did enjoy having long stretches of time where I knew I wasn't going to be interrupted by a baby.

I'm going to write a separate post about the sleep/eating issues that arose this week!