Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Gong back to work (kind of)

I'll admit, I was nervous to go back to work. Even though I knew it was only for a weekend, and even though it was the play and not the road, and even though both my parents would be coming along to watch the girls...I was still had some serious butterfly action happening.

How would Willow react too being watched by people other than Dave and I? How would Willow handle the (relatively) long drive from Austin to Galveston? How would she do with us being gone for most of the day? How would my parents handle taking care two kids, one of whom was super dependent in that way that only a baby can be? How would I do with late nights and early mornings?

I'm happy to report than most of my baby related worries were unfounded. Just like her sister, Willow seems to be a born traveler. The car ride to and from Galveston was no problem. The trick? I just hung with her most of the time in the back seat. Plus, she's cool like that.

As far as my worries about how she'd hang with my parents, well, this time we had laid some good groundwork. With Lisel I went directly from exclusively breastfeeding her to sleep at night to expecting her to be cool with being bottle fed and rocked to sleep by other arms.

That's a little too much to ask from a baby. There was some, and by some, I mean a lot, of crying.

This time we started feeding her with a bottle at least once a day for a couple of weeks before the trip. And we made sure that my folks gave her that bottle. By the time we left for the seaside, grandparents and baby were on good terms.

And Lisel, well she was practically pushing us out of the door, encouraging us to go to work so she could hang out with her best friends, Nana and Grandpappy. No problems there.

Kid wise, everything was cool.

As for me, well I did okay. I mean, I enjoyed being back to work in the company of other adults. I loved being back on stage, dressing up like people I'm not, and dancing and singing for other people's entertainment.

At the same time, I rediscovered what true exhaustion feels like. This was like new baby exhaustion times 10. It was four hour drive, rehearsal, show, late night, interrupted sleep, early morning, pool hang with with the kids, two shows, late night, interrupted sleep, beach/pool kid hang, one show with the kids and parents at the theater, four hour drive home exhausting.

By Sunday night I was an achy breaky mess.

It gave me a glimpse into what the future holds. Thank goodness for days off and naps.

What about you? Do you have and stories about returning to work after a hiatus? How about some tips for avoiding and/or enduring the inevitable exhaustion that work plus child-rearing creates?









4 comments:

nancy from kc said...

Someday you will look back on all this and wonder how the *&%# you did all this. Nothing worth while is easy....and all this is definately worth while. Love the way you express yourself in writing, but I am so glad to have you back on stage.

Anonymous said...

two kids is sooooooo hard. it makes you wonder why you thought having one was hard. but it is AMAZING! and balancing it all with work is soooooooo hard too. but you are so lucky to have a job you love, that gives you some flexibility, and family who is willing to help. you just got to take one day at a time...it's a long and winding road, full of bumps and twists and turns...but it's worth it!

EMQ said...

It's funny. When you have one, you look back on your pre-child life and think, "what did I do with all that time!" and then you have two, and you look back on your life and think the same thing!

Anonymous said...

EXACTLY! But when you get to see those two cuties play together and love eachother, it is truly priceless. You'll still be exhausted, but you'll be so glad you have them, and, that they have eachother!