Back to Work

Hello Fragment 54!

Back to work. Fiona and I left you at 2 weeks because...well, Fiona decided that life was more important than a blog. But now she's almost 9 weeks old, practically grown up (or at least grown out of her newborn clothes) :)

I can't imagine only having had 6 weeks to learn how to do this thing called, parenthood and specifically for me, mommyhood. At that point I was just finally feeling recovered physcially, we were just starting to go to bed at a regular time, and there wasn't even a glimmer of routine to our days.

It amazes me that children and parents aren't afforded more together time in our society. We place so much emphasis on our children getting a good education, finding the right home in the right place, making sure that they hang out with the 'proper' people....but childhood itself isn't prioritized in our country. We simply are making sure that our children progress quickly into adulthood which means, at 6 weeks, forcing moms back into the workforce, forcing 6 -week babies into a childcare routine, and forget about what we do to daddies...who are forced back to work before the baby has barely opened her eyes (so he gets baby time when mommy is exhausted, baby is tired of mommy, and daddy is stressed from work)!

Instead of finding a place for childhood routines in our lives we are forced to put childhood into our economic routines of livelihood.

Last week I was stressed. Fiona doesn't take a bottle, refuses a pacifier, and (last week) was just barely pushing 3 hours between feedings). I was so overwhelmed because I just felt that at 7 weeks she should be doing all this stuff....I mean, what if I were forced to leave the house to go out for work.....

And then I snapped out of it (after some hours/days of worrying on some phone calls)... Because I am lucky, I don't have to go away to work...my work is here, writing. So, I took away the bottles and made the pacifier simply an option. I focused on pushing her a bit between feedings (because its good for her) but we followed her naptime schedule.

And lo and behold, this week we are onto a routine. Not every day and not perfect and there has definitely been some screaming and crying (and not only by the baby) But she's happy. And believe it or not, I worked on the freaking dissertation....and I'm happy. We go on walks in the morning, we sweat it out under the air conditioner and do yoga in the afternoon. I write when she is playing by herself. I check email and blog when she needs me to entertain her.

(the dog is getting a little bit ignored...I'm not perfect yet...and Daniel still comes home to a messy house and sometimes little in the way of dinner...but that's getting better)

But gosh we are so darn lucky....because we are going back to work on our own terms....and not some arbitrary 6 weeks decided by government committee.

Now, if only daddy could join us!