Goodbye Maternity Leave!

I feel like it was just yesterday that I was going back to work with Drew. I knew that someday I'd enjoy another 3 months away from the deadlines and conference calls and trainings, but it's surreal that my second maternity leave has already come and gone. Just like with Drew I have soaked up every second of it, and enjoyed each week.

Throughout our time together, I took Ady on endless walks and jogs as well as wandered the aisles of Target often. I watched tons of TV during all the nursing sessions and held her while she napped probably 841 times. During longer naps, I spent hours upon hours studying my new editing software all while keeping this blog, our 2014 family picture album and her baby book up to speed. We sat outside together as much as we could to enjoy nature and had quite a few playdates with friends.

What I did most, however, was stare. Sleeping or awake, it didn't really matter. In the first few weeks she would sleep so much that I was able to snooze often with her in my arms. Around halfway through maternity leave we started jogging a bit on our daily walks. I absolutely adore how her eyes would lock onto mine and not look at anything else the entire way. She's been smiling since around 5 weeks, but these last few weeks the smiles and coo's have been out of control. They are so frequent and you better believe I'd sit for an hour and 'talk to her'. The staring competitions was the best part. Who wouldn't be happy staring at this face all day?


Tomorrow is my first day back to work and although I'm ready for the routine of it, I will miss the do-what-we-want casualness of these past 12 weeks. It was so nice just going where we wanted, when we wanted and not having a schedule. Luckily, my mother-in-law is coming in for a few weeks in a few days and I'm excited for that. I work from home and extending the time with Ady around is a blessing. (Oh, and not having to start pumping all the time yet... SCORE!)

So goodbye maternity leave. Tomorrow will be hard, but I'll just consider you and Drew my "rewards" at the end of a workday. And to me, your faces are the best prizes!