Work-Life Balance

Well, here I am at midnight stealing a moment to type a post on my blog ... taking a break from doing some necessary tasks for work while simultaneously hand-pumping so that I don't disturb my sleeping baby and husband not 10 feet away. Hmmm ... is this what they mean by "work-life balance"?

Seriously, though, it's a tough job being a working mom. I am absolutely not knocking being a stay-at-home mom which I think, in so many ways, is even harder than working. SAHM's are on-call 24/7, and I've found that they often suddenly feel as though they need to bear the weight of the home on their shoulders: women who never cooked before crack open those cookbooks; they clean like they've never cleaned before; they somehow become that June Cleaver they never imagined being. But I do have to say that, while I may not be home with Claire all day during the day, there is no such thing as a part-time mom. Even as I'm at work in a meeting or driving to the office, I'm balancing thinking about what I need to do that day with what needs the baby has right now and what I need to do when I get home for her.

However, I made the decision to keep working as an investment into both James and my future. I could selfishly say that I want to stay home, but I need to think of the longer term impacts and whether that's truly what I want ... sigh.

Another decision I made was that I'm no longer going to pump at the office. Claire is officially 6 months, and my supply is pretty much nonexistant anyways. Starting today, I've decided to pump once in the morning (a measly 2oz) and once at night (another measly 2oz) so that she can get at least some breastmilk each day, even if it's just one feeding. We'll see how long I can keep that up until my 4oz wane to 3, 2, 1 ... I would stop altogether, but that whole "foot and mouth" story of Kenny and Brenna's keeps going through my head -- and with Claire starting daycare in a couple of weeks, I have a feeling she's going to need all the antibodies she can get!

Back to work!