Back to Work

For those of you counting, you've noticed that Caleb is nearly three months old, which means my maternity leave is coming to an end. This week, I returned to work. Not only have I officially returned to work, but I flew to Boston.

As you may recall, I was working on a project in Boston while pregnant with Tigger. The team there asked me to come back for the month of December to help while some of the leadership team is out on parental leave (there was something in the water there!). This week, I traveled to Boston for just one night. I'll then head to Boston for 3 days each week of December. I'll be working on the project full-time, but only be onsite part-time

Since Papa Tigger and I have left Tigger before, this was not my first time to leave Tigger overnight. Hitting the road again for just one night was a good way to ease my way back to work. It's like riding a bike, right? You never forget?

Well, first of all my brain was a little rusty after three months of 'vacation.' It's not like I wasn't using my brain while on leave (see the book list at right), but work is quite different. There's nothing like managing the testing and training activities of a huge Consolidation/Reporting/Planning implementation to get you back in the swing of things. A few discoveries so far:

Pumping at work is hard!! For those not familiar with breastfeeding, I have to pump while away from Tigger. This is for two reasons: 1) I need to pump to keep producing and 2) What I pump this week is what Tigger will eat while I'm gone next week. So I headed to Boston this week with my breastpump in tow. Besides finding multiple times during the day to pump, you have to find a private place to do it. This is even more difficult when you're not an employee of the company where you're working. I'm a consultant working in a client's office, so I'm kind of a visitor in their space. The conference rooms in our workspace are always full, plus they're right next to our workspace so everyone would hear the loud breastpump. The first day was tough - I pumped in the airplane bathroom and later in my rental car. The second day went much better once I broke down and enlisted the help of a fellow (male) coworker to help me find a room further away. I now have access to two small conference rooms (with doors that lock) that are downstairs from our workspace. Good progress!

A few other challenges from this week:

• Even though I can fit into my shoes (yeah!), I'm very rusty walking in heels. My feet are hurting!
• It's harder now to find clothes to wear than when I was pregnant. Maternity clothes are too big (and I'm sick of them) and I can't fit into my normal clothes yet. An excuse to go shopping, I guess....

I hear it'll get easier. One day at a time, I guess!