Today was an election day in the St. Louis area. It also was a “Super Tuesday” of sorts for Sarah. Well, maybe not so super, actually. Today was Sarah’s first Tuesday at work since February. That’s because she took maternity leave for three months and then was working Monday, Wednesday and Friday on a temporary basis until this week.
Sarah was kicking butt in her part-time role (actually breaking a record for work accomplished in July), but they wanted more out of her. Can’t blame them. I’d like to have her around more, too. As would Oliver, and it makes Sarah sad that she’s only going to see our son for an hour in the morning and two in the evening (he goes to bed around 7:30 p.m.).
Things that make Sarah upset make me upset, but what can we do? We are grateful to her employer for giving her the time to spend with Oliver during his first (nearly) five months. They have been very generous to us and now we start this new chapter together. Probably would be easier to deal with if the boy slept through the night, but I’m tired (a word with a double meaning, hey, what do you know?) of talking about Oliver waking up at least twice EVERY SINGLE NIGHT.
Any advice from new moms who work full time for Sarah as she deals with work-life balance issues? How has working affecting you?
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Blog Full of Letters 
This may not be the reality you’d like to hear, but after you go to work crazy becomes the new norm. You do get into a groove that makes life seem easier, though. You learn to pack the daycare bag the night before and keep your purse ON the table so you don’t have to lean over and pick it up from the ground as you’re leaving and holding a kid, etc. I see Leo for a couple hours in the morning and one in the evening during the week. You just make the most of those times. Be protective of your weekend time together — if you’ve got a day with no real commitments planned, relish it. No sense running yourself ragged during the week AND the weekends.Hang in there!
So this might not be the best choice, but we made it work for child number one. We moved bedtime to 9 p.m. That way I saw my precious little one for more than an hour… and the daycare simply added a longer morning nap to accomodate the later bedtime. I figured that I’d rather have her sleeping with the sitter and awake with mom and dad. A 9 p.m. still gave us a bit of alone time… and we still woke her up at 6ish to bond in the morning. Luckily we had a daycare provider that was willing to work with us on this somewhat wacky schedule.