Working Mother Morning Dance

Of the crazy things I thought would happen when I became a working mother, a ever growing list, I really did think that things would get easier with time. Chalk up another, "What the heck were you thinking!". Because even though things have changed. They have not gotten easier, in fact in some ways they have gotten even more challenging.

Originally when I started back to work full time Kate was just past her due date, she mostly slept. I was exhausted from getting up constantly. I was stressed because I was not used to being away from her for more than a few hours. I was scrambling to remember all my things I needed to get for pumping. The highlights of this phase was that she could be a swing, or a bouncy chair. I also really mastered multi-tasking with pumping and feeding, and pumping and driving and pumping and getting ready.

Next came my favorite stage, the sitting up but not moving stage. This was great, she was a little more interactive without mobility. In this stage between stressful, frantic pumping and packing up lunches I would get cute little smiles and banging on toys. I could set her up with a small army of toys on the bathroom rug and get ready. She was happy and contained. I was feeling like I was starting to get this working mother gig down.

Several more months and we were starting to crawl a bit. No more contained happiness. But now we are really in the next phase, Kate explores everything. Kate is not walking but she has mastered crawling, and is now working on cruising and climbing. She is faster than you would ever believe. Her eye is always up, on bigger, shinier and more fun things. This week, its the ever dangerous toilet and toilet paper.

Notice, how she has dropped her cell phone in attempts to grab some of that glorious paper.
I was meanwhile trying to tame my crazy hair.

I can sometimes contain her for a few minutes in the pack n' play. In general though I have just mastered the dance between trying to do task, brush my teeth, trying to keep Kate safe, remove the toilet paper from mouth, and enjoy these moments. Its a dance that somedays is a beautiful waltz, where we get ready and are enjoying each other. Other days it is a tango, I am grabbing, Kate is surging forward. You can't tell if we are enjoying each other or somewhat struggling with an edge of tension. Finally there are the mosh pit days, but really those need no explanation and happen rarely.


Easy it is not. A crazy silly dance it is. This goofy face makes it all worth it morning after morning. I just can hardly imagine what will come next, and at least I know that I will need to be on my toes.