Tales of a Working Mom

I'm not sure what I expected would happen when I had a baby work wise. I suppose for a long time I just assumed I would stay home - because that's just what you do and is the preferred route of a lot of women. But when we decided we wanted to have a baby when Hunter was in school I knew that meant I would continue working - and that's okay! We knew that the timing was right for a baby even if it was going to be extra difficult at this time in our lives.

We weren't sure how everything would work out when we had the baby, but we just knew that it would. If we would do our part, the Lord would fill in the rest. We had to keep that faith or else we would have gone crazy with worry.  The job I got when we moved out was a graveyard position. It wasn't ideal, but it worked. It was a job and the graveyard shift differential is pretty hefty, to be honest. While I kept trying to come up with an excuse for why I couldn't go to graves once I finished my training, everything was smooth sailing in my pregnancy and I just had to do it. It really worked well for those few months I did it, my coworkers were wonderful, and the work itself was interesting.

After baby came, we quickly realized there was NO way I could continue working nights. I was originally only given 6 weeks of leave so that meant figuring things out fast. I started looking for other jobs and applied for a number of different things. I interviewed with a few different places and things looked promising. Once my 6 weeks was up I wasn't ready to go back. Kellan was still too small and I didn't feel nearly established enough to be able to leave my baby for a good chunk of the day - or night as it still was at that point. I went into work with full intentions of quitting. Quite to my surprise, my supervisor countered my concerns of not being ready and not being able to come back on nights by saying "That's fine, take as long as you need and we'll figure something out. I need a tech and you need a job so let's see what we can do." As it turns out, there were a couple opportunities that had popped up in the couple weeks preceding me coming in that could potentially work.

After a few weeks, it ended up that I was offered a day position in Immunology. I had never worked in immunology before but was willing to give it a shot because the timing was infinitely better. Luckily, there was a spot open at the hospital run daycare and we were able to get Kellan in there no problem.

Things just kind of fell into place at that point - further attesting to the fact that this is what I needed to be doing. The job was and still is perfect, really. I am able to time my breaks when I need them and as long as I get my work done, it doesn't really matter when I take them. I am able to visit Kellan during lunchtime every day and feed him. The ladies that take care of him during the day are WONDERFUL. They obviously care so much about him and even miss him when he's gone for a couple days. They do exactly what I say I want done schedule wise and care wise. Honestly, things probably couldn't have gone better with my transition back into work post baby.

We have been so blessed with the way everything has worked out. Kellan's happy, I am happy, Hunter is happy, and we are all able to accomplish the things that we need to in order to have a functional and progressing family.

Will I continue working? Probably for at least a few more years. Definitely full time until Hunter is established in a job as a PA and likely until we have another child. Full time day care just wouldn't be worth it at that point - it's EXPENSIVE, but worth it to know my child is in good hands. Honestly, I'll probably want to stay part time at that point. I enjoy working and I am able to more fully appreciate and love on my baby when I'm with him. Maybe things will change when we actually get to that point, but for now things are working as well as they possibly could.