From NC to PA...: Looking back on Maternity Leave...

I was fortunate enough to get nearly six months at home with little Emilia. I enjoyed it immensely! It was quite the crazy six months as about midway a lot of the focus turned to a new job opportunity, interviewing, relocation research, and getting our home ready to sell.

This maternity leave felt very different than my last one with Nolan. In some ways, I appreciated the slow life much more - especially in the beginning. I was perfectly happy staying inside in the cold cold winter with a little baby to snuggle with and not going anywhere. Joe took most of the pick ups/drop offs for the first month or so, so that's exactly what I did all day and it was glorious. I didn't have the crazy emotional crash or disbelief of having my baby already since I was anticipating another early arrival, and was able to get a bit more rest in the hospital and not push myself too hard at home. Days and nights were definitely blended together, but I didn't mind. My world was just to focus on my newborn, and making sure big brother did well in the transition, and I really could just block everything else out. I didn't take many visitors right away this time - the weather actually helped with that with all the snow storms - and I loved the quiet, peaceful feeling of having my baby home watching the snow fall outside.

After the initial month, I started doing the daycare dropoffs/pickups for Nolan with Emmy in tow. This was a big adjustment, and made mornings much more chaotic/stressful. Nolan often was stubborn in wanting to get dressed/out the door, and Emmy was still very needy in wanting to be held constantly, crying when I put her down to attend to Nolan. I'd drive to school with a tantruming toddler and a screaming newborn in tow. Emmy would then fall asleep during the drives to/fro and I'd miss my opportunity to nap. The lack of sleep started to wear me down a bit, and it was frustrating to be at home but never be able to attend to all the things that needed to be done that you are staring at all day while nursing. The time between pick up and drop off would just fly by in the drop of a hat, and I was constantly wondering where the day went.

The Moby Wrap saved me from being trapped on the couch

Baby Sling

In April, I started keeping Nolan home with us on Friday's. I tried to do special things with him during the day like getting ice cream, going to parks, restaurants, and lots of outdoors time. It was definitely hard juggling both kids, but I really cherished these days and memories. We celebrated Nolan's third birthday and Easter. I still wasn't getting much sleep, and voiced some frustration with how hard, yet rewarding this time of life was. I made some new, great local mom friends who were either home on maternity leave or staying at home. It was great to get in some social interaction and chat with other moms with young babies.

Celebrating Nolan's Third Birthday

Easter with the kids

Spending my Friday's with these two <3

Can't get enough of them.

Giving Emmy a hug

Of course you have to wear dress up hats when making muffins with a three year old!

Kiwi Crate activity - making a bug costume (with a new bike helmet!)

Modeling his creation

Baking again! Always wear a helmet to be safe ;)

One of the many trips to the local parks

Sometimes after a long Friday with both kids, your day looks like this.

May was when things changed even more. I decided to apply to the BMS job, and we took our trip to Orlando. My focus shifted towards planning for the future, with Joe and I taking some trips out to the Newtown/Princeton area to scope it out, and preparing for phone/in person interviews. Emmy started becoming more and more of a "real person", being less demanding with being held, and able to interact more with her toys/surroundings. Sleep was still not great, but she was slowly getting less cranky. Joe had "Summer Fridays" at work so he either came home early or worked from home in the morning, which meant we had even more family time together on Friday afternoons.

Mother's Day

Daytime walk with Emmy and Dean

One of the many family walks on Radnor Trail

Radnor Trail

Family Ice Cream stop after a hike

Emmy post-bath

June I received my official job offer from BMS, and we made the tough decision to accept. I also had the tough job of notifying my former group at GSK, and saying goodbye. I committed to getting our home ready to sell, and did a ton of cleaning/organizing/decorating/donating. Emmy really started to turn it around this month with longer sleep at night (she never napped well, and still doesn't even at school!) and just became a much happier baby! The balancing act became wanting to spend time/appreciate being home with her, but also being effective with my time to get everything prepped in the house/paperwork/details with the new job.

Pure Love

Love her happy personality coming out!

Goodbye GSK lunch

In July, we listed our house and started serious home searching both in PA and NJ. We planned a very last minute escape to the Pocono Mountains the first weekend our house was on the market to avoid all the showings, and had a really nice time (post to come!) Now that all the hard work of getting our house on the market was complete, I settled back in to being a hermit as much as possible and just getting in as many baby cuddles as possible before heading in to my first day at BMS on July 27th.

Fourth of July parade

Patriotic Girl

Kiddos in Red, White, and Blue

Cannot get enough of her happy face!

Lots more walks!

Out to lunch. Nolan's choice: Ruby's! Emmy's first time in a high chair!

Hanging out in the Poconos

This is totally not how I thought my maternity leave would go, but isn't how life always works?! There's many things that didn't get done that I hoped would, but so many things that I accomplished that I never expected to happen as well. Overall, I am just so thankful for this period of my life. It was not easy, but it's something that I know I will always cherish having. I don't think I would feel the same way if I didn't know that this time wasn't permanent. I knew it was something to enjoy because it was temporary. It also makes me appreciate the work I do, and the sense of accomplishment I get from working. This very well may be my last maternity leave, and I can walk away from it proud that I really did embrace it, and continued to build a strong bond with my family. On to whatever the future holds!