Did you cry your first day back to work after your maternity leave? In a recent poll conducted by BabyTalk, 82% responded “yes”. I didn’t cry when I had to turn my tiny little bundle of joy over to complete strangers, but I did call every hour of every day for the first week. Then I relaxed.
I didn’t think it would be so hard. Having been home with a baby for three months I thought I would welcome the chance to talk with real live adults. But it was hard. Before I went on leave, I had this plan. I was going to use that time to get more freelance work so that I could quit my job and work from home. At the time I had a regular monthly business column in a local paper and was doing how-to articles for Smart Computing as well as getting a few articles published here and there but not enough work to quit my day job.
But as they say, the best laid plans can wrong. I spent most of my time sleeping when he slept and worrying if I was taking proper care of this little person. I’m not ashamed to say I battled post-partum depression. And because of that and the fact that Tyler was born early, I did not get a chance to spend as much time as I would like to have looking for a daycare. I ended up sending him to one that was closest to my house. Which wasn’t a bad choice. He ended up spending just a few months there because I stopped working when he was just short of his first birthday. If you find yourself faced with the trauma of having to leave your little one at daycare, to ease the pain— plan ahead. Here are some suggestions:
Try to return to work on a Wednesday or Thursday so that both you and your baby will have a short week and you can better adjust. If possible, leave your baby at the center for a few hours for a couple of days before you actually have to return to work.
Visit the center at least a month before the big day, spending time talking with his caregiver and observing what a typical day looks like.
If possible, drop off supplies— diapers, formula, etc. before the first day. I had so much stuff my first day, not to mention having the baby, it was a mess. Luckily, I rode to work in a company-sponsored vanpool and the driver picked me up at home and dropped Tyler off at the daycare so that I would not have to drop him off and then meet the van at the van stop. So I always had help.
If you breastfeed, pump and stock milk in advance. And remember to introduce your baby to the bottle a few weeks before you return to work. Don’t assume they will automatically take a bottle if they have been exclusively breastfed.
For more information on selecting a daycare, be sure to check out these useful related blogs:
Tips Regarding Day Care Providers