Anyone going back to work in 12 weeks?

[Mama2Tristan]

I'm on maternity leave now, but will be going back in April. It seems like it's already going by fast. I'd like to try to go part time, but dh says that we can't afford to. It sucks. We are also needing new childcare, and we're not off to a good start. We cancelled going to a woman's house who posted on craig's list who has 3 boys of her own (all 3 and under). We thought it would be too much for her and her boys to have to share with 2 new kids....And then we visited a home daycare today, but I thought the woman was a bit looney going on about making timeouts longer if they cry during them (regardless of their age)..Anyone have any suggestions?

[Wugmama]

Good call not going w/ the t.o. woman!

I'm heading back in 12 weeks. Very lucky though cause only going back 3 days.

Good luck to you!

~Tracy

[LoveMyLil'B]

I'm going back after 12 weeks too. I have a pretty nice situation though. My mom and MIL take turns watching my kiddos. It makes me sad, but there's an end in sight. I'm a teacher, so I only have to get thru 9 weeks before summer break. But by the time August rolls around I'll be a wreck. 180 days seems like forever at that point.

Try asking around to other working mamas in your area and see what they do. Or maybe there's an empty-nester in your area that would love to take care of your baby. I know with women especially (like my mom!), once their children move away, they sometimes feel lost. Watching your new baby might be just what they need.

I do have a suggestion once you do find someone. This will sound totally anal, but I keep a notebook for my mom and MIL. In the front of it has all the emergency numbers and directions for administering infant CPR. Then there is a page that has some negotiable items (like naptimes and mealtimes) and non-negotiable items (like back-to-sleep for babies). Not that they will read thru this everyday, but maybe by talking about it, and seeing it in writing, they will remember it. I also put a list of where everything they might need is located in our house. And the last section in the notebook are a stack of pages, and they fill out one everyday. I got this idea from a daycare. It has a space for them to write when they napped, what they ate, their wet/poopy diapers, and a blank section for them to put any notes. It might sound silly to make them fill that out, but it helps me keep up with how much milk I need to be sure to pump, and clues me in when they haven't pooped for several day, things like that. They didn't mind filling it out, and they would write little notes in it, like "walked to the park" or "collected pinecones", which I thought was really sweet and I could talk to my DS about when I got home.

[day_sleeper]

I will be going back to work too, and it looks like I'll be going with daycare. I haven't found one yet, but I also haven't looked terribly hard since the first 2 visits were so discouraging. Unfortunately, I don't know many people at all, and I'm not sure how to find a nice home daycare situation or a sitter I could trust all day. The one person I would trust to babysit (and who would like to) is my coworker, so that will only work at night.

[Mama2Tristan]

It's nice to see that other mamas have to go back too. I'm hoping to convince dh that we can get by with me going part time..If he would just cut back on his expenses!

[MikahsMomma]

I'm going back after just 10 weeks maternity leave. March 21st is my first day back. 7 more weeks. At least my company has just inacted a VERY pro-breastfeeding stance - even going so far as to offer to pay for half of a Medela pump. So that's taken some of the pressure of returning off. And my Mom will be watching this little guy full time - she's been watching his sister for over a year now. I'm SO glad I've got her!