Back to work for mommy

I had originally planned to go back to work when Hailey was 3 months old at the end of my maternity leave, but due to a terrible economy the company I worked for did major layoffs and though it wasn't fun to lose my job it did mean I was able to stay home with Hailey until she was 10 months old.

But after spending countless hours looking for a new job and going to many interviews (remember, the economy is terrible right now and tons of people are out of work), I have finally been offered a job and will start in a few days.

I'm full of mixed emotions. I have loved staying at home with Hailey and feel so lucky to have gotten so much time with her. But I also miss using my brain and being creative and being busy. Ideally I would have liked to find a part time job so I could get the best of both worlds, but in order to make decent money I've accepted a full time position. The worst part is that it's a long commute, so it makes me pretty sad that I'll be away from Hailey so much.

The hardest part I think is going from one extreme to the other. I've been with Hailey 24/7 almost her whole life, and now I'll only get to see her a couple hours at most a day during the week. And I'll have to leave so early in the morning that I won't even get to see her before she wakes up, I'm going to miss my sweet little morning Hailey so much.

Well it's probably pretty obvious that I'm not exactly thrilled about going back to work, so I'm trying not to dwell on it too much. It's going to be very hard for me to leave her, but I'm sure it will be a nice change for Hailey to get out of the house more and interact with other babies while being cared for by others.

It's not going to be easy, but I'm going to take it one day at a time and hopefully we get into a schedule that works well for everyone.