The calm before the storm. The flurry of deadlines are now starting to ease up as task by task gets completed. I won't be able to finish everything, but it's all in capable hands. I'm making the switch from leader to help mode. Nearly everyone in the shop is at capacity or above and things are humming along. Over the next couple of months, we will have a few projects launching that are more in the realm of what our company is becoming. The next evolution of our business is on the horizon.
I feel pretty good. I may be due in 2 days, but I'm still working 9-6 with a couple of extra-long breaks. That's pretty good. I wouldn't want anyone else to have to do it, but I'd be too bored otherwise.
I'm working from home which provides me some extra time with my son when I can swing it. I can nap for a bit if I need to, eat when I need to and drill through work when it's quiet. Sometimes I eat lunch with him and sometimes not. I have him in a couple classes the next few months, so I can sleep for a couple hours (hopefully) if I need to in the mornings after his sister is born. Dexter stays out of the office except to say goodbye/hello. He even tells me to have a good day at work when I close the door to start my day. This is as close to a vacation as I'm going to get.
I find it odd that some have called maternity leave a "vacation". It isn't called vacation for a reason. First, a woman gets so big it's hard to move, breathe or eat let alone enduring the pain of walking around while her hip bones are spreading apart. Then, childbirth… that isn't fun. Recovery from the birth takes a few weeks. I was walking around okay within days, but that didn't mean I was ready to go for a hike. I never had the guts to look at what it did "down there" either. I felt it and that was enough. If breastfeeding, then life is on 2-3 hours cycles. This includes sleeping. Not getting more than 2 or 3 hours of sleep at a time eventually wears a mother out. It takes a while, but the exhaustion eventually sets in. Top that off with no longer being able to sleep in the same bed, or even the same room with your husband, so he can go to work the next day without being a zombie. That sounds like a vacation… in Hades.
That will be my life soon, but I have help and support this time that I didn't last time. Maybe this baby won't spit up, maybe she will sleep better, maybe she won't be colicky, and maybe she will be worse than her brother at all of the above. I hope not, but this pregnancy has been easier. I remember not at all wanting another child after Dexter was born because it was seemed to have siphoned all the vitality out of me. Now, I feel relaxed and confident. I'm not as over-eager to meet her as I was Dexter. I'm not even considering an induction if the due date slips past. She will come when she's ready. I didn't even let the midwife check to see if I was progressing because it doesn't matter. She will be here soon enough, and I'm enjoying the quiet stillness before the chaos ensues.
