Working Motherhood

I'm not sure on the exact date, but I real date of my 1st year of a working mom has recently passed. It has been almost the same as looking back on Jack's 1st year with us... bittersweet.

On one hand, I'm proud that I continue to kind of make it work (I have to, right?) and how amazing my family has been supporting me through working-motherhood. We pay our bills, get family time in as much as possible, and attempt to be successful by being dedicated to our jobs. I am amazed at the length of time that I continued to breastfeed my son while working, I was discouraged when I made the decision to stop but I have to try and be proud of myself for making it to 8 months (6 of those working). The shear act of childbirth and recovery is an amazing feet for all women... all mother's should be proud of the ability we have as women to bring life into this world.

On the other hand, it is a continuous struggle to be away from my child through most of his waking hours during such an amazing time in his life (no time in his life will be any less amazing). I have my moments where I'm insanely jealous of the amount of time my husband gets to spend with Jack, but I have to remember what a beautiful father-son relationship they have. Matt gets to snuggle every morning and give him his breakfast... I guess, I miss my snuggly baby who is not so snuggly in the afternoons when I get one-on-one time. Coupled with the pressure of trying to keep up managing a household; with which my husband is amazing at helping with, but with both of us working its an exhausting effort for both of us. My favorite times are long weekends when I feel like I can actually get caught up on stuff around the house while Jack was napping. I don't know how 1 extra weekend day really adds that much time, but I guess I'm not as focused on recouping from the long work week because I have additional time to unwind.

All in all, I will call it a successful year as a working mom... I can not think of it as anything but successful. I must work to help support our family and I must be the best mom that I can be, part of that is helping to support our family. I am working everyday to accept the fact that I must work outside of our home, as hard as it is emotionally. Also, I know that if I were to ever get to be a stay-at-home mom, that too will be incredibly tough so I do not want to downplay any moms who work very hard at home taking care of their children.

Here is my reason for waking up and going to work every day:

This is a picture of Jack and I walking to read a bedtime story one night... enjoying beautiful moments like this are important to getting through the difficulty of being away so much.