Back to the Grind

Well this week brought my return to work, much to the relief of my coworkers. I was warmly welcomed back after my 8 week maternity leave. That also meant that it was time for Kiernan to begin attending daycare during the day.

I had previously discussed coming over to the daycare at lunch each day as it is right across the street from my work. I would use the time to check in on Kiernan and breastfeed him if he so desired. It would be one less time I would have to pump to express milk each day that way. My work is supportive of this idea as family is very important to them as well, plus it gives me a good excuse to take a break from the grind for a few minutes each day as I am notorious for working through lunch and eating at my desk.

Kiernan seemed to be adapting fairly well to the daycare scene, but was having a bit of trouble sleeping there for naps etc. He seemed to only average about 20 minutes of sleep each time. However he does seem to be doing well with the bottle feedings during the time I am not there to feed him. His teacher said it generally takes about 3 weeks for babies to adapt & be able to sleep well at daycare.

The thing with breastfeeding is there is no real accurate method to determine just how many ounces of milk Kiernan consumes during a feeding, so that makes bottles a challenge. It is more or less of a guessing game to figure out how many ounces to put in a bottle for him. I started low and am gradually increasing it as the daycare is required to discard any left over after one hour. Milk is just too hard to work for to see it discarded, so I would rather err on the cautious side. I made a habit of providing an extra bottle for the daycare each day just in case Kiernan got particularly hungry.

Tuesday I took Kiernan to the doctor for his 2 month checkup and first vaccines. Technically he wasn't 2 months old until today, but I did not want to delay since germs spread like wildfire in the daycare and he had not yet has his rotateq vaccine (a variety of infant flu). It was hard to watch him get poked with three needles (two in the left leg, one in the right) but he only hollered for a couple of minutes before calming right down. He crashed and slept the rest of the day essentially. That morning before heading to the doctor's office I got the picture you see next to this post - it makes me giggle and smile everytime I look at it. I set the photo to my desktop at work. Stats from this doctor's visit are below:

Height: 24.25" (95th percentile)
Weight: 12 lbs 10 ozs (75th percentile)
Head circumference: 15.75" (50th percentile)

Last night I joined some friends for dinner and took Kiernan with me. It was good to get out. One of the ladies asked me how I felt about putting Kiernan in daycare. I don't recall my response really, but honestly I can't say I like the idea - however necessary it may be. Someone else is raising my kid during the day. I miss spending the day with him and it makes for short nights in which to prepare things for daycare the next day, care of the animals and fix and eat dinner. It leaves very little time to reconnect with Kiernan or to deal with other things that may come up before it's time to go to bed. Don't get me wrong though, the daycare does a fine job from what I can tell and from the feedback from other parents.