Thursday 7 February 2008

Heading towards the weekend...

We are over the hump day and that makes me happy....that means the weekend is not too far away.

The first few days of having Bill in care for the day have been chaotic, tiring and emotionally exhausting.
Dropping him off for his first day, I cried for the whole hour to get to work. I was a mess. He was fine!!
When I picked him up I had to fight hard to get him to come home. Jolly's kids have adopted him and he likes sitting in his chair watching them play ball in the afternoon.

Jolly loves Billy because he is so soft and cuddly and is a very good eater. Jolly believes if the baby eats well then everything else will be fine. I try to remember that in the middle of the night when I am frantically trying to express more milk to feed my endless drinker!

Billy is not suffering at all from being in Day care. Allan and I are finding it tough but we had a good talk last night and decided to wait it out until Easter and then if we need to make some changes we will. Firstly we need to adjust the times Bill is in care because I don't have enough time to get to work and home at the moment and that is one of my major stresses. My job doesn't allow for me to arrive late and leave early so I have not been enjoying it as much as I hoped.

The Milking Factory is the only other thing I stress about. Billy just drinks too much!! He feeds at home 6pm, 7pm and 8pm (all small feeds for about 10min) before going to bed until 4am. Then he feeds at 4am for a big feed and again at 7am just before I drop him off. I have to leave him with 5 bottles of 100ml. Jolly said he is often hungry so 100ml doesn't do him but he still needs to have quantity of x5 to accommodate his sleeping/waking cycle. I am hanging out till Easter (7 weeks) when he will start on some solids and hopefully then the milk requirement will drop off.

I want to breastfeed Billy until he goes to school. Allan just laughs and laughs and reminds me of how I wanted to stop at 3months!!! Seriously though, it is my one connection with him and our own special bonding time so I will be very sad to give it up before he is 1 year old. However I admit that it is very hard work to continue solely breastfeeding whilst I am working 40hrs a week and travelling as well. Not to mention trying to run! It is likely the food and possibly a formula bottle will be introduced once Easter break is over. That may give me some rest so I won't have to be pumping 24/7.

I am starting to feel like it will all work. The explosion of returning to work is starting to settle and I can see the light (aka payday) so I have my fingers and toes crossed that it all works and what we are doing is in the best interests of our little family.

Any tips or comments about working mothers would be most welcome!!!

2 comments:

Gemma said...

Hello Billy,

Grandma Gem loves you too!! You have such beautiful blue eyes like Grandad Bill and your Mum!!
I'll cook tyou roast chicken!!

LOL and See you soon

Grandma Gem

Katie said...

Hey Clairie! I know how exhausted I have been this week bottle feeding and expressing at the same time....I take my hat off to you! Let me say I have just had to put charlie on the bottle and it broke my heart...I loved the closeness. I am glad Billy is doing well with Dolly.