Sunday, March 26, 2006 07:00 p.m.

I've been busy these past few weeks, doing my best to adjust to working motherhood. Aside from missing Piper like crazy the whole time I'm at the office, it hasn't been too bad. There's a lot to do at the office and the days pass by pretty quickly. Problem is, so do the evenings... I feel like my time with Piper is too limited.

T's parents were in Albany this past weekend, visiting us from IL. We had some nice meals (brunch this afternoon at The Glen Sanders Mansion was particularly tasty) and spent lots of time just relaxing, talking and playing with the baby. Hopefully, they'll get another chance to fly East soon.

We have mice in our apartment. I'm trying not to freak out too much about it, but it's kind of hard. There's very little we can do other than set a bunch of traps, keep everything as clean as possible, and hope that we don't have to see them very often. Eventually, they will disappear. We live in an old building in the middle of a city and mice are an inevitable fact of life at certain times of year. Still, it's gross and I walk around the apartment on "high alert" most of the time, never quite sure when or where one of our furry visitors is going to show its little face.

Piper starts daycare tomorrow morning. T and I took her to the center for a visit last week... we needed to pick up some paperwork, and we also wanted to meet the staff and see exactly where the baby would be spending the majority of her time. I get a good feeling from Heidi, the woman in charge of the infants. Piper will have her own crib there and I can decorate it however I want to, so I will probably take a trip to either Babies R Us or Target later this week and pick up a few items to help make her little space as comfy as possible. I'm not happy about handing over the reins to someone else, but I feel comfortable with these people and I'm hoping it will get easier for me in time.

I have updated my Flickr page with some new baby photos. Take a look.

|

Saturday, March 11, 2006 10:15 p.m.

I suppose I should consider myself lucky.

I gained 60 pounds while pregnant with Piper, and so far I have lost approximately 40 of them without even trying. I feel silly complaining about having to lose a mere 20 pounds of post-baby weight. So many women have it so much worse.

But after spending several hours in the local mall this afternoon, attempting to find some reasonably-priced, work-appropriate "transition pants," I feel like absolute crap. Twenty pounds seems like one hundred. Shopping for clothes when you're overweight sucks.

"I feel like a wide load," I complained to T upon my return. "You're MY wide load," he replied, and winked at me. Thank God I have such a cool husband. He always manages to cheer me up, at least a little.

The food party is over. I know what I have to do to get this poundage off of me. It just isn't going to be very fun.

|

Friday, March 10, 2006 07:23 p.m.

I gotta say, the ClustrMaps hit counter on this site fascinates me. If it is to be believed, I have gotten at least one hit from somebody in what appears to be the Middle East, and at least one from someone in the vicinity of Greece. Who are these people and how did they come across my site? The possibilities are endless...

Today was my last official day of maternity leave. I resume my nine-to-five lifestyle on Monday morning. I really wish that our situation was different and I could be a stay-at-home-mom for the entirety of Piper's first year. I won't bore you with the details, but suffice it to say our ability to provide her with reliable health care depends upon me returning to work - at least right now. Maybe the story will be different in a few months. I am trying to take the high road and remain positive, but it's so damn hard. I carried this child around inside of me for 9 months and then some and now that she's finally here, I only get to spend 6 short weeks getting to know her. A complete stranger at a daycare center will witness many of her first milestones. I am, quite frankly, devastated at the thought of this... but I know that plenty of other women have had to do the same thing and have gone on to enjoy perfectly healthy relationships with their children. I know it will get easier with time.

|