maternity leave almost over

[acw]

I am a 26-year-old new mother of a beautiful baby boy. He was born 7-01. I am scheduled to go back to work Sept. 4 on my surgical floor. I am somewhat excited about going back to work, but I am also heartbroken about the idea of leaving my baby with a babysitter. I have a good home child care lined up. I can't stay home with him or switch to part-time work right now. I work 12 hour shifts, but may be able to switch to an 8 hour work schedule. Just wondering if anyone has any advice about going back to work that may make the transition easier.

[Hairstylingnurse]

Hi I wish I had some words of wisdom, but I don't. I have 2 kids, 6yrs. & 9yrs old and when they were both born I went back to work a yr later. I'm going back to work here in the near future, I'm doing the stay at home mom thing right now. I always go back to work and then we get into the awful routine of school and work and to tired to do much together so then I quit for awhile again. But for me I always wanted to spend time with the kids while they still liked me:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: . I know when their teens they will only want me around for food and clean laundry or so I hear. But that being said, I drive an old 1993 honda accord and I clip coupons and try to be thrifty as possible. If you work 12 hr shifts you'll have 4 days off with your little bundle of joy as long as they don't make you work them all 3 in a row. I used to work 12hr shifts and once they put me 4 in a row and I was driving a little over an hour each way and that 4th 12 hr shift was a dangerous one for me and my pts. From then on, I never worked more than 2 in a row.I'm sure you will keep plenty of baby pics in your notebook, and do you have a cell phone????That way you can call a hundred times a day to hear how baby is doing. Best of luck to you aand you may like it alot better than you realize. It's always nice to get back into your routine.:) Let us know how it goes on that first day back.

[kea6783]

Just wanted to say, coming from a care taker, I hope you find a nanny/sitter you're comfortable with and feel you can be very open with.

A few suggestions I would have would be to ALWAYS have a camera (few disposables?) around the house so that you might be able to get some of the "firsts" you'll miss on camera. Also, (and IM sure you know this), if you stay organized, the transition time between the sitter and yourself can go very smoothly and be efficient (wow that sounds a little heartless but I meant well)- do you or the sitter plan on printing out daily forms to note in/out, nap times, and any special notes? It's so much easier to have everything written in front of you at a busy time when you're trying to relay so much information..

I don't know if that helped, it was all I could think of, GOOD LUCK!