Being a wife, mom, and OT: Preparing to be a Mom Again

This past week I worked while many of my teammates had a break from work. It was awesome to have a relatively quiet office to work in and get lots of paperwork done. Unfortunately, there is a whole lot left undone. I will probably end up spending some of Nathaniel's nap time on Monday and Tuesday working on a bit of work to prepare for the crazy week back after Thanksgiving break. I can't believe we are getting this close to the end, but after some long days of sitting at my desk and lots of driving in my car, my body is starting to tell me lots of messages. The first message I hear is "you didn't strengthen those muscles enough between pregnancies ... we aren't strong enough to do what you want us to do". The second one I hear is "this baby is head down and practicing pushing his/her way out". The third one is "get to a restroom ASAP ... again those muscles we were telling you about". And the last one I get on and off "let's practice this whole contractions and downward movement thing". My poor husband has been under a lot of stress preparing for an arbitration and I have been awake on and off and having a hard time being comfortable at night. I am sure I am no help to his sleeplessness.

As I have been working non-stop to get evaluations and other due process done prior to my maternity leave I am noticing more and more how many philosophical differences are in play in our early childhood program. It is too much for my brain to try and sort out at the moment. I'm hoping that when I return from maternity leave a lot of the headache will have been sorted out in my absence. Is is sad that I am really looking forward to maternity leave? This is only partially related to having a baby and all of that excitement. It is also partially related to wanting and needing a break from work drama. I am sure once baby is here it will drastically change and I will just be focused on baby and family, but right now I'm looking forward to the break from work. The sad thing is that many co-workers have noticed the increased stress around my new role at work and have commented that "you must be looking forward to maternity leave". Once the comments continued to roll in I was thinking about it more and more. The nice thing about heading into maternity leave is my sub. I took her position when she retired and we had a few months to work together as mentor/mentee. She filled in for my last maternity leave and I had nothing to worry or think about as I knew everything would be taken care of while I was out. I know this time will be no different and it is so nice to have that sense of ease when moving out of work and leaving a lot of stuff to do.

So where are we? My body is getting ready to have this baby. My brain is working on organizing work life to have everything in place for my substitute and my leave of absence. Our house is basically ready. We have the carseat in the car. We have the bags packed. We know where to go. Anthony's big case is over, minus the post hearing brief. I guess the baby can really come whenever he/she is ready. I, however, know how important every day closer to 40 weeks is for the baby's development. I also would love to be able to work for a couple more weeks so that everything is really wrapped up and ready to go. I am going to do my best to enjoy this week off and not do much work. I spent the weekend getting my application finished and submitted for my OTD program. (Yikes!) I will probably write a couple of assessments or at least parts of assessments and will for sure spend a little time writing coverage notes for some of my students and I'm sure I will be doing quite a bit of email. But that will be done while Nathaniel naps so that he and I can spend what will probably be our last chance for a while to have "mommy and Nathaniel" time. He had some fun outside with daddy in the snow this morning and all of it is supposed to melt this week, so I think we'll have some fun running errands and having lots of playtime in our inside playground. (His slide is back in the basement and we have lots of fun with balls and time on the slide).

So while my body and mind are preparing for childbirth and having 2 children, I am going to do my best to enjoy the little man that I have. He gives Anthony and I lots to smile and laugh about on a daily basis. Below are some pictures from his adventure in the first snow of the season as well as his pre-bedtime call to his Auntie Erin.