The Last Days of Maternity Leave

The last nine days of my maternity leave, Kyle was in Guatemala on an adult service mission trip with his dad for his parents' church.  Kyle's dad invited him to go a long time ago, and we'd planned for Kyle to go to Guatemala this year even before we knew we were pregnant with Audrey.  When we discovered that we were having a baby, Kyle originally decided not to go.  However, when we looked at her due date and the date of the trip, we discovered that I'd still be on maternity leave, so I encouraged him to go and said that if I needed any help, I'd just call up either his mom, my parents, my sister, or my grandparents.  Because I ended up needing a lot of adult contact just to stay sane, I ended up only spending two complete days in Muncie of the nine he was gone.  I was also trying really hard to focus on getting ready to go back to school the next week, and although it was hard to do without Kyle there, I'm glad he got the opportunity to help build a health clinic in Guatemala. 

These pictures are from one of the times I visited my mom and dad early in the week he was gone.  I drove past work and saw this outside!  Good thing I took a picture, because the next time I came up (only a few days later), it was gone!

Also my mom had a baby blessing dress made for Audrey out of her wedding dress, which she gave to us the week Kyle was gone.  My sister and I each used a lace sleeve from the dress to wrap our own wedding bouquets in, and with the extra material, my mom decided to have baby blessing/baby baptism clothes made.  I have two siblings, and each of us will get a little girl and little boy outfit.

Audrey with the wrapped dress.

Looking a little small in the gown.

The dress is extra-long, like a christening gown, and in the picture it's a little big in the shoulders still.  Kyle and I decided to have Audrey blessed sometime in January, though, so she'll fit right into it then!  

Going back to work was interesting.  It was hard to leave Audrey and I think about her all day long, but in the end, I'm glad (a) that I went back to work when I did instead of waiting longer for SO many reasons, mostly personal, and (b) that I decided to go back to work at all, also for personal reasons.  I sure do miss her throughout the day, and pumping breastmilk at work is so much worse than pumping at home, but it's for the best.  I refuse to bring any work home, so that helps!  We have found a wonderful baby-sitter for Audrey in Portland, and I was nervous that Audrey would cry all day, not take naps, want to be held all the time, etc.  However, Audrey has been nothing but wonderful for our sitter, thankfully!  Every time we go to pick her up, Audrey is either sleeping or smiley!  She loves to watch the other kids run around, and our sitter says watching them must poop her out, because she falls asleep while watching them! 

It stinks that we just can't all hang out all day at home.  But since we can't, we can't ask for a better situation!