I’m happy about having gone back to work. I enjoy my job, I enjoy getting out of the house and doing something other than caring for a baby, I enjoy having adults around me during the day. The days are quite rushed now – I need to leave early in the evening in order to get Ingrid home in time, so she can get her meal and bath before it’s time to go to bed. I also take 2 breaks for breastfeeding during the day. So I try to get to work as early as I can, which means the mornings are hurried as well.

And part-time work suits me very well right now. After getting 3 days of adult company and intellectual stimulation (and 1 day of working from home), I can really enjoy my 3 days with Ingrid. I enjoy my days at home much more than I did before I started working.

Today was my first day working from home and it went about as well as I expected. It was hard to concentrate on work with Ingrid demanding attention. Nevertheless I got just over 4 hours’ worth of work done, most of it while she was napping. This leaves about half a workday that I need to make up for during the weekend.

I think I will have to plan my Fridays very carefully – above all to make sure that I can spend all of her naptime working, so that I don’t need to use that time for eating lunch for example. The next best time for working is after she’s woken and eaten – she’s relatively happy to play on her own for a while. As we get closer to the next nap, she gets more tired and wants more and more attention.