This year has been proving to be the year of rough transitions. First, there was our transition from young married couple to first-time parents. And now, for Cindy, the transition from young working professional to “working mom”.

How do other moms do it!?!? We knew this week would be rough, but we didn’t think it would be this rough.

Cindy’s first day back was on Tuesday. Initially, she was hoping to start on a Monday. But we’re happy it worked out this way– that her first day back ended up being a Tuesday. We read somewhere that it’s a good idea to return in the middle of the week, to ease the transition of returning to work and being away from the baby. We think that’s pretty good advice.

Her first day back at work wasn’t so bad! She was pretty excited to be back and see her coworkers again. It felt like a nice break away from Baby R. Her “pumping sessions” were successful. She got to dress up and put on some make-up. And she had a lot to catch up on, so work was a pretty good distraction from any emotions Cindy might have been feeling. It wasn’t until she got home when all the emotions hit. She couldn’t help but think about all the things she didn’t get to do with Baby R. Realizing that her day away was more than a just temporary break, that it would be the new normal, made her even sadder.

By Wednesday evening, she was considering part-time options. No wonder so many new moms join MLMs… you’re just so desperate to find a way to stay home while still bringing in some money. She’s decided to stick it out for the rest of the school year and will reevaluate then. She’s currently the “breadwinner” of the family, so it would be a huge financial hit if she stayed home…at least until Jake finishes his program in a year or two.

This week wasn’t just hard for Cindy, it was pretty taxing on Jake too. At the last minute, our part-time nanny let us know she wouldn’t be able to do two of the three days she had been scheduled for. This meant Jake had to really flex his week. He ended up not getting much done… By Friday, he was really feeling the stress.

We’re hoping we’re just in a transition period and things will settle down soon. Right now, it just feels overwhelming.

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On a lighter note, even though we had a tough work week, we managed to brush it off and enjoy our weekend!

Friday night, Cindy’s parents came over to babysit. We were able to get away, with our married couple friends from our bible study, and enjoy a night at the…Funbox…(a.k.a. the World’s Largest Bounce Park). You read that right…we spent the evening bouncing around a mega bounce house. The ad Cindy got said the park was for all ages…but we found we were the only adults there without children. We didn’t care though, the bounce park was SO MUCH FUN! We felt like kids again, climbing over all of the obstacles and bouncing our way around the jumper. When we got home, we had forgotten why we had been so stressed all week. All the bouncing around released all that built-up tension. Maybe that’s the secret to life, just bounce all the stress and worries away.

On Saturday, we went out to visit Cindy’s best friend and Baby R’s best friend (we’ve mentioned this before but Cindy’s best friend has a baby about a month younger than Baby R). It was nice to catch up and take pictures of our babies in their matching onesies. And on Sunday, we attended a virtual baby shower for one of Jake’s close friends from high school. It’s so exciting that a lot of our friends are having babies! We think it makes the transition to parenthood easier when your social circle is going through the same transition. There’s a mutual air of understanding and support. And, at least in our opinion, it eases the sense of loss of your “old” life.