The day that I was dreading finally came, I had to go back to work.
Came May 2nd, thoughts like ‘How did 3 months fly by like that’ and ‘Will my son remember me after this’ and ‘oh darn I still can’t fit my old pants’ were haunting me constantly. Throughout my maternity leave, people kept asking me when I was going back to work. Every time I answered them it felt like I had all the time in the world. Then BAM, suddenly its time to go back.
Cannot believe I had to say goodbye to this face. Felt so guilty for leaving him behind and my heart felt like it was being stabbed…
…multiple times.
I’m sure all parents feel this way. At the end of the day we have no choice because whatever we earn is for our family anyway.
Another reason why I was nervous about going back to work was because of my breastfeeding routine. I read as much as I could about settling into work after giving birth, but I knew adopting the routine would take a few days. So here’s a list of things that I did and brought to work. I hope this comes in handy for first time moms out there!
- Breast pump: Invest in a good breast pump. I was using a different breast pump before this and even though it worked fine, it took foreverrrrrr to pump both sides. Can’t afford to burn so much time in the office.
- Milk storage bags: and a marker and scissors for labeling.
- Ice pack
- Snacks: packed almonds, lactation cookies and dates. Milk booster snacks and saves me chomping on unhealthy stuff lying around in the office. Check out this brand called Lacto Momma, their cookies are so yummy and healthy (all organic ingredients) and has proven to increase milk production. Yay!
- Breast pads: because duh, just because you can’t feel it, doesn’t mean it’s not there
- Goats milk and honey: to leave in pantry for daily consumption (again to avoid myself from drinking highly caffeinated drink in the office)
- Soap and bottle brush: for cleaning bottles after usage
- Hand lotion: after all the washing and cleaning bottles, your hands are bound to be dry.
It may seem like a lot of work, all of this above, and it is, especially when work starts to kick in, but trust me, at the end of the day when you go back to your little one, it’s so damn worth it.
YANAKAZMAN 