Psyched Out of It. 3-12-12‏

Sleeping #2

Friday I tried to psych myself up. I'm going to have to leave her sooner or later, I figured. When she was about a month old, I left her for about 2 hours while I went to work on a grant, but I left her with Mom and Aunt D. That went fine. On Friday, I left her with my helper. Fortunately, my helper had watched little Boop while I was at home before. We would trade her off while getting stuff done around the house, and so I felt pretty comfortable with her taking over the reigns. Then, after a few hours, Mom would be there to take over. My goal was to be away 4-5 hours, and I picked the day of the poster competition to leave her. I was going to be a judge for the student posters; so I figured that would keep my mind occupied. 

My helper was there early enough that I could finish getting dressed without having to try to hold Boop in one arm while trying to brush my teeth with the other. One of the people coordinating the poster competition was H, who I had just seen at the new moms get together the Friday before. She was very sympathetic to my return to work. Fortunately, the lead judge was on the ball and had our time well scheduled. There wasn't a whole lot of time to think about my little Boop and what might be happening at home.

I was relieved when one of the members of the group suggested a break. I went to make a quick call home. Things were going well enough, but my helper explained, 'She cried when I tried to put her down; so I've just been holding her.' Good. She was in good hands. When I called my mom, she was just about to walk in the door of my house. Okay, so that was good, too. After the break, we finished judging the posters and decided our winners. As we walked downstairs, the lead judge asked if I had any other children. I said that no, Boop is my first. She didn't realize and was a bit surprised that I was able to manage the judging so well. She recounted the first day she left her son for work about 13 years ago. She had to return to work after 4 weeks, but her husband was able to care for her son during the day. That didn't keep her from being completely anxious the whole time she was away, though. I'll be honest, my mind was a bit too muddled to process as much of the posters as I would have liked: both due to Boop and lack of sleep. But it was a good exercise to get me back into the swing of things.