What's it really like going back to work..?

[TobySpaniel]

I've been on maternity leave for 10 months now. Have 3 months to go and starting to feel a mix of being excited and just really nervous about going back!
I'm ready, or will be ready by the time I have to go back, to interact with adults again and stretch my brain, but I'm also quite worried because I have quite a bad case of baby brain and am also worried about leaving my baby 9-5 every day!
How did you find going back to work? Would really appreciate some down to earth stories and advice about how to adjust to the new routine.

I feel you, my dd is 10mts and I will be going back to work in Sept. It's my 3rd maternity leave and the feeling is the same, I can't believe I won't be with my baby most of the day, it will take some time to get used to the new schedule. In the mean time I am trying to enjoy the summer and not think about work.

It's fine, better than fine. It's actually really good!

I took the full year plus several months of accrued annual leave and I was dreading going back.

After 3 weeks I felt fantastic - like my life had so much more to it. Loved the adult company, work challenges, hot drinks and my days off with my baby were even more special rather than another day in a long cycle of days off together.

It's actually depressing how quickly you feel like you've never been away. I found that on the first day back I was so sad at being separated from my child. Then when I picked them up from nursery they'd clearly had an amazing time. After that we just slotted into a routine pretty quickly.

The hard bits I found were doing my old job but with less flexibility in terms of going in early or staying late - although as a serial procrastinator this is actually a positive for me in the long run. Also when my kids were one they still weren't sleeping through. I'd spent the whole of mat leave being the person who got up in the night so then had to make expectations clear to dh about sharing the disrupted sleep. Working when you're knackered was fairly hard for me but much harder for dh who wasn't used to it.

The advantages of going back to work were it's nice to have adult conversation and I quite liked having to use my brain again - not that you don't use your brain at home with a baby but it's different at work!

I went back 3 days per week when my boy turned 1. He is now 2.
The first few months were really tough, he didnt settle well at nursery and I often kept him home for his morning nap (they don't do them at his nursery 🙄) then took him in at 10am and I'd never leave him there after 4pm so not much time for work! Luckily during that time the office was still closed because of covid.

Now it's great, my work days are my rest days 🤣 we have a good routine of my husband dropping him off and I'll collect him around 4pm. BUT there is a lot of illness to juggle and I kept him off voluntarily the last 2 heatwave days so that has been incredibly stressful trying to get work done while having him around.
We don't have any family nearby to help in emergencies so I either have to take leave or am now juggling as my leave has almost run out.

I'm due a second baby soon and am wondering how on earth I'm going to cover illness and the various time off nurseries with two of them.

Honestly I'm hating it!i went back last week. My boy goes to nursery two days a week. He's settled fine. But I constantly worry about him. While trying to do my job. I find myself constantly checking my phone incase nursery ha called. Hoping things get better as I need to work🙈

It's a mixed feeling! I really enjoyed a break from being Mum and liked the freedom that being back at work gave me. Having a whole cup of coffee still hot was amazing. But I missed my baby and life was busier.
I felt more myself in going back to work.