Hellobee Boards

Yes and no. I loved bonding with my son and the challenges of motherhood. I didn't like how some of our relatives treated the time like I didn't earn it. They treated it as their playtime and failed to realize that I worked up until I delivered to have all of that time with my son.

@Applesandbananas: that was me, exactly! I enjoyed my mat leave a lot. It definitely made returning to work a lot harder. I also made a lot of good mommy friends, got out of the house almost every day, and had more time to do laundry and cook which was nice. And having LO all day was amazing for me.

She was my buddy and I really liked having her--her naps were so good after I nap trained at three months and she doesn't nap well at daycare, so I have some guilt because I do feel I was better at caring for her and stimulating her than our daycare is. Some days I think I just have a super crappy day care, but all of my friends whose babes are in daycare have similar issues (the constant sickness, the small issues with daycare teachers on a weekly basis, etc.)

I never wanted to be a SAHM before, but now that I've seen how I adapted to it pretty well, I will consider it for a temporary period (1-2 years) after having future LO.

@raintreebee: we' re in the neighborhood, so let me know if you ever want to meet up for a walk/coffee! I remember how tough/isolating those first few months were.

I'm a SAHM, and I actually think maternity leave would be harder than being a SAHM in some ways...as a SAHM, I feel like I tried harder to make friends/get into a groove with stuff to do because I knew that would be my new normal. As a mom going back to work, I imagine that motivation might not be there, which would cause me personally to not try so hard, thus becoming more isolated and bored at home and itching to get back to work a bit.

I feel like I didn't enjoy my maternity leave as much as I could have. The holidays were good, but having family around for a long period of time actually added stress to the early days of motherhood. And I also battled thrush for way too long so I had multiple trips to the doctor for me, for my son, and dealing with the stress of all of that.

Now that I'm back to work - and he's getting to be so much more fun and we're on formula - I wish I could be with him now. And the weather is slowly getting warmer and I'd love to take daily walks with him. Wishing I could be a SAHM is not something I anticipated, but I think it's something you can't really know for sure until you're "in it".

@hilsy85: Ahh, thank you! I just might take you up on that once the weather is nicer (which should be soon)!