Hellobee Boards

I didn't go back to full-time, but I went back to grad school 2 1/2 weeks after Lettie was born. I honestly was SO glad to get out of the house at that point and have adult conversation and something to think about other than LO. For me it was a very smooth transition--I definitely really missed her when I was in class, but she did great with the sitter and it was really great for my mental state. I also think it helped that she was a very easy-going baby.

The one thing it DID affect was our breastfeeding relationship. I think if I wouldn't have gone back so fast, maybe I could have gone longer (I was exclusively FFing by 4 months because I didn't respond well to a pump). But I personally like formula feeding so that wasn't a huge downfall for me.

I have a friend who owns her own company and due to a surprise pregnancy coinciding with a huge deadline she had to go back at the 2-3 week mark. It was hard for her but like you she had the utmost trust in the care for her baby and 2 older kids and she leaned heavily on her support system to make sure life ran smoothly.

She made sure they could do take out or have meals brought over for a long time so she could spend all of her free time with the baby and she worked from home whenever possible (sometimes this meant just going in an hour or two later so she could get baby time while doing conference calls etc.) Basically, she took every convenience and bit of wiggle room she could for the first 3 months or so and it helped her to make the transition a bit smoother. They had someone come in to clean and paid a family friend to come in every few days to just spend 2-3 hours doing dishes, sorting the mail, doing some laundry, running errands etc.