OBGYN Mom's Day in the Life: First Day Back to Work after Baby #3 VLOG

All right the much-requested back to work video. So I went back to work this week and it was really really great. But I'm still gonna love getting all the snuggles I can with this little guy. Today is my first day back to work. I am mostly very very very excited. Well we've had such a nice time home. Kurt's been off and I've been off and it's really been a wonderful wonderful break of getting to know Hank and our family adjusting. So that's what I'll say. I'm going back very part-time here for the first month. Just a couple hours on Monday, Wednesday, Friday. So I think it's gonna be a very nice transition and ease back into it for everybody. But we will see the winds of the day so far. My scrubs fit mostly and my hair tie, my scrunchie is strong. So it's gonna be a great day. Things I'm super looking forward to. Just being patient. Just seeing everybody at work. I love every day where I work. Things I'm not looking forward to. Hauling all pump stuff and pumping. Things I've learned so far this morning and I need to give myself some more time because I'm now going to be pumping on my way into work. So here we go. I really love my job and I really love my kids and so I would say that I went back earlier with Hank than I did with the other two. I have wonderful partners who took wonderful care of my patients while I was out. But I very much felt ready to be back. This is baby number three. We have wonderful wonderful help and so my practice is also awesome in that my partner said, hey come back kind of when you're ready and on whatever kind of basis you want to in terms of how much. So to start out I'm working part-time doing virtual visits. Very much easing back into it which has been nice I think for everyone. For me, for our nannies, for the kids because they went from having mom and dad home all the time to mom and dad both going back to work and that I think was a big adjustment for the kiddos. There were a lot of emotions this week. Kurt also went to a conference for a couple days so it's just like a lot big change for everybody in the week. I was reminded how much schlepping of stuff you have to do for pumping at work. You know there's a lot of prep the bottles, make sure that there's breast milk for the baby, pack your pump bag, pack your flanges, make sure you have a jar to put the milk in. There's like a big mental load of do I have everything when I walk out the door in the morning. Backpack, pumping bag, breakfast. So it was funny to get back into that routine when it's just been so you know easy, easy mornings with the fam and the toddlers for the last couple weeks. Milk is in the jar, booking light is on, and we are ready. People wonder how do we do this? How do we make this work as a two physician household? Do your kids go to daycare? Do you have nannies? What do you do? So because our schedules are kind of wild in terms of start times, end times, things like that, we have a nanny. We have two nannies. One works for us four days a week and one does that fifth day. And they are just wonderful women who love on our children while we are at work, take them to their different activities, do fun things with them. They're so awesome. That is how we make this work, is we have amazing childcare. So that's how we do it. And we are so, so thankful for them. We've just, we have always done nannies, largely because when we've had our kids, we were like new to a city, didn't have time to like get on a nine month wait list after we had a baby. And so I have been blessed by amazing people who join in our, as part of our team to help us keep our life moving forward. And so I think it's been nice for them too to be like, okay, well, I only have to give Hank one bottle and mom's going to be home by 11 to give him his next bottle or noon to give, so I can boob Hank. So anyway, other things in terms of being back to work, you know, it, it, it really depends on what your job allows, what your finances allow, what makes sense for your family. It's really wonderful special time to be home with your baby as long as you can and as long as you feel that you need, in terms of establishing breastfeeding, if that's something you're doing, in terms of finding new rhythms, bonding with your baby, things like that. But sometimes that, your job doesn't allow that. You, you're the bread-winning spouse who needs to get back to work. And so know that there's no perfect recipe. You have to balance what you, your mama heart needs and what your family needs and what your job allows. And so it's a lot of trial and error. But give yourself lots of grace, lots of run-throughs. You know, we introduced Hank to a bottle early because we knew I would be going back to work. And so week two or three is about when I would start pumping and introducing him to a bottle so that he knew when I had to leave, the nanny or whoever had to give him a bottle would hopefully be successful. And so far, all three days this week, he did great. Kurt tried to give him a bottle the last couple nights. But we'll get there. I love being back. I have quickly remembered how much I don't like pumping. So annoying. But it's the little man. If you are making your way back to the workforce right now, I wish you the best. It is, you know, mom is the most wonderful, important role I will ever have. But I really love being a doctor and taking care of my patients and walking through that journey with them of building their family. So they say you can't, what's the phrase, you can have it all but you can't have it all at once. Something like that or work-life balance or work-life fit or I don't know. It's ever-evolving. Our kids know mom and dad love their work. We talked about how Kurt takes care of sick kids. You know, he'll get called on a weekend about something and dad has to go talk to somebody about how to take care of a sick kid at the hospital. We talk about my patients, you know, who want to be moms and different things. And so we very much do blend some of our work life with some of our home life and balancing that. Like our kids understand that is part of who we are while not having that take away from family time. I feel like, I don't know what Kurt would say, I feel like we're doing an okay, a pretty decent job with that right now. But it's something, you know, that we continue to monitor to make sure because, you know, these kids are our most important work and our favorite. So however your balance feels this week, know that you can adjust it for next week if it isn't right, right. You're one decision away from a totally different situation. So I am thinking about you if you are navigating that journey back if you're not or navigating that journey staying home if you're not going back. I wish you the best. I, you know, have always thought about being a stay-at-home mom. It's very romantic to me. I had a couple more extended maternity leaves with Cease and Bow and realized that probably wasn't for me. And somewhere the balance for me is more, you know, maybe less, more part-time type work where I can still take kids to preschool and or a swim class or something and still be there for my patients. So I hope that you all can find some of those creative solutions too. First day done. And now, back to this little guy. I'm kind of easing back in on a part-time schedule and hopeful that it's going to be really nice for everybody. We're doctors. But not your doctors. Anything we've said in this video is for education or entertainment purposes only. It is not medical advice. Any specific medical questions you have should be directed to your provider.