The Big Black Hole of Maternity Leave

As my maternity leave (sadly) comes to a close, I reflect back on my blissfully delusional pregnant days when I actually had the audacity to think that I would get tons of stuff accomplished on my leave.

On my list of things to do were:

• Reorganize the closets
• Frame and hang all of the wedding and baby pictures
• Read multiple books
• Watch the first 2 seasons of Gossip Girl on DVD
• Learn to knit (ha!)
• Clean the house thoroughly twice a week
• Make more freezer meals for when I go back to work
• Send out thank you cards for baby gifts

What actually got accomplished:

• Played with Beetle (Our name for sweet baby Quinn. Don’t ask. Somehow it stuck.)
• Danced around the room with Beetle.
• Sang “Part of Your World” to Beetle more times that I can count.
• Changed multiple “exploders.” (Thank you, Beetle.)
• Pumped and fed Beetle.
• Made silly faces and repeated everything twice (in Mommy voice) to Beetle.
• Washed the poop filled clothes from aforementioned exploder. (Thanks again, Beet!)
• Pumped and fed Beetle some more.
• Listened to more lullaby songs on Pandora then ever thought humanly imaginable.
• Pumped and fed Beetle yet again.
• Cried because it all went by too fast and I literally did nothing

Honestly I don’t know who I thought I was kidding with that to do list. I guess as a first time mom I had no idea how time consuming a baby could be. I thought surely there would be some down time. But alas, I was wrong, as per usual.

I didn’t reorganize the closets or frame and hang the pictures. I didn’t clean the house, watch Gossip Girl, make freezer meals or even send out thank you cards. I barely managed to squeeze in a weekly shower (yes, weekly!) much less teach myself to knit. (That is just so laughable it’s embarrassing.)

But you know what, I wouldn’t do a thing differently. I got to spend the last 12 weeks with my amazing little girl. Watching her grow so quickly right before my eyes. Experiencing the world with her as she discovered it for the first time. And that is more rewarding than any thing on that to do list.

Except maybe a cute knitted baby beanie.

Kidding!! (Kind of.)