Monday 2 April 2012

A Day in the life of a Working Mom ... First-Time Mom


I'm a first-time mom struggling to juggle between work and taking care of my newborn baby. 

Learning the ropes of managing time, energy and of course, having enough sleep ... which doesn't come by easy nowadays. 

But I try ... only God knows how hard I try ...

5am: 
Alarm goes off, "Snooze", '5-more-minute-sleep' debate in my head. 


Lil' Rainbow was in and out of sleep the previous night, wanting to feed. 


Solution: breastfeed, Position: Lying down.



5.30am: 
Alarm goes off ... AGAIN! ... 


Wake up and make sure baby is still asleep. 



Hubby's side of the bed is empty as he has gone off to work earlier and arranged his pillows accordingly so that she doesn't roll off the bed ...

Quick dash to the bathroom, pack baby's bag to bring to the nanny and my bag (breastpump essentials). 


Stand for 2 minutes or so in front of the cupboard to pick out my attire (men really have it easy, don't have to think twice on choosing what to wear)



6.15am
Scoop baby off the bed and into the car, drive over to nanny's to drop her off. 


Quick chat with nanny and baby (she always wakes up when she hears the car door open) which often lasts 15 minutes. 



I nervously glance at my watch, conscious of the time ... yes, worrying about the bad KL traffic. 



6.30am: 
Kiss baby goodbye and off to work I go ... drive along MRR2 past the DUKE exit (whichever smart guy invented the DUKE exit converging into MRR2 which always causes bad traffic during rush hour, I have no idea ... but he's definitely not helping ease the congestion in my area at all! ), drive onto AKLEH exit into Jln Tun Razak and drive onto the KL-Putrajaya highway heading to Cyberjaya.


7.30am: 
Arrive safely at the office. 


Open up emails etc (which often is never less than 100 ... do people LOVE sending out emails nowadays, even for one-liners?)



8.00am - late: 
Meetings, discussions, conferences, emails, etc all in a day's work. 


Squeeze 2 breastpump sessions which lasts 10 minutes minimum and a quick lunch.

Heading home ... depends ... if there no more meetings late in the evenings, I'm able to leave the office ... else, I'll be stuck until late at night ... bummer!


The drive home takes another hour or possibly more if I happen to drive during rush hour. 

Once I reach home, I often find hubby sitting in front of his PC and lil' princess crawling on the floor or dancing to "The Wheels on the Bus" or watching a local cartoon series, "Boboi Boy" ...

I spend the rest of the evening on the sofa breastfeeding lil' princess whilst talking to hubby or watching my TV series. 


My sleep at night is often 2 hours max without any disruption until lil' princess wants to feed. 



Most of the time, my sleeping position is either on my left or right side, since I am breastfeeding her. 

Cycle continues, I often wake up the next morning with a sore back ...

Salute to all mothers out there ... 

I know that it draws out a lot of energy from you, particularly if you also have high work demands.


Hang in there, mommies!