Prepping the Home Office

I’ve restarted the work of preparing my home office area in the basement. I had started the mental prep work before Jesse arrived and got waylaid in the implementation with the bed rest and subsequent birth, but with my return to work start date looming (next Wednesday), I need to get it ready. Fortunately, Mom and I spent an afternoon hucking out and sorting through some of the boxes of stuff that were cluttering up the room several weeks ago. That clutter is reduced, but there are still a few boxes that Beau and I need to sort through and clear out of the way - that’s my project for tomorrow.

We also need to go ahead and move the Pack-n-Play down here. This means that Jesse’s naps will begin to take place in the basement while I’m working or in his crib if we’re upstairs. It’s time to get him acclimated to the crib as well so that we can move him out of the bassinet in the next few weeks now that he’s sleeping pretty much through the night. We’re going to keep him in the bassinet until he’s consistently slept the 5-7 hours he’s now sleeping without crying somewhere in the middle of that block. We do know that he’ll still do that on occasion, but we’re tired and lazy enough to want to be able to sleep that chunk of time without having to go to the nursery to tend to him every night.

In any case, the work desk is taking shape, with a small shelving unit and organizer to sort papers and small equipment (like my old school adding machine, which I do use daily), printer, keyboard, etc. I’m looking forward to getting my laptop back, in working order, and starting to establish a work routine here at home. I’m still nervous about the time management thing, but a friend from our small group encouraged me to take it slow and that it will work - he has a woman who works for him who works 4 out of 5 days at home so that she can be with her 2 they. He said she stresses about it much more than he does. She gets her work done; he doesn’t care how she does it, just that she does.

It’s hard to believe that my maternity leave is pretty much over. It’s also hard to believe that I’ve been away from work for over three months. It’s crazy how time flies.