Little Jungsters

Throughout high school and college I was a nanny. I took care of other people’s children in their homes. I was a sudo-stay-at-home “mom.”  Often times I would pretend the baby was mine and it was magical, until 5pm. Reality hit like a ton of bricks and I witnessed a baby being reunited with its mother and the beauty that was witnessed is something I only hoped I’d get one day. When we got pregnant I knew that I wanted to spend some time at home before returning to work. I knew first and foremost that I am not cut out to be a full time stay at home mom, but I wanted a piece of the pie. Of course I was so niave when I thought I could leave and return to work on my terms. I was wrong. So wrong. You see, I’d spent the last three years saving my sick days and allowed them to accumulate for this very season. I set up my insurance benefits to include short term disability. I approached my administrator with a verity or strategies to satisfy my needs and wants. I had a long term su...

As we approached our due date comments like, "oh your delivery never goes as planned," were near daily.  I knew this, but in the back of my mind I thought if I just considered worst case scenario, then I would have a blissful delivery.  Ha!  I was so wrong it's almost comical. We kept quiet about our pregnancy until we returned from our {belated} honeymoon to Australia.  While the prospect of spending weeks RV'ing around the outback foreign country already didn't sit well with my parents, the idea of a pregnancy didn't seem like a smart detail to reveal, just yet.  This was relatively easy, to be quite honest.  I never really had the typical pregnancy symptoms beyond the point of disguise.  Of course I was occasionally nauseous, and I turned into a champion sleeper... this wasn't anything that my colleagues or friends were easily able to pick up on.  Thankfully, I was kissed by some pregnancy god in that I didn't experience morning sickness lik...