Working From Home: No Real Maternity Leave

This post was sponsored by Comfortiva. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

You guys, look... I am dressed! No plans to really go anywhere but when I got these Chelsea boots in the mail from Comfortiva (my favorite shoe brand), I had to try them on. I have featured a few of their styles this fall and winter, and what I love about them is not only that they are adorable but they have this pillowtop technology that makes them seem like you are walking on a cloud...so dang comfortable!!

Keep reading to see my review of them as well as what it’s like for me to work from home and how I am managing it all :)

I read somewhere that when babies are born they have no idea that they are actually separate entities from you. They literally think that they are you...that your hands are their hands, that your heartbeat beats for them.

When I decided to take a year off from school psychology I knew that it meant that I would have to work from home starting very early on after Lennon was born. It’s been four weeks since he has made his arrival and the deadlines continue to stack up. I am actually typing this post with him in the carrier, standing up with my computer on top of the kitchen counter with a shirt full of breast milk and five day old unwashed hair. It’s the only way I can seem to get anything done these days.

When I look at my to-do list to the right of me I have two options: 1). Become very overwhelmed or 2). Thank the lucky stars that even though I am working, I am home. I vividly remember the days at work when I would be in the depths of a crisis thinking “I wish I were home.” I constantly lock into the fact that I am extremely lucky that the years of blogging has paid off and I can work from home. I realize that this is many people's dream and I am so, so thankful.

When I was home with Winter on maternity leave I remember subconsciously counting down the days until I had to return to work and quite frankly, dreading it. I cried for weeks in the car when I had to commute to work and leave her at a mere twelve weeks of age. I think it’s absolutely ludicrous to expect a new mother to go 10+ hours away from her baby and if she is still breastfeeding, expect that mother to continue to produce food for that child even though she is miles away from him or her. I could go on and on about this but I’ll just simply say that I think our maternity and paternity laws are not progressive enough in the United States. I wholeheartedly believe that a main reason why I got hit so hard with postpartum depression and OCD was because I was so sleep deprived, working full time and dealing with really serious issues like suicide assessments, child abuse and neglect, extreme behaviors and more.

So yes...I am working. And working hard. What this means is that I am not napping as much as I should or resting as often as I could BUT, what it also means is that I get to be home indefinitely. There is no twelve week timeline counting down and for that my friends, I am forever grateful.

I think back to the major identity shift I had went through with Winter and becoming a new mother. I can clearly remember being at a store five days postpartum and crying my eyes out because I felt guilty leaving her at home to get a nursing bra. I didn’t want to leave the house for weeks after she was born. I think that’s common with your first child. But this time around, I am noticing that I don’t crave time away from Lennon nor do I want to leave him per say but I am much more open to having “me” time and making sure I carve out some of the week to tune into myself. Even if it’s ten or fifteen minutes… every second counts. I take baths, I go to get myself a special coffee drink, I practice my mindfulness, I definitely try to drop the Mom guilt and once a week, I get myself dressed up.

The other day, I began putting away some maternity clothes and came across these really fun velvet pants. There is a lot of clothing that I don’t fit into right now and that is perfectly okay, but these pants stretch so I was able to get them on comfortably. I then proceeded to finish the outfit pairing it with these adorable Chelsea boots from my favorite shoe brand Comfortiva. They are not only super comfortable but they also feature a buckled strap that gives them this chic, cinched silhouette. Let’s just say when I am ready to venture out sans kids, this is what I will wear. And when I looked in the mirror, I noticed something...I am so whole this time around. Sure, I have really hard moments and I am so stinking tired but I don’t fear nor dread it...I am in the fourth trimester and am taking it moment by moment.