So for my fabulous 7 weeks of maternity leave with little man, my husband has continued to work from home. Our 2 bedroom home with no office. My being home all day with noise all the time almost made him crazy. I think we were both looking forward to me getting out of the house some as my return to work was approaching. However as that time got closer and closer my husband went from, "you do it I'm working" to "help me figure it out cause I don't know what to do when you're gone." It was nice to know some appreciation that taking care of a baby may not always be easy had developed. As my maternity leave was ticking to an end, my husband became gradually more anxious about the baby. His anxiety went to two extremes. On one end, he worried what he was going to do with the baby for 4-6 hours while I was gone. He began discussing zoo memberships, trips to art museums, and other outings that any 7 week old would clearly enjoy! I tried to assure him that plenty of that time would be spent eating and sleeping and during the other times, entertaining a 7 week old really isn't that difficult. At the other extreme, my dear husband would worry extensively about having no time because what if all the baby does is cry for 4 hours. I worked hard to remind him that our son has never cried for 4 hours straight so he would probably be fine.
All of this lead up, and eventually the day came. Maternity leave was over. Back to work I went. Little man and I had a great morning. He had slept a little less than normal but no big issues. My husband had afternoon errands to run so took baby with him about an hour before I had to leave for work. So in total, I was gone for about 6 hours that first day. Longest stretch away since he was born. Yeah, that was probably a mistake.
When I get home I see that the garage door is open and stroller is gone. That is usually a sign that they are out for a walk somewhere close. I thought, "Hey! Let me call and see where they are so I can join them." So I call my husband, ask where they are, and I am met with the following response: "I've waited patiently all day for you! So you can wait patiently for me!" Yeah add in the very agitated tone and that was a pretty good sign the day hadn't gone well. Upon their return I hear about the horrible feeding, the crying for "hours," how I didn't need to be gone that long, how it was stupid that the client in the middle of my schedule had cancelled and I hadn't been able to move the last client up and get home earlier. Needless to say, baby had broken daddy! Fortunately, feeding baby, calming him down, and getting him to sleep gave my husband time to regain his composure and realize that he may have lost it a little. A few apologies later, we ate dinner and problem solved issues he had from the day. Fortunately, since then things have improved. Still some stress but daddy hasn't cracked any further . . . yet.
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