Finding normal

Keegan is six weeks old today. He fits right in with our family and somehow it seems like he's always been around. And a good night's sleep seems like something I haven't known in a very long time.

A six-week maternity leave is kind of the norm in America...unpaid, and yes, you can use your sick leave. After that time, the woman is expected to jump right back on her feet as if nothing happened. As if life as you knew it hadn't just been completely turned upside-down. Of course, in other countries, a woman might get 12-16 weeks off...paid! In some areas, the government even assigns a nanny to help for the first several weeks. She cares for the baby and does laundry too!

I've never understood how an American woman can just pick up and head back to work, on the rebound from a life-altering, exhausting, exhilarating six-week "vacation". I certainly couldn't do it. Hence, the disproportionate number of babies being born to teachers (or school psychologist, in my case) during the months of April, May, and June. The philosophy: If you're very fertile (obviously, we are...well, we were...took care of that!), and if you do your math just right (we do), you can time your baby so that you work the majority of the school year and then have the entire summer off to bond together (and recover).

But mentally, my six-weeks are up. Six weeks...42 days...is kind of the magic number in OB/GYN land. You can work out again, have sex again, and...according to America...go back to work again. So, I have to say goodbye to days spent holding the baby on the couch watching Real World marathons (and Denise Richards, and Living Lohan, and My Super Sweet Sixteen...) and hello to diet, exercise, and moving on with life.

Fortunately, Keegan's a great baby. And so, through a week of trial and error, I've realized that if I get up early in the morning with Jay and feed Keegan, he'll go back to sleep for a glorious two hours. If I'm lucky, the boys will sleep for at least one of those hours, allowing me to drink coffee, blog, sort laundry, run the dishwasher, and work out! I have then accomplished a days worth of work all before 7:30am.

Of course, it doesn't always work out that way. This morning, I ran on the treadmill while watching Little Einsteins and taking short breaks to heat up mini-waffles or break up a fight over who had the matchbox car first. But at least we're finding something resembling normal again.