Zora’s adventure into Daycare has been a wild one. The baby room was being remodeled from office spaces when I was pregnant and all expected the room to be open by November at the latest – when I was set to return from maternity leave of two months.

I was sad at the idea of going back to work so quickly, after having taken 3 months off with Ember and working from home the 4th month. Zora felt too little to go to daycare at only 2 months old and although I was craving a routine, I was a little sad to go back to work myself so quickly. To our surprise, her room wasn’t ready yet, and she ended up coming to work with me for quite a while – which was a blessing and a curse. I found myself having to actively ignore her to do work and feeling guilty about the time I was taking out of my day to take care of her – as well as the time of my co-workers who enjoyed holding her and feeding her and generally playing with her.

Mid-December, Ember got sick with RSV and Zora and I both headed home with her. After 5 days of a fever, Ember was better but Zora had gotten RSV as well. After 6 days of breathing treatments and now two weeks of trying to keep the girls away from each other (with varying success), it was Christmas! We had fun of course but I was looking forward to going back to work and having Zora start daycare.

January brought more delays and after weeks of finding babysitters with family and trying to work from home or half days, I am excited to say that we are FINALLY expecting to start daycare on Wednesday of this week.

I can’t wait for Zora and Ember and I to pile in the car together every day and go to school and work. I am excited to see Zora throughout the day in her class with the other babies. I can’t wait to have Ember go with me to pick her up each day. I am SO ready to have a “normal” schedule again and be at the office. I am REALLY looking forward to taking the girls to school in the morning and then heading to the gym again a few days a week.

We are so lucky to have such a flexible situation where this has all been possible but I am not great at being flexible or relying on the help of others. It’s been a challenge for sure, but having more time at home with Zora has been awesome. Having time with the girls together on my own day after day (especially when one or both was sick) has been trying. I’m a better mother for having done it all, but I’m ready to go back to what we thought would be normal life a few months ago.

Luckily I’ve got some very sweet babies and that helps.