Monday starts my last semester of law school. I have carefully thought out and planned for this since almost a year ago. I took 17 units last fall so that I would only need to take 10 this semester. Then I scheduled all my classes together so I wouldn't be gone from him for that long. I think it's going to work out great. At least I hope it will.
I have class 10:20-12:30 on Mondays and 8:40-12:30 on Wednesdays and Fridays. With my 25 minute commute each way, I will be gone 8am to 1pm MWF, giving myself a couple hours Monday morning to take care of stuff at school before class starts. Starting February 2nd, we have a babysitter (our friend) who will come to our place and hang out with Timmy. For the first three weeks of school, my mom is going to be here with him. I'm really glad to have my mom for that time because I completely trust her. Timmy will be a little over a month old when our friend starts watching him, which will be a little more comfortable for both of them (and me).
I'm not excited for class, but I am excited to have a little break from being at home with an infant all day. I think it will be a good, long, slow transition to being away full time. (Studying for the bar exam this summer and eventually working next fall). I obviously haven't gone the traditional maternity leave route, but I almost think this will be easier. I can't imagine what an abrupt transition it is to go from being home all day, every day to working all day, every day. A few hours a week seems much better to me, even though I have to start leaving him after only 2.5 weeks.
It will be nice to have to full week days off. I had that once before, but I was taking a full load of classes so I usually ended up doing work on those days. This semester I will be devoting all the time to Timmy, PJO and myself.
2 comments:
I hope it all goes smoothly- there will be some bumps of course, but you can only plan for so much.
I totally agree with the phase-in. My firm actually instituted a maternity phase-in policy where you get your three months paid followed by an optional three months at 50% for a momth, then 60%, and then 70% (all paid at 60%). You don't have to do the phase-in but it's automatically approved should you opt for it. It's made a big difference in retaining women- once someone finally asked women what made them leave it became clear that it wasn't the coming back to work in general, it was being thrown back in at 100% with a 3-month old who still isn't a very good sleeper. I'm looking forward to making use of it in a year or two :)
Oh and Timmy's 2-week pictures are adorable and you look way too good!
Hang in there .. it'll be tough getting back to school. I used to pump in my law school's parking garage every few hours. But it gets easier - hang in there. I think your "less class" strategy is a good one.
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