First Day of School!

Last Thursday proved to be a big milestone for both Ashleigh and me. After twelve glorious weeks together, I returned to work and she started her first day of school (AKA daycare)...and it went much better than I expected! The night before she started school and I went back to work, I packed my lunch, laid out sets of clothes for both of us and had all of my work items gathered together. The morning started off very smooth and we were making excellent time! At about 7:20AM, I loaded her into the car and off we went! I was about 7 minutes from the house when I realized I forgot two pieces to my breast pump....(minor set back), I did a U turn and back we went. Despite turning around, I was still in good spirits and felt great (this won't be as bad as I thought)! I was listening to the music, talking to her about how much fun she would have and what we would do to celebrate that night. As soon as I pulled up to day care and opened the car door, I lost it! I was hysterically crying as I brought her up to the house, to the point I couldn't even have a conversation with her teacher. I cried and cried in her driveway and all the way to my office (thank god I was smart enough not to have worn make up that morning and instead put it on in the bathroom at work). After taking a few minutes in the car to calm down, I walked into my office and was greeted by flowers from Auntie Kim who works close by, cards, funny signs/messages from all of my co-workers and lots of texts/emails/FB messages wishing me a happy first day back to work! Overall, the first day was great and I am so blessed to have the best friends and co workers ever!!!

Second Day
Well, second day was much easier emotionally and having a 1/2 day of work surely helped as well! There was only one minor "issue" with day number 2.... (a few parts may be TMI). Due to the fact that I'm still nursing, I have to bring my breast pump to work and pump every 3 hours in my office. On my second day, I had a meeting scheduled for 10AM, so I knew I should probably pump prior. At 9:30AM, I shut my door, plugged in my pump, got the bottles/accessories prepared and turned the switch on. After a few minutes, I realize that my milk was not filling the bottles. That's funny I thought- I have everything hooked up right and it's making noise, I wonder what the problem could be?!? After a quick investigation of my bottles/accessiories, I suddenly had a sick feeling in my stomach. I had forgotten two parts to my pump that are absolutely crucial for the pump to work (they were lying on the counter from being washed earlier that morning). OH NO! What's a girl to do! I had a meeting at 10AM, there was no way I could run back home or to Babies R Us to pick up the parts and there was NO way I could wait until Noon when I would be back home.... I took a minute and did something I had no other choice to do... I "manually" pumped myself. Yep, there I sat squeezing my boobs (one at a a time) into the bottles- switching back and forth every other minute that passed by. It took me a full 1/2 hour to finally feel some comfort and when it was all said and done, I had dripped alllll over myself and made quite the mess! Looking back, you do what you have to do to get by and produce meals for your child :-) Made for quite the fun story with my co-workers!

First Day of School Tradition
Back in the day, my Mom had a yearly tradition for Kelly and I. The same outfit we wore for the first day of school, we also had to wear on the last day to show how much we have grown throughout the year. Since this would not be possible for little Ash, I started a new tradition... having her sit/stand in front of the tree in our yard (real original I know). However, it will be fun to see what she will look like this time next year and to see how much she has grown :-)