Back to Work

Yesterday I found out that I had won a $25 gift card to Outback from one of the blogs that I stalk (ooops I mean follow on a regular basis). So I am excited maybe Matt and I will go out for a date night?

Now on to the other news in our world, I am officially returning to work part-time. The not so good news is that it starts today instead of May when I first agreed. On Monday morning, my bff called from Lexington Hospital to tell me that I need to first decide how much I was willing to do and then call the department head because she was going to "ask/budget" for more OT hours.

I love being a SAHM, it is what I wanted even before Lily was born. I have been able to completely stay at home for several months at a time when each of the little kids were born. With Lily I was completely at home for 9 months and then worked around Matt and the girls schedule for about 6 months to cover a long maternity level. From that point on I worked one morning a week, Lily had discovered a wonderful mother's morning out at Tumble tots. Sometimes I would work 2 or 3 days but no more. After Kendall, I requested and was promised a 12 week leave with no work. That changed when she was 4 weeks old and the OT that was at the hospital was leaving. I knew that eventually (probably 4 years from then) I wanted to work at least school hours and the hospital is the one of the best places to do so. So we decided in order to keep that as a possibility I would again start part-time (around 10 hours a week). We were lucky enough to find Nana Carol to watch Kendall. She was awesome and I could not have been more loving or taken better care of Kendall as an infant myself. After 6 months almost exactly a year ago , I realized this was not working and with Zach on the way, I just could not handle the stress of running a department. So luckily my bff took the job as the full time OT at Lexington Memorial Hospital. I have continued to do some prn (as needed) work and took an entire 4months off after Zach was born.

Now back to the phone call, so after discussion with Matt and a look at financially what I would have to get to make my part-time return beneficial for us. I decided that I could go back for a minimum of 4 hours per week with a maximum of 15 hours per week. I had said this would start the first of May when Amanda would be able to watch the kids and then the plan this summer is to split things up with Lily and Kendall going to Tumble tots and Haley with Zach and/or Amanda and Haley watching all 3. Next fall, Lily will start preschool 3 days a week and both Zach and Kendall can go to Tumble Tots if needed or stay with Amanda. The department head was very happy with this arrangement so I thought I would wait it out and deal with the change then.
Yesterday, I got two calls one is for a class/workshop on Thursday night that I need to finish my continuing education hours for the year. The second, they NEED me to work today and start helping with in- patients. So after picking up Haley from school this afternoon it is off to work I go!