I had an interesting day today in which my two jobs were starkly juxtaposed beside each other. The day really started last night during which I spent numerous aborted attempts to get JB to sleep without breastfeeding.
This involved trying to trick him into thinking he had had the usual feed by firstly just rocking him back to sleep in bed. Two minutes later and he was awake again. So I picked him up and rocked him while shushing softly. He basically fell asleep in my arms – hooray so I gently deposited him back in bed. I’d just got back into bed myself and bing! the little squeaks of protest started. This charade continued for a while until I gave up (I had forgotten you see that the baby always wins ;-)).
The morning involved a long work call with my erstwhile and potentially future boss. It involved the rapid assimilation of all of the changes that my company’s annual restructure has engendered. After trying to make sense of who still existed in the structure, who had disappeared and who was likely to be subsumed under someone else I then had to make intelligent commentary on how this might impact my business area and what I’d like to do about it. Yes. Somewhat challenging, particularly after being out of the loop for nine months. (Nine months today actually, happy nine month birthday JB).
The interesting and positive thing was how cool it was to have these two jobs existing simultaneously in my head. I get such a buzz out of work, out of engaging my brain and feeling the, admittedly rusty cogs whirling again. It was also brilliant to know that I can still rely on my overtired, usually baby focused brain to think on it’s feet. I have long had the habit (when dealing with topics that I understand well) of winging it and prior to JB’s birth it was not at all uncommon for me to walk into a room full of people and present straight off the bat with the aid of whiteboard diagrams and anecdotes.
I guess I had assumed that maybe that ability came with the territory of fulltime work and the familiarity that it breeds. Happily apparently not, brains that do spend lots of time reading Dr Seuss still have access to words that don’t rhyme and have more than two syllables!
Look at me! Look at me! Look at me NOW!
It is fun to have fun But you have to know how.
I can hold up the cup And the milk and the cake!
I can hold up these books! And the fish on a rake!
I can hold the toy ship And a little toy man!
And look! With my tail I can hold a red fan!
I can fan with the fan As I hop on the ball!
But that is not all. Oh, no. That is not all…”
Jetaboutboy 