Maternity Leave, Otherwise Known as ‘Sitting on My Ass’

Maternity Leave, or also Known as "Sitting On My Ass"

[This post is in response to the now-viral text of a lawyer referring to maternity leave as "sitting on your ass," which is obviously BS].

I was lucky to be able to nurse my daughter after she was born, after getting through some initial latching difficulties and crying bouts.

The issue we had was she rejected a bottle.

When I planned to go back to work, when she was 3 months old, she was still screaming bloody murder whenever someone tried to bottle feed her.

We tried it all: me leaving the house, every single type of bottle, nipple, sippy cup - you name it, we bought it.

On top of that, we discovered my milk had "extra lipase," meaning I had to scald all of my stored milk so it tasted normal and not soapy when the daycare gave it to her.

Finally, I was able to drop my daughter off at daycare in two-hour increments, and the daycare got her to accept a bottle by dropping milk into her mouth, drop by drop.

It was such a relief to know she would at least have something while I was at work.

I bought a microwave for my office to scald my stored milk after each pumping session, and would pump in the car on the way to work so I could maximize billable time.

My daughter didn't sleep through the night until about 11 months.

I was pretty much a walking zombie.

Head to my Instagram to see photos of me pumping in the office, the end result, and a happy baby.

I took unpaid leave for my maternity leave, and received short-term disability for 6 weeks.

That was just fine for me.

My firm didn't ever expect me to work on maternity leave.

Neither should anyone else's.