Additional Needs

Solving the Back-to-Work Dilemma

Posted by Brittney Baumgartner on 30th April 2015 Additional Needs, Disabilities

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This transition was difficult to say the least.

I did not just get hit with knowing my son would be born with spina bifida, I was put on strict bed rest at 24 weeks in the hospital.

Needless to say, I could not keep a job while being confined to a bed 23 hours a day....

22 if they allowed me a shower.

The first days and week came easy... extremely easy.

I had this menu I could order from up to 4 times a day, a TV right in the room, a bed that had endless possible positions, and nurses who beckoned to my call.

All I had to do was stay in bed, and allow my baby boy to continue developing and gaining that weight (which gave me the excuse, hey the extra weight is him not me, lol).

Things started to get hard and depressing when my menu options were exhausted and the TV channels were all the same.

Aaron, my fiance, as well as my family all had to return to their daily working lives, and leave me at the hospital.

Oliver ended up being delivered at 30 weeks, ending my bed rest at 6 weeks total.

When I was able to bring Oliver home, at what would have been 36 weeks gestational, I was so busy I didn't think twice about wanting to work again.

We had appointments with doctors for his diagnosis, for his newly added diagnosis from being born premature, and therapy appointments.

You'd think being a first time mommy to such a fragile baby was time consuming enough!

Oliver is 1 year, 10 months adjusted now and our appointments have spread out to every 3-6 months, versus every other week.

Everything now is mostly follow ups, and the daily rituals with our new founded friends, the physicians.

Yet here I am, one whole year later and I still do not see employment in my future.

I initially battled the yearning I had to work and make money of my own, but now in this fun stage Oliver has hit where his little personality is sprouting, I battle not being able to ever leave him.

Every mother hits this stage when deciding whether to go back to work or not.

What will I miss while I'm working?

Will I lose that bond with him or her, now that I will be gone and someone will take my place?

Is it worth the money?

Everyone has a different answer to these questions.

I figured part time work would be the path for me, so I could still attend Oliver's therapies and schedule all other appointments in the AM or PM depending on when I worked.

So I applied and had some interviews, in which I was honest with letting them know I would try every effort to schedule around work but occasionally I would need that trip up to Dallas for those all-day appointments.

Well, I never heard back from those jobs or if I did, I was not their primary choice.

I took this as a sign, and as I scrolled through my bad habit I call Facebook, I found a post by Firefly.

They were looking to recruit more parents to blog about their experiences with their children.

I couldn't think of a better sign that I just needed to keep my butt home, enjoy my son and the endless appointments (yea right), and just blog for others about our everyday and not so everyday life.

So here I am, 6 blogs into it, and I absolutely love it!

This also leaves me enough time in my life to horribly fail at all these “crafts” I try tackling.

For those stay at home moms who just aren't bloggers but have found your calling elsewhere, please feel free and share with us!