![\"sleepy-zoe-with-mommy.JPG\"](\"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/02\/sleepy-zoe-with-mommy.JPG\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 26 has been circled on my calendar for many months. That date marks the official end of my maternity leave;\u00c2\u00a0I am, indeed, starting work this week. (I start on Thursday.) Although I’m working just two days for the next four weeks (before returning to a fuller schedule in late March), I view this as the start of a new chapter for Zoe and me. And over the past few days I’ve given a lot of thought to our time together these past few months.<\/p>\n
The months I spent with Zoe were so much more rewarding – and fun – than I thought they would be. I had, quite honestly, expected the worst about maternity leave. I was afraid I would get no sleep\u00c2\u00a0and have no fun and never have a chance to shower or do anything on my own; I\u00c2\u00a0was afraid\u00c2\u00a0I would have\u00c2\u00a0difficulty soothing a constantly crying baby. The reality was quite different. I didn’t always get a lot of sleep, and Zoe wasn’t always the happiest baby, but we managed to have a good time together.\u00c2\u00a0The two of us\u00c2\u00a0developed a\u00c2\u00a0little routine, and we found ourselves out-and-about (usually walking, running errands or shopping) more frequently than I had anticipated. I had never had such a\u00c2\u00a0reliable companion before, and I quickly grew to love her constant, quiet presence.<\/p>\n
In fact, when I look back upon my leave, I think the companionship is what I’ll remember (and miss) the most. Although I had been concerned (pre-Zoe) that having a baby would be somewhat of a burden, I actually wound up embracing the fact that I always had someone there with me.<\/p>\n
I know it will be hard the first few times I drive to Stanford and see an empty backseat in my rearview mirror. (I have a lump in my throat just thinking about it.) But I also know it will feel good to get back in the swing of things at work, and I\u00c2\u00a0know Zoe and I will spend plenty of time together in coming weeks\/months\/years. The date on the calendar can’t change that…<\/p>\n
-M<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Feb. 26 has been circled on my calendar for many months. That date marks the official end of my maternity leave;\u00c2\u00a0I am, indeed, starting work this week. (I start on Thursday.) Although I’m working just two days for the next four weeks (before returning to a fuller schedule in late March), I view this as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-6-three-to-four-months"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}