I am back at work, and paternity leave ended for me. This is a little recap of what was going on and what I found out during my paternity leave.

At the beginning it was fun. Being with the YD and just carry her around in my arms and forget about was work was me connecting with the little one. At least I thought I am connecting with her. As it turned out she wasn’t connecting with me but she just needed to be either changed because of the wet diapers or she needed me to help her with blurps. My wife needed me the most is the most honest way to say why I stayed home for paternity leave. It was second week while I was at home that I noticed how is YD moving her head around like if she was already 2 months old. She managed to hold her head up for 3 seconds which I believe is amazing for a 3 weeks old baby.

First week was also physically hard because of the OD staying at home. Most challenging part for me was to help my wife and to be with the OD so she wouldn’t feel jealous of her younger sister. So I carried the YD only when I needed to. Literally only when I needed to change her diapers or help her with blurrps. My focus was really on OD. Each day we went outside to play in the park or with neighbour kids.

Planning is important before you get a baby. Here are two most important things of our planning with my wife:

  • Storing food in freezer
  • All the maintenance work around the house should already be taken care of

With food covered you have spare time to be either with a children or your spouse. First week we had food from the freezer. From second week onwards I got food from local kindergarten as explained in previous post. House maintenance should really be frozen or done as a play with your older kids since it’s too much time consuming.

All in all I am happy I was home for a month and be with my family helping out. It was fun and hard at the same time and it felt like it was over in a blink of an eye. Luckily I have a job that keeps me occupied and I can express my creativity there too which I believe is good for my happiness. Finding the right ratio between work time and family time is still something I’m figuring out.