The Working Mom by Kay Luna

Someone, please tell me, WHY OH WHY don’t retailers make the aisles wide enough to get a stroller through them??!! Even a shopping cart!?!

I was out shopping with the baby Saturday afternoon, and stopped at a major big-box retailer to get some basics. I put the car seat in the regular shopping cart and I’ll be darned if the aisles in many of the departments were way too narrow for the thing to fit through. I kept accidentally ramming into the stupid displays with the cart, startling the baby — At one point, she actually HELD ON to the sides of the carseat, and I didn’t think she was old enough to do that!

Then, we went to the mall, and I encountered the same thing with the stroller. My gosh, don’t they want people to shop??!!! Am I the only mama to encounter this problem??

Last night, I finally got the chance to pop in a new exercise DVD called fit + giggles, created by two San Diego women (and mothers) who feature exercises moms and babies can do together.

You’re supposed to hold your baby (or put her/him in a baby carrier attached to your chest) while stretching your arms, lifting small weights and doing leg squats — all in the comfort and privacy of your home.

So far, it’s great — but any kind of exercise has to be better than what I was doing before, which was none. I’ve been terrible about that since the baby was born in December. I used to work out at the YMCA a lot, and even took a water exercise class for pregnant women (oh boy, were we looking cute! I’ll have to write more about that later …)

Anyway, my teenaged son thought I looked hilarious, swaying around the family room with his baby sister in my arms. So did the baby — until she decided she was hungry (exercise does that to me, too! LOL!) and we had to stop midstream.

Maybe that’s why the DVD is called “fit + giggle!” — It’s supposed to make you laugh.

I hope I get time to finish the DVD this weekend.

My Mom brought over a little gift for the baby last night, and since I’m a business reporter here at the Times, I thought it was especially cute.

It’s a little pink ballcap that says, “CEO: Chief Executive Offspring.” The little shirt that comes with it says, “Result of an incredible merger.”

I was off yesterday, so I took the opportunity to get some things done at home — including taking Babycakes to get her four-month doctor’s checkup and shots.

Four shots.

Ones that make a baby’s eyes well up instantly, the bottom lip quiver and mouth open up and erupt into a wall of sound. Ones that make the Mommy feel very guilty about letting this happen.

But she handled them fine, until last night at about 1 a.m., when she woke up with a fever. I sat up and rocked her and held a wet cloth on her head for a long time.

Nothing like staying awake, completely alert with worry and concern, and then get up to go to work in the morning.

The baby was feeling better by sunrise, so I rushed around to get in the shower and get her cleaned up and ready to go. I finally was minutes from leaving, trying to finish feeding her rice cereal, when she sneezed — THE CEREAL — all over my work clothes.

No, I didn’t change my clothes. No time for that! The mother in me just made me wipe off the worst of it and move on … with crusty stuff on my black shirt. Every time I look down today, I’ll think of the baby … and so will everyone else.

The baby had an eventful Easter holiday weekend — she discovered her feet.

She wasn’t worried about Easter baskets or dying eggs. She just yearns to get ANYTHING she can hold into her mouth, including those delightful little feet that she finally knows she owns.

Babycakes tries her best to sit up all the time, but can’t do it without wobbling and falling over. So, I help prop her up so she can get a better view. That’s how she was able to look down and find her toes.

Now, if only she could get those little “sweet treats” into her mouth!

The baby only woke up once last night. I can deal with once.

For some reason, though, she was awake off and on all night the night before — and so was my teenager. He didn’t feel good, and stumbled into the baby’s room (where I finally had fallen asleep about 4 a.m. in a twin bed we have set up in there) to tell me so.

Last night, we all slept like babies. That makes getting up early and going to work so much better.

I have the best daycare provider ever.

She’s nice AND she’s high-tech.

“Mrs. Stacey,” which is what I call her when talking to the baby, has made going back to work after three months of maternity leave so much easier — thanks to friendship, e-mail and the Internet.

I’m lucky because I’ve known Stacey for years, so I trust her with the baby, which is a HUGE relief right off the bat. And she went the extra mile by taking time out of her busy Mom/daycare schedule — even in the bitter cold winter months — to visit us many times during my leave, just to get to know the baby better (and so we could visit, too, of course!)

She even let me “practice” leaving the baby with her a couple of days before my first day of work, so I wouldn’t have to go cold-turkey on that first agonizingly long day without the baby.

And then, she started e-mailing me periodic updates during the day, letting me know if she took her bottle OK, if she took a nap or pooped (this is important information!). I go over and visit on my lunch hour to breastfeed the baby, but sometimes Stacey will e-mail again in the afternoon, letting me know the baby is still smiling and happy.

She reads the newspaper to the baby when I have stories in, and says the baby gives her a big gummy smile the whole time. Earlier this week, she was just as excited as I was when she heard Mia giggle out loud for the first time.

She notices these sweet little things, and then writes them down for me to read when I get home from work.

Stacey even takes pictures of the baby playing at her house, and posts them for me to see — just so I know in pictures how much fun they’re having together.

So, even though I miss seeing the baby when I’m at work, I feel like I’m there in virtual reality. How cool is that?!

I have a teenager AND an infant — am I crazy or what?

I waited 15 years — yes, 15 YEARS — before having another child. My son was born when I was much younger, and I didn’t feel absolutely ready to have another one until now. I first wanted to finish college, get my career on track and our family settled in.

Plus, I loved spending treasured one-on-one time with him when he was little and still wanted me around. Now, he’s a teenager and less enamored by my “annoying” questions about homework and chores and, well, basically everything else

I still steal moments with him whenever he lets me, while I continue that beautiful getting-to-know-you dance with my new little girl.

Sometimes, when it’s quiet and I’m holding her close, I whisper, “You love me. Someday you’ll think you don’t, but then you’ll get older, and you’ll love me again. And I’ll always love you.”

I’m living through two of the most labor-intensive stages of my children’s lives. And I still can’t believe how lucky I am to have them both.