The Working Mom by Kay Luna

Where has the time gone? I remember fretting over teaching Babycakes to latch on and breastfeed, and now, she’s trying to wrestle me for the spoon!

She’s getting very good at eating solid foods now. Some might say “too good” — if you saw her chubby little sausage legs, you might agree. haha! I think they’re beautiful little leggies, of course.

Just about every time she takes a bite, she says, “Mmmmmmm.” So cute.

Speaking of sausage legs, I finally went to exercise class last night at the YMCA — for the first time since I had the baby five months ago. It’s time to get moving again. After a while, the excuse, “Well, I just had a baby,” doesn’t ring true anymore.

I left feeling energized (and a little sore)! We’ll see how long it takes me to drop these last 10 pounds.

Babycakes and I have been on a streak of attending in-home kitchen gadget parties. You know the kind — Pampered Chef, Taste of Home, etc.

These parties are fun, and not because I yearn to look at cooking utensils. I really don’t care which apple peeler works better than the other.

For me, they’re all about the girls-only bonding opportunity. They offer a rare chance for women to sit around with other women, talking about family and work and whatever else comes to mind. All the ladies sit around together, eating and talking and laughing and getting to know each other better — and I always come home smiling.

I shared that tradition with my daughter again last night.

It’s just one of so very, very many things I can’t wait to teach her about being a girl.

Ever heard of a company hiring a “director of gender retention and advancement?”

I recently read a story in the Washington Post about this: A company that hired someone specifically to persuade experienced female managers to return to work after maternity leave — “no matter how many years that may take,” the story says.

It’s a trend that’s happening mostly at large companies, where higher-ups are realizing they are losing important workers in their talent pool by not offering flexible arrangements for their return to the job.

For instance, some companies offer women up to five years of leave without pay or benefits, but then pay for training to keep the women up to date in their field. They also invite the women to company events, so they feel clued in to what’s happening at work while they’re gone.

It’s all about flexibility. Working moms want to be able to flex their hours to see their children as much as possible. And when those babies are just born, it’s so much harder to leave them with a babysitter and return to the office.

I am proud to say the Times allowed me to take 12 weeks off mostly paid (I had to take a little bit of vacation time to make up the difference) while I was home with Babycakes, and helped make my transition back to work a very pleasant one.

What experiences did you have returning to work? Know of any Q-C companies that are especially accomodating to working moms (and dads)?

Happy (belated) Mother’s Day to all of the mamas out there — and to those special women who might as well be moms. Hope your loved ones told you how important you are in their lives, because you are!

It was my first Mother’s Day with Babycakes, and the 16th one with my teenager. We had a nice time, visiting my Grandma (she’s 89 years old and still very spry and clever!), my Mom, mother-in-law, sister and other family.

My husband gave me a beautiful silver bookmark with a blue zircon stone (the baby’s birthstone) and a moon and angel on it, which I love. Babycakes gave me a pretty pink frame that says, “Mommy’s Girl.” And my son gave me a card and lots of hugs all day long, which was especially sweet.

The funniest card came from my smart-alec sister. On the front it talks glowingly about what an amazing mother I am, and on the inside it says I should be, since I got a lot of practice bossing her around when we were kids! LOL!

This might be too much info for some of you, but here it is: I’m breastfeeding Babycakes (now four-and-a-half months old).

Hooray for me (and the baby), I say!

I wanted to give up when she was seven weeks old, when I got a very painful infection (I’m wincing just thinking about it) — and many other times in those early weeks, facing many challenges while breastfeeding the baby every 1 1/2 to 2 hours (I was BUSY).

Then, I came back to work in March. That presented a whole new set of challenges, figuring out how to keep up my supply while I’m away from her hours at a time.

But it’s all working out. I spend nearly every lunch hour feeding the baby. She also breastfeeds throughout the night and every morning.

The rest of the day, we supplement with formula in bottles. I’m OK with that.

But I greatly admire lots of just-back-to-work mamas who pump during the day, and then carry home that “liquid gold” to feed their babies while they’re away.

I just finished reading an excellent book called “The Milk Memos,” written by two IBM workers — Cate Colburn-Smith and Andrea Serrette — who “met” by writing notes to each other in the company’s lactation room when they returned to work after maternity leave.

They cheer on each other — and several other moms using the room — in a series of journals they keep about issues that impact most working moms.

They write about struggling to keep up with breastfeeding (even if you hate it), finding the right childcare, getting a decent night’s sleep, negotiating with an employer for flex-time or part-time status, and other topics.

Need a boost of working-mom support? Visit the book’s Web site at www.milkmemos.com.