A Year of Baby You

The quiet hum of the laptop replaces the gentle rhythm of my newborn's breath.

As maternity leave draws to a close, a powerful wave of reflection washes over me. A year has passed, a year that, in its tender beginning, seemed to defy the very concept of time. Yet, as I prepare to re-enter the professional world, my heart is not heavy with reluctance but brimming with a new, profound outlook, shaped by the most extraordinary year of my life.

The Beautiful Distortion of Time

It's been a whole year of you, my dearest one. I often find myself drifting back to those early, blurry days when time ceased to make sense. It was a period measured not by ticking clocks, but by the urgent, rhythmic spaces between feeds.

Or, conversely, by moments where time would stop completely, suspended in the silent wonder of staring at your perfect, tiny ears! My world shrank to the soft, quick sound of your breathing, holding my own breath just to hear yours, knowing that was all I needed to sustain me at the time.

Those hours were a beautiful blur. Stripping down from milk-drenched tees to soft plump flesh, simply to ensure the mysterious benefits of "skin-to-skin". Never really understanding, just knowing.

Hoping against hope that time would stand still – and that by some miracle, my coffee cup would magically remain full and piping hot all day.

Growth, Love, and a New Perspective

But time, as they all say, didn't stand still. Instead, it flew. It filled itself with a thousand small victories, a symphony of growing and learning, together. That year, spent entirely immersed in your world, became the most fulfilling year yet. A whole year of you, and what incredible growth we've both experienced!

This love has changed everything. It has recalibrated my priorities, deepened my capacity for empathy, and instilled a quiet confidence in my abilities - amidst the chaos of it all. As I step back into the flow of professional life, I carry this transformative experience with me, a testament to resilience and learning.

Honestly, it is so humbling and rewarding to be a complete novice at something again. A something that is really effing hard by the way... and somehow manage to survive and thrive through it all.

I really am making myself proud. (And hopefully one day he'll feel just as proud of me too.)

It's a privilege to return to marketing, not as the person I was before, but as someone enriched, ready to embrace new challenges with a heart made fuller by a year of beautiful love.