Here's an unexpected twist on my first day "officially" home with One Philly Son.

Tough love nap.

Only the second time I've done it, but both times involved less than 10 minutes of half hearted crying followed by, you guessed it, a nap.

When I was working from home, naps were different. When i first started I was still nursing and One Philly Son would fall asleep in my arms. Later, if he was fussy, he'd fall asleep in my arms. If I had to get work done, he'd fall asleep in my arms.

Trust me, I'm fully aware that this was not ideal, but it worked.

I needed him to sleep during conference calls, or at least not be crying himself to sleep when the phone rang, etc, etc, etc... Honestly it probably falls under the topic of my last post - knowing what needs to be done, and still not doing it.

Well here we are, I don't need to work, take a call or get back to my laptop. But One Philly Son does need to nap before a family function tonight. And now, the few minutes of crying no longer feels like something I have to prevent, manage or avoid. It is a temporary part of my son learning to get himself to sleep for a nap. Bed time at night has worked for months without holding or rocking. He goes to bed,occassionally fusses, but goes to sleep. Only for nap time on days I worked from home did he fall asleep in my arms. So I know we both can do it...it was just a matter of doing it.

So now that my primary focus is on being Mom, instead of Worker/Mom, I feel like I'm making better choices already, and it's only the first day.