shahine.com/omar/

Is changing diapers till Feb 27th. As of Tuesday Jan 2nd I'm officially on parental leave at Microsoft for 8 weeks.

My new job also involves trying to keep this sad face to a minimum. I'm two days into this job and man it's hard work. My family left town a few days ago and that was super depressing. My Mom has been staying with us for close to 2 months (since Sarah's birth) and my father for about a week. They have been amazing and have been pretty much done all the cooking, laundry, grocery shopping and helping out with Sarah. They left the day after Lora started work (she is only able to take 6 weeks of maternity leave since she is currently "in training" as a fellow). IMHO that's a crime.

When they all left I had that sinking feeling. You know the one you got when your parents dropped you off at college... panic, fear and loneliness to name a few. I'm sure things will get better as she gets older, but it's eerie quiet around my house. This will also sound weird, but this is also when I feel like my daughter went from being a novelty to having a real impact on my life. You see since 2 weeks after she was born I was going to work every day and things kinda seemed normal for a big part of the day. And when I came home, my house was filled with family etc. Now I'm home all day, which is weird, and have to do pretty much everything... Plus Lora isn't around and she knew how to do everything baby related! I will note that my diaper changing times are improving drastically.

Anyway, my time not paying attention to her is extremely limited. As is my mobility and all sorts of other things. Sleep is kinda broke up to as I'm usually on duty for the 2am or 5am feeding.

Anyway, I've set my OOF message on my work email account to tell people to forget about hearing from me with regards to anything work related for the next 8 weeks. If you want to know what I'm up to, my blog is where I'll be hanging out when Sarah and me aren't sleeping .

BTW - I have a new found respect for mommies.