Wednesday was the day I have been dreading since the day Giana was born. It was the day I had to go back to work and leave my baby with a stranger for the first time.

Giana? I knew she would be fine. Me? I wasn’t so sure.

How could I leave this face?!

Rafael blocked his calendar so he would have time to console his crazy wife and we loaded up the car and made our trip downtown. I just tried not to think about it too much…and made Rafa be the one to actually hand off our baby. Neither of us had a meltdown.

And I walked out, busying my mind to think about the tasks ahead of me.

It was fun to walk back in to the office. It feels like I was gone for a million years and like I was gone for about five minutes all at the same time. Lots smiles, hugs and compliments for having the cutest baby in the world. It also helped to come back to a great group of people who were so welcoming.

The best surprise at work was a wonderful gift from the love of my life. He gave me a survival kit for my life back at the office. The best parts? 36 anti-depressant packs (Dove dark chocolates), a flower (air freshener), tissues, picture of dog (because he knew I would already have pictures of baby), and a letter that says “Open if Sad.”

After five hours, I had enough and was ready to get back to my little girl. I could hear her crying as I walked down the hall towards her. It was actually perfect, because it meant she stopped as soon as I walked into the room and that made me feel fantastic. Her teacher gave me a good report; we packed up, went home and took a nice long nap together.