It is later in the afternoon when some of our relatives show up to visit the baby. I say hi to everyone and my mom and dad both wake up to greet everyone.

The next several days at the hospital are pretty much the same. I spend the days alternating between caring for Addison, my mother, and sitting in the corner chair reading. Three times a day, I manage to drag myself down to the cafeteria to get something to eat. Most people would see this as a reprieve, since either my mother or father promise to care for Addison while I am out of the room, but all I can think about is eating as quickly as possible so that I can get back to her. It is like a physical pain to be away from her for any real amount of time. I know that I will have plenty of time with her, but it is still inexplicably hard to leave her. I spend my nights sleeping in the chair or feeding the baby. She wakes up a lot during the night. To my surprise, I am able to wake up at the first sound she makes. I am normally a heavy sleeper, but not with Addison.

Finally, after three days in the hospital, Addy is ready to go home for the first time. My mother has one more day before they will let her go home. I offered to stay in the hospital with her, but I think she was looking forward to getting me and the baby out of her room and having some time to herself before she was going to have to come back to the house and her life. I already know that I will be doing almost everything over the next several weeks while my mother recovers, but I am okay with that. I can handle it.

During the time while Addy was sleeping, I emailed my the professors of the two community college courses that I am taking starting this semester. This year I am a senior in high school, so I will still be homeschooled. I told them that I have a new baby and that she is too young to leave at a daycare until she is at least six weeks old. I knew that this was going to be a problem, but I have no other options. I cannot leave her with my mother. The whole point of this is that she will not have to take care of the baby at all. I said in my email that I was not sure what my options in this situation were, and if they had any suggestions, I would appreciate it.

I heard back from both of my professors that day. They both had almost the exact same answer. They said:

Congratulations on the new addition! We are used to working with new mom's and here at Bellarke County College, we understand the need for flexibility, especially in the first weeks with a new baby. Here is what we have done in the past and found out that works well for many new moms. You can get one of the students in the class to give you a copy of their notes on the lectures. They will email it to you after every day we meet. I also recommend having someone who will be your backup plan incase your main note-taker is unable to make it to class for some reason. I will personally email you the assignments for the week every Monday morning. Next to each assignment will be a due date. If you are unable to meet the deadline for some reason, please let me know and I will see what I can do. I expect that you will work just as hard as you would without the baby. Regarding your concern about tests, we will only have two tests this semester. If you are back by the date you specified, you will not miss any tests. Please let me know if you will be able to work with this set-up until your baby is old enough to be left at the campus care center.

A/N : Can somebody think of a fake comunity college name that doesn't suck?