Maternity leave is the movieCastaway. I am Tom Hanks and Cora, my three-week-old, is Wilson.

We are stranded alone on an island (my New York apartment) all day, every day. And, hey, islands are nice! You can hang out on the couch all day watching Netflix!

Yes. I am still watching.

You have little to no human interaction, so you start talking to inanimate objects. For Tom Hanks, it was a volleyball. For me, it is my kid. She has no control of her arms and her smiles are reflexes. They aren’t real. Just as Wilson’s face wasn’t real. But damn, if I haven’t started to tell myself that her smiles are real. I spend all day trying to get a smile reflex pointed in my general direction.