Nice post! It could have been written by me (my daughter was also born in January 2021 and I also returned to work part-time after 9 months) :)
Had to smile many times while reading your post, as I can definitely relate to many points (e.g. finding it harder to find childcare than a job).
Thanks for sharing! I’d also like to share my experience, which is quite different from yours, just to give a different perspective.
My currently 15-month old daughter neither sleeps through the night, nor does she nap for 3 hours during daytime. We currently have on average 2 nightly wake-ups, which varies a bit every day. Sometimes she falls asleep again quickly, sometimes she keeps us awake for several hours. Typically, she naps for 1.5 hours around lunch time.
I talk to many people with kids of a similar age, and there seems to be a very large range of experiences (from 3-year olds frequently waking up 3-4x at night to newborns sleeping through the night from day 1), so I don’t have the impression that we are strong outliers.
Before I became a parent, I was mentally prepared for a few months of sleep deprivation, but I had no idea that this can go on for years.
Also, I think the daycare situation varies a lot across countries. In Germany (where I live), there are not enough daycare spots for all kids, and I know some parents who had to delay going back to work by several months or even years simply because no daycare spot was available. We were very lucky to find a spot on time, but it’s not something everyone (at least here) can count on.