Working Full Time With A Baby From Home
Working full time with a baby from home is HARD! I have had a lot of questions about how I am working full time again after having Jackie. For the past 5 years, I have been working for my parents, in their home. Every day is very different. But after having Jackie, we decided the best thing to do was to bring her with me to work. Since I have lived in my parents house and we have a similar set up to what I would have at home, I wanted to share how we make things work. Jackie is so young still, so we are working on how to make everything work. I think we have a pretty good system right now.
Jackie is an excellent sleeper. She goes to be every night between 8:30 and 9 pm and stays asleep until I wake her up at 6:30 am so we can leave the house by 7. (note: when I don't wake her up on the weekends she sleeps until about 8 am). I feed her and get her ready for the day. Jackie and I get to the house around 7:30 am every morning after we drop The Husband off at the bus stop. By now she is getting hungry again, so she gets a second bottle and we play for a few minutes. Around 8, she gets tired and is ready for a nap.
While she is great at sleeping at night, she isn't the best when it comes to taking naps. So we have had to improvise so she could get some napping in. My parents to have a crib at their house but no matter how many times I try to put her down in it, she won't stay asleep, even in a Woombie. So instead, I hold her and rock to sleep. Then I put her in the Fisher-Price Rock & Play sleeper. She will nap in there for about 3 hours. This little bed is amazing and I love that is rocks on it's own. I keep it close to my desk so I can keep an eye on her while I get my work done. It is amazing how much I can get done in 3 hours!
Lunch time can be a little tricky. Depending on when Jackie went down for her nap,she can be wide awake and hungry or she can still be asleep. If she is awake, I feed her and then put her in her high chair. She is still a little small for it but we tilt it back and she loves hanging out with everyone and chatting. She is a very social baby!
After lunch is probably the hardest part of the day. Jackie wants to nap but also wants to be around everyone else. If she hasn't been awake very long, I let her play on her play mat. She loves looking at herself and there are usually a few people that want to hang out and play with her. She will take another nap around 2 pm for about 2 hours. By the time she wakes up, things are winding down and she gets a lot of attention.
We don't have a changing table at my parent's house, so we keep a blanket on the floor with a puppy pee pad on top of it.I keep diapers, wipes, blankets, clothes, spit up rags, pacifiers, you name it, at the house. We don't ever have an issue when it comes to supplies. I even bought a second bath support to keep at the house in case she needs a bath, which has happened!
Whenever Jackie is awake, she is getting TONS of attention. There are always at least 3 adults in the house at all times so if something happens and I need to be working on something, she is not left alone. There have been a few times where I have had to rely on friends or family to help out with her because I needed to be without distraction. I have been watching my cousin (who is 4) since she was 3 months old, twice a week. Her mom loves to help out with Jackie so sometimes she will take her in the mornings so I can get things done.
By the time we pick The Husband up from the bus and get home, everyone is exhausted!But for now, this works for us. Jackie gets to spend lots of time with her grandparents and I can get my work done!
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