ffs...please sort me out! Silly Q about school run and newborn. Calm me down or slap me, please!

[tigana]

See, it's these daft little things that get me all stressed....

DC2 is due in january. And what crazy thing have i found to get worried about?...oh yessss...

When dc2 arrives...I will still have to take ds to school and collect him (obviously...).
What if dc2 is asleep at school run time, or hungry...or..or..or..or....>

[TheMitfordsMaid]

It will be fine. Babies are adaptable and you will be less precious about naps and feeding with number 2. A sling might make life a bit easier.

[Rosebud05]

You'll do what every other mum at the school gates with newborn does.

Roll up looking totally frazzled but dazed with love, with milk dripping all over the place, a baby in yesterday's babygrow, with lots of people cooing over him/her and thank the lordy your pfb can come home at 3.30 rather than go to after school club.

Enjoy!

[TheRealMBJ]

Not answering from experience, so you may want to ignore me completely

If DC2 wants to sleep,bung in buggy/car-seat/sling - voila
If DC2 wants to feed, a little more tricky, is school run a walk or drive away?

If walking, bung in sling, feed. If driving, feed before or in car after drop of.

[thisisyesterday]

the key is not to think about it. it all seems impossible/scary/too much when you think about it, but when the time comes you will just do it because you have to! without thinkikng about it

if he is asleep at school run time you will just take him with you, if he wakes up tough luck basically. it's hard being a second (or subsequent) baby tbh!
you feed before you leave and then just hope for the best. I've breastfed in the sling on the school run before, but i'm not that good at it so wouldn't recommend it that highly lol (tho it was better than the crying)

[Northernlurker]

dd3 quickly learnt to nap at school run time!

[PirateDinosaur]

It's a subsequent baby and they basically have to lump it and do the school run even if asleep or hungry. This does them no harm in the long run.

Explosive nappies as you walk out of the door can make you a little late though.

[bumpybecky]

big breaths, calm down it'll all be ok :)

feeding - you try and time things so the baby is fed before the school run, even if that means you feed them sooner than they would be otherwise

sleeping - you could try putting the baby to sleep in the pram in the day if you know you've got to go out later and you think (s)he will be asleep

or use a sling, very easy to carry baby about for school run and leaves your hands free to deal with your ds :)

morning school runs, there's no need to get the baby dressed before you go out. I used to give a first feed before the rest of us had breakfast then plonk dd3 into the pram still in her sleepsuit, she'd go back to sleep, everyone else could get ready, we'd go to school and dd3 would be ready for another feed when we got back. With ds (#4) I used a wrap sling and he had to be fed around school runs (3x a day) it worked fine, you just need to make sure you keep looking at your watch :)

[Tamdin]

I have just been through all this. Ds2 was born in January and I couldn't imagine how on earth I was going to do the school run but I promise you it all falls into place. If ds2 was asleep then unfortunately I just had to lift him and put him in his car seat. If he was hungry I have on occasion fed him in the car.
It really wasn't as stressful as I thought... And the upside is all the unpredictability and going with the flow has made ds2 an incredibly 'chilled' baby :)

[tigana]

10-15 minute walk if not late, 3 minute drive if late

with ds he slept when he was tired and fed when he was hungry, no routine as such....which is fine when you have no other routine to fit around

i will def have a sling/wrap thing.

[headfairy]

dd wasn't newborn but 9 months old when ds started pre school, getting our act together to be at the school gates every morning at 9am was a killer, most of the time dd was in her pyjamas and I may (or may not) have had a pyjama like top with my jeans, no make up, filthy hair and ds was dressed in crumpled clothes. But I'm fairly sure no one noticed :o

I did do quite a lot of pre-emptive feeding before school run. Can you walk to the school? Even if it's just one way, afternoon pick up for example? A newborn will obviously sleep lots but as you go on, you could make the afternoon walk to school as dc2's nap time. DD still sleeps in the pushchair for the afternoon pick up and she's 18 months now.

[headfairy]

oops x post.

[tigana]

aaaaahhhh, leting the soothing balm of MN wash over my stresshead!

[superjobeespecs]

mmm-hmm. i had this worry.. i decided that the thought of getting up at 7 am washing dressing and feeding 3 ppl was quite hard work and i didnt like it - therefore - i have told OH that i will get up with DS thru the night on the principle that he takes DD to school :) he's a wee superstar he's good in the mornings when he has to be plus like heck he'd manage to sleep past 8 with DD and i we are blimmin loud throw baby into the mix he's no chance and will be begging to get out!!

[headfairy]

:o tigana
It will be rushed but it will work out ok. Actually I think the earlier weeks are easier, it's harder when they're about 5/6 months old and are hungry hungry hungry but not quite on solids so you can't just shove a biscuit in their mouths. Or that bloody awful period when you've just started weaning and it feels like you're constantly feeding either milk or mush that you can't leave the house for ONE MINUTE!

But I guess by then you'll be in to the summer holidays so no school run :o

[NellyTheElephant]

You will be fine!! I was in school run hell when I had DS (DD1 in reception, DD2 at nursery - different schools, different times!). It soon all fell into place. Sling was invaluable, I usually took the bus or walked as that was WAY easier than hauling the baby in and out of car seat for two separate drop offs / pick ups! Basically by necessity we soon fell into a routine of naps and feeding that worked around the school run schedule, in fact it worked so well that once I got back from the school run in the morning by about 9.30 the baby was exhausted (having been awake since 7am ish) so after a quick feed he would go back to his moses basket and sleep for 1.5 - 2 hrs - absolute heaven, girls at school, baby asleep... bliss, if only I could have worked out that routine when the other two had been small - necessity just makes it all work. He'd wake up at 11.30 ish in time for a quick feed before picking DD2 up from nursery at 12. It will work, you'll see!

[HipHopOpotomus]

I have 10 week old. Been lucky in that DP does 3-4 drop offs. I do the others since baby was 2 weeks and all the pick ups. I just use a sling or buggy. Not had any major disasters yet. Baby is usually sleeping. We go to park after nursery most days. I even have been managing mascara and lippy much to my surprise.

Where I struggle a Little is cooking dinner for DD. Just as well her fav is pasta with olives and she eats raw veggies before main meal. I get it together most days even tonight when I had to feed dd her home made lasagne (previously made and frozen) while bf baby . Dd refused lasagne but eventually happy for me to feed it to her (not her normal behaviour). Very thankful for the one night she has dinner with her friends.

[Thefoxsbrush]

I do the school run everyday with a 2 year old and 6 month old. I was so freaked out and worried about it at first ((I haven't got enough arms to control everyone for a start) but honestly babies are sooooo adaptable. I find if he is hungry he doesn't cry on school run as he's too noisy. If he's asleep in car, I just have to disturb him when I lift him out, he doesn't seem to mind too much. In the early days I would feed him about 20 mins before leaving to make sure he wasn't starving xx

[cory]

This is why first children are so absolutely exhausting- because you have to get everything right. Much easier second time round.

[thenightsky]

DS was 10 days old when DD started her first day at school. Twas fine, despite school being 9 miles from home. DS got cooed over at the gates every day. I do remember breastfeeding him in the drivers seat whilst waiting for DD to come out of school though. Don't recall it being a hassle.

[piprabbit]

The naps and feeding never seemed to cause any problems really...

DS's ability to shit his nappy as we walk out of the door to collect DD from school - well it still takes me by surprise after 3 years. It's why we quite often have to collect by car instead of walking.