Evening course and newborn... How much of a disaster will this be?

[nomorespaghetti]

DC2 is due in 5 weeks, and I'm currently 6 weeks into a 36 week BSL level 2 evening class. It's 2 hours one evening a week (3 hours out of the house including travelling time). It's not for work or anything, DD1 is deaf so learning for her.

How impossible is this going to be? I know a lot depends on the baby. I plan to ebf, and the plan is to pump so dh can look after the baby while I'm out. Toddler DD goes to bed about 30 min after i leave, so hopefully she won't be a problem. When she was a baby she was a bottle-refusing, cluster-feeding screamer! So my expectations of having an easy baby i can leave are relatively low!

I will take a few weeks off post birth, maybe miss 3 classes, and DD is at nursery the morning of the class, so hopefully i can pump then. If i can't manage to pump it'll have to be formula.

Go on then... How deluded am i being?! Any tips?

I did an OU degree. One year started when I was 34 weeks, so I got myself ahead before my due date.
I then had a section, and a couple of weeks to organise myself.
My baby slept from 10pm to 4am, pretty consistently (lucky), so I BF at 10, got my head down and studied until 4am BF.
Thankfully my DM came round at 8.30 to dress older DC for School and drop off.
Smallest would then go through to 10am-ish, at which point we'd get up and begin the day.
I had help, but had I not had an older DC it would have been fine.
If you are determined to do it, you will!

Can you pop baby in a sling and take them with you?

Or take someone with you to hold baby in another room and bring to you if she needs fed, take away change her bum etc so you only have to do the feedibg

Once a week for 3 hours... you’ll be fine, as will baby. X

I think for 3 hours a week for something that will be really beneficial to your family life, you’ll make it work.

I’d be tempted to take baby in a sling and just let her feed throughout, can you do that?

I think you could take baby with you for the first couple of months.
None of us can really tell you what kind of a baby you will have.... DS2 was the easiest baby ever, I could have taken him to the whole course and nobody would have known he was there stuck up my jumper but he'd create hell if I left him at home with DH and a bottle of expressed milk, which he'd refuse. Loudly.

I would leave the baby home with dh, I don’t really see why you would need to take dc with you when your husband is at home.

I think for the first few weeks it'll be easiest all round if you can take baby with you. They really need their mum in the evening as they tend to feed a lot in the evenings.

At four months I resumed teaching at home one evening a week and DD was looked after at home. She was really quite unsettled despite being perfectly happy to be away from me during the day as she just seemed to need me more in the evenings. I regret it a bit. From around 7 months it all got easier and DD was more chilled out in the evenings.

I think you'll enjoy your evening away from baby and the house, and it will be good for you.

Thanks all for the replies. Slinging is a possibility, but I'd worry it'd be distracting for me and the other students. But i won't rule it out. I suppose a lot boils down to the temperament of the baby. If I'd tried to do it with DD I'd have struggled!

Hi OP! My sister is deaf so we learnt a bit of BSL and I did my level 1 as an evening course. I think for level 2 you're also expected to attend extra events to practice signing too (Although this might have changed since I did it 5 years ago). If it does turn out to be too much then you could look into doing family BSL courses where you can all go together on a weekend? I know I'd have struggled to do it with a newborn but I think just be led by you and baby when they arrive :) Hope you enjoy! X

Thanks mummabubs my teacher runs extra practices on the weekends, which is great, hopefully I'll be able to make some, but me and DD also go to a little signing group run by a local deaf charity once a week, so i get a bit of practice in then, and DD learns a lot. I'd love to get to level 3 ideally. My level 1 finished in Feb, just as i found out I was pregnant, and i thought there was never going to be a perfect time to do level 2, so i might as well just sign up best laid plans and all that!

OU foundation course whilst pregnant, born June, started red brick uni in the October studying BA history for 3 years. Held down job at whilst studying working evenings and weekends. Oh and I had a DD of 4 and a DS if 3 to look after too! Had support of my mum and other half, although he never did anything more than watch the kids, I still did most of the housework/cooking etc. But it CAN be done. Got a 2:1 by the way

Op I love the fact you are learning to sign,, said as one BSL mum to another. Take the baby, ask the questions, learn however you can. Dd signed her first sign at 6 months, may be dbaby will learn too. Don't stop going!! Level 2 is super fast and so much more useful than l1.