Has anyone successfully worked from home with a baby?

[AnUnoriginalUsername]

Reassure me I can do this please.
We run a company. The pandemic gave us our best chance to have a baby so we took it. I'll be taking on the phones to my mobile on Monday, we don't get constant calls but it feels a bit daunting. DS is a dream atm, sleeps well, only screams for food.

Tell me how you did it?

Can you not get childcare? How many calls do you get and how long do the calls take?

How old is your baby?

How old is your baby? I probably could have worked from home up until 4 or 5 months and then it would have got difficult. There is no way I could work from home from about 8-9 months as they get mobile then and need loads of attention. From about age 4 I could work a bit from home after school while they watch the telly.

That doesn’t sound full time? You’ll be on the phone taking a few calls a day? Could be manageable but depends how old your baby is. Mine is 6 1/2 months and she’d feel pretty hard done by if I ignored her half the day to take phone calls when she needs me to play with her.

DS is a couple of weeks.
There'd be no point with childcare because some days I don't work at all. It all depends if people ring, can be from zero calls to probably 8 on a busy day, each takes about 5 mins. A couple of emails a day. I'd have to put him in childcare 9-5 Monday to Friday and work a fraction of that.

I'm worried that I'll get a call at the moment DS is crying or feeding but I can just put a voicemail message on saying leave a message or email.

Remember he'll start to wake up quite a bit soon. And the crying usually starts at around 3 weeks.
If you know that you might not be able to answer calls whilst you're doing something with him then I don't see why you can't take 8 5 minute phone calls.

Normally I would say don't do it. I think babies are usually a dream at a couple weeks old, I know mine would sleep for 3 hours solid after a feed until her next feed and then sleep solidly again. However, it doesn't sound like you have a big workload at the minute, so if I were you I would stay at home taking calls with the baby, seems simple enough for now! If it doesn't work out at a later date or your workload increases, you can look into childcare then

You might pull this off for a few months, but once they get mobile you’ll really struggle.

Can you limit the hours you’re available for and get childcare for those?

With all due respect, are you genuinely asking if it's possible for you to take (on average) 20 phone calls at around 5 minutes each over the course of an entire week with a baby in the house (when you also have the ability to not answer if your baby happens to be crying at that particular time)? Obviously that's possible - it's less than two hours of work!
Your post is verging on insulting to people who actually worked at home with babies to be honest (and I mean that as kindly as possible). I think you're just stressed and overthinking it (which makes sense because you have a newborn baby). Congratulations, by the way.

For that volume of work you can definitely do it. Will be more likely you take a message and call back at nap time once little one is more mobile.

Yes, I've done it and with my job it too was infrequent calls in a day. Maybe average of about 4 or 5. It got more difficult when they were a few months older and defnitely when more mobile and awake more during the day. When they got to that age though I was able to have someone come in and help me out.

I just made sure if I took a call I went to a different room, most calls were just a few minutes so if DD started crying it was literally for just a minute at most, but that only happened once. She was in her rocky chair and in no harm and cried for no more than 1 minute. A few calls had to go to voicemail and then I would settle dd and call them back.

Its stressful to start with because you're constantly thinking a call might come in right when you're settling or feeding or cuddling, but it does get less stressful once you get used to it.

So it's simply 20 phone calls, max? Of course you can do that . Its not really work as its less than two hours over an entire week.

If its a really difficult time, eg mid nappy change then you will have to simply call back.

But will this mean that you are stuck at home all the time just in case and cannot go out?

Yes, that sounds more than doable, especially if your hours of availability are clear to the caller/on your website/in your email signature/etc

I would recommend you devise a backup option, though, because babies are unpredictable and their needs change quickly from one week to the next. A mother's helper or something, on your designated work days, could be an idea worth exploring.

@Babbly

With all due respect, are you genuinely asking if it's possible for you to take (on average) 20 phone calls at around 5 minutes each over the course of an entire week with a baby in the house (when you also have the ability to not answer if your baby happens to be crying at that particular time)? Obviously that's possible - it's less than two hours of work! Your post is verging on insulting to people who actually worked at home with babies to be honest (and I mean that as kindly as possible). I think you're just stressed and overthinking it (which makes sense because you have a newborn baby). Congratulations, by the way.

I'm absolutely stressed and over thinking it. And I was really hoping those people who are working from home with babies came along and said "yeah I do it, I do such-and-such."

Logically I know I can manage, I can wear him, he has a swing, he has a projector he loves. We have someone who is available for a few hours a day on the phones. I'm just anxious.

I think you will find it very tricky but I guess it depends on the kind of baby you have. I had to hire a nanny even though I only worked for a couple hours a day. It was impossible to be on calls with crying, teething, trying to breastfeed, taking baby out for walks to get them to sleep. I really thought I could manage it but there was just no way for me. I know people who have done though so I think it depends on the baby. For me, I just couldn't concentrate well on work knowing I had to care for the baby at the same time.

I used to wfh p/t with a toddler, before I could get him into nursery, and it was tricky as hell. Wouldn't want to go back to that, tbh. (Tho I never really took calls, it was all emails, but it took ages to get anything done with my concentration being constantly broken. Plus, funnily enough, small people need supervision and interaction!)

That's not much time required. Once he starts sleeping less and becoming more mobile, he'll probably also be happy to be plonked in front of the TV. Get a decent size play pen and stop thinking about it. It's what I have to do just to get any house chores done because DD is now crawling and wants to help with everything. Not ideal but a couple of hours a day doesn't hurt. It saves my sanity and stress levels.

Working at home with a baby, no way. Taking a few 5 minute calls a day, yes absolutely doable.

If it's calls which are time-critical (eg instant technical support needed) then it could get tricky if they happen to come at a bad moment. But if they're the sort of calls where you could say "I'll get back to you in 20 minutes or so", or leave the phone on answerphone and only pick up immediately if it suits, then no problem.

Yeah I did it, doable enough when they sleep a lot and can't move independently, when they are crawling/walking/screeching at you because you stopped them doing something fun and dangerous and dropping naps it's a nightmare, and you'll absolutely need childcare.

Sounds like you will be fine. Just be prepared to adapt and be flexible as he gets older or if business needs change.
I generally have my kids out of the house but have successfully handled some important and time critical calls around them when required. Tactical use of naps, snacks and screentime all come in handy.

Thank you guys. Obviously we can adapt, we can take on someone to cover either mine or DHs work.
I do go out prior to having DS and I'd just ask people to email their issue and I'd deal with it. We do have external support we can call on. It just feels pretty daunting that we have so much to do. All his appointments are pilling up, hearing test, gp, registering, it all seemed so doable a couple of months ago.

I think it's doable as long as you don't have to be available at specific times. I did some work from home when baby was 2 weeks old onwards and went back 2 days a week (from home and flexible hours) at 9 months, with no childcare until 18 months. It meant working when the baby was asleep. I couldn't have worked when she was awake really. Too noisy and distracting. I don't think babies have much interest in TV until at least 2 years old. Not enough to watch something on their own anyway.

Is there a way you can set it up so that what people expect is to leave a message and you call them back when it's convenient for you? E.g. a message on your website saying 'Please leave a message at this number XXX and we will get back to you.' Then you won't feel stressed listening out for the phone to ring, you can just plan to check the messages and respond at a set time every day when your baby is napping or watching TV.