Work from home/Stay at home home (tips?)

[lizzyttc2017]

Hi ladies,

My partner and I are beginning to ttc. I am self employed as a newborn baby photographer so I currently work lots of hours (mostly editing). I will of course cut these hours down once we do have a baby.
I plan to take around 2-3 months off after baby arrives and then slowly get back into work starting with a couple of photoshoots a week (around 12 hours of editing).

I will be able to have childcare from family for 1-2 days of the week but I will sometimes need to edit and work in the day. Any tips from any work at home Mummies? Is it doable? Did sleep routine really help so you could work during nap times?

Thanks in advance!

I can only manage to get some work done at home now my little one is 15 months and has one decent nap a day.

Before that I had to hold her or push her the whole time. When she did fall asleep I could leave her in the back garden in front of the patio door so I could to a bare minimum of tidying away her last meal and making the next.

At 2 months I was still recovering for complications of a c section. DD was awake more of the night then asleep and I could barely get us up, dressed and out the house.

Don't count on being able to work during nap times. Lots of babies, DS included, will only nap when they're being held! You might be lucky and have a superstar napper who lets you get on with things during the day, but you should prepare for the worst case scenario as well (although mumsnetting on your phone with a snuggly baby on your chest is far from the worst thing that can happen - I loved those baby naps).

Good luck and congratulations

Congratulations on starting to ttc OP. Fingers crossed for you!

Tbh working at home with a baby, especially one that young, isn't possible without childcare. Long-term sleep deprivation makes it hard to get even simple tasks done, and lots of babies can't be out down to nap at that age, or even of they can only catnip. I'd thought about doing the same thing as you and I barely had time to make a sandwich or wash my hair until dd was 6 months, let alone work. Your best bet is to arrange the childcare you need and then take any time you can as a bonus. The two issues with getting work down will then be the massive guilt that you're fobbing your baby off with toys/tv/snacks and the constant interruptions, which can obviously make you look quite unprofessional to clients, etc.

*put down to nap or even if they can

(and that's me typing on only minimal broken sleep after dd being up with a sick bug for 1 night)

Define your working space and hours. Each client takes 12 hours so you need childcare around those hours. Don't be a martyr and be all 'I'll do it afterhours so I can do the housework and childcare during the day.' Your OH isn't working two jobs so why should you?

I say this as a working parent of 3DC. Just because you are the mother doesn't mean the father can't do his fair share. I have a DH who does his fair share. It's taken effort on my part to make that happen.

I would say working at home would be pretty much impossible before one tbh op (that's around the age they switch to one long nap a day). I've known babies who would only sleep in a buggy, ones who would only sleep in a sling, ones who would only sleep being held. I don't think i've known any under 6 month olds who will sleep in a cot! Routines in young babies are difficult and open to change at any time. You will need childcare to cover time working.

Agree practically impossible to work with baby there. You'll need to have clearly defined work hours, and childcare for those hours, and get incredibly disciplined about just working during that time and not being distracted by housework etc.

One word: childcare. Till at least secondary age. If you want to do more than 'get a bit of work done'.

Sorry.

I've been freelance since 1997 and my oldest has just done GCSEs.

From about 7 months my DS had a good routine of 2 x 1.5 hour naps in his cot. Before that he still napped in his cot or in his swing but it wasn't super predictable. I could usually take a shower and do some cleaning or whatever, but it was difficult to commit to anything that required my major concentration.

You might be lucky and get a good sleeper, but the problem is you can't really rely on that nap time and you also need some time to yourself and some time to do essential housework. So if you do get free time in the day you're prob not going to want to spend it all working.

It's really impossible to plan before baby gets here as it depends so much on what kind of baby you get. 2 months is very early to be thinking about doing anything, I could barely see straight for tiredness at that point. However, I did start working from home again (also self employed) from about 5 months- though only about 8 hours a week. Was lucky by that point to be in good nap routine and have dd going down to bed early in the evening as well as being happy playing without constant attention for a while. If you can work in the evenings when your partner is at home that could work. I would definitely investigate your childcare options whether that's your partner, parents or nursery, so that you have different options in place.

I have a 4 year old and have worked from home (mostly, several days a week) since she was about a year. I get work done early mornings (before she is awake or while my husband gets her up and dressed) or I take a few hours on a weekend morning while my husband is home or in evenings after her bedtime. I have rarely been able to do things when she is around, except when she was a baby and would sleep in a wrap while I did something for an hour or two. Firstly, because it's distracting and the work I do requires a lot of concentration and isn't something I can do while interacting with her at the same time. Secondly, I'd rather lose out on a bit of sleep than spend all my time around her staring at a screen and ignoring her. I don't think there's any benefit to them having a parent around who ignores them to work. Our time together is our time and I give her my attention. When I need to work, she goes to nursery or she's with my husband or she's sleeping. For us that works best and we work around it. The flexibility definitely means for a much happier family life even when my hours haven't been very traditional.

I work from home 75% of the time and there's no way I could do it and take care of my dc (5&9). I have a childminder who looks after my dc. Maybe when they were babies, and I could do an hour when they slept, but as I'm employed I doubt my boss would have been happy. It might be different if you are self employed.

Er no, when baby napped through was my chance to eat, have a shower, or do some laundry or other essentials. I did not open the mail for a month!

I've worked from home since DS1 was about 9-10 months old, he then had a good routine and I could fit most of my work (10-12 hrs/week) in during his naps and also did the odd 20-30 minute spurt when he was happily playing in his playpen. Would not have managed it when he was much younger though to be honest, I think 2-3 months is extremely ambitious without childcare, many children will not sleep through the night yet and some do not nap for long during the day.