Top Tips wanted. Going back to work in about three weeks...........

[OrangeKnickers]

Apologies if this has been done before.

I am looking forward (ish) to the "work" bit of going back to work but terrified of the organisation it will entail. Everyone has a top birth tip so what are your top G-B-T-W tips?

Ds (11mths) will be with Childminder 8-6pm. Dp will drop him off and I will pick him up - well that's the plan at the moment.

I'd like a 15min slot routine planned out for the evenings but Dh says we should just go with the flow.

Absolutely no tips but I'm in the same boat, back to work in 3 weeks.

DS has started nursery so I'm trying to get used to getting up and getting him there at the time I would be aiming for, once I'm back at work. I haven't managed it yet!

Just go with the flow re the evenings - what you do need (at least at first) is an agreement on which of you will do what regarding cleaning, food shopping, cooking, childminder bag packing.
Get into a routine of packing the bag each evening with nappies/clothes, put milk/food in its coolbag in the fridge ready to grab if you have to supply that.
Get your work outfit out the night before, and find something to wear over it for the before leaving the house bit so that you don't have snot on your shoulder at work.
Make sure you have plenty of clothes for DS, so that if the washing is behind and he gets changed twice a day, you aren't desperate.
Get an online supermarket shopping list sorted out, and book it to be delivered automatically for a few weeks - then you'll have milk, bread, nappies and other staples coming in whatever.
Stock freezer with some meals, bread, mince, diced chicken breasts so that you have easy meals to hand
Stock cupboards with rice, pasta, jarred sauce and UHT milk - we like Moo organic
You might want to meal plan for a few weeks so that theres no faffing with evening meals - but if you and DH can eat a main meal at work, and DS will get a hot lunch with the CM, just go to having soup and a sandwich for dinner instead.

It does become easy after a while - the main things are not ending up fighting about housework, and always having some food in.

Don't wash your new tights in with bibs - the velcro will ruin your nice new tights.

ok a small point, but I speak from experience here!

i started a thread on here about four months ago begging for timesaving tips after the gits i worked for refused to let me do flexible working and there were some great ones. if only i wasnt technically illiterate i could link to it.
maximise your time with the baby before and after work: dump everything else and concentrate on that. better you and dp live off takeaways for a few weeks and you have time to play before ds's bed and bath. dont waste this time on housework.
before you go to bed put a wash on, (goes in the drier/on line in the morning) make up bottle for morning, put out your work stuff and what you need for morning (bag to go to childminders).
supermarket shop online, get a cleaner and a dishwasher if you can afford it, sit DH down before you go back and negotiate firmly what he will do. lower your housework standards. bank and pay bills online.
use any commute (unless you drive...) to put your makeup on, make phone calls, appointments, meal plans, over-optimistic lists of things you will never achieve, etc. write EVERYTHING down in a diary or you will forget it. buy birthday cards and presents ahead and in bulk. dont iron anything. call in favours and accept all offers of help. accept there will be lots of things that dont get done: prioritise ruthlessly. have an emergency stash of nonperishable essentials (coffee, babywipes, £20 cash, valium, the choice is yours) at the back of a cupboard which you aim never to break into but is there in desperation.
and buy tons of baby socks the same colour so you dont spend much of your natural life hunting for tiny odd socks.

oh I dunno.

Think you will plan, realise you won't, recognise you'll both be a bit grouchy with each other till you both settle into a routine and err as long as childcare is sorted and you are happy with the childcare, everything normally slots ok into place (so plan back ups, and emergency back ups and emergency emergency back ups).

thank you all! This sounds exactly what I need - plan as much as you can but don't be surpirsed when it all goes tits up.

woodstock3 I will have a look for your thread.

the mornings are hell and need a routine, evenings should be flowier

find out the CM's routine and practise doing it for at least two weeks ie get up at the time you'd need to get up, naps, meals etc.

good thread here

I just found woodstock3 link here too in any one else is interested

here