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Working at home with a baby is not the easy way out. I think it is much harder than dropping your baby off at daycare and heading into work. You are juggling caring for a little one, household duties, and trying to float a job.
If you are a work-from-home parent your schedule is going to constantly change. Your baby will go from three naps to two to one and then possibly no nap! When they are teeny tiny they need frequent feedings, then you juggle both milk and food feedings, before moving on to a solids-only diet. Do you see what I’m getting at here? Change is constant!
This is what my day looks like at home when working and caring for my ten-month-old daughter. She is a crawling, nursing, couch cruising, food eating, crappy napping precious little girl.
Your little kiddo could be on a completely different schedule, but I want to show you how I make it work from home with my little one.
Schedule
6:30 am
Wake up. Drink a large glass of water while getting started on work.
Start this time off with the most important or most time-consuming task of the day.
7:30-8:00 am
H wakes up and I immediately nurse her
8:15 am
Get myself ready for the day
I don’t get ready first thing in the morning, but rather wait until H is up for the day. This is because in the morning I prioritize work while H is sleeping.
9:30 am
Breakfast for H of solid food.
Sometimes I sit down and eat with H. Other times I am near her in the kitchen cleaning things up, prepping food for later meals, or unloading the dishwasher while she is up in her high chair out of my hair.
10/10:30 am
Nurse H and put her down for her first nap. This is work time for momma.
My goal is for H to go down at 10:30 and sleep until 12. This often doesn’t happen and she only sleeps for 45 minutes. Such a bummer! However during this time I work. Before H’s nap, I plan out what tasks I’ll do so right after I leave her room I can get right to work. During this time I work on the most important task that I wasn’t able to finish in the morning. Or I work on something moderately difficult.
11-12:00 pm
At some point in this range H is waking up from her nap. I wish I had a bit more of a precise schedule, but this is what I am currently working with.
1:00 pm
H gets her lunch of solid foods. We recently dropped her midday nursing session. It has not been too challenging. I try to keep her busy and moving from thing to thing. I also never sit with her in an area that we nurse like the couch.
1:30 pm
If we need to run any errands outside of the home this is our time to do so.
3/3:30 pm
Nurse and put her down for her second nap. Work time.
The goal again is 90 minutes but it NEVER happens. She always wakes up at 45 minutes…so sad. My baby does not excel at napping. This is another work time.
5:00 pm
Start working on dinner.
Daddy gets home around 5:15 and spends time playing with H while I work on dinner.
5/6:00 pm
Dinner time.
7/7:15 pm
Bath time.
Bath time is not every day. Daddy is in charge of bath time. During this time I may try to accomplish a ten minutes work task. Other times I use these few minutes to clean up the dinner mess or tidy up the living room.
7:30-8 pm
Bedtime.
Our bedtime routine is short and sweet. H hits the bed between 7:30 and 8.
8:00 pm
By this time I am 100% out of her room and she is down. In my world, 8 pm means adult time!
8:00-10 pm
Light Work.
This is my time to do work some evenings. Other times I give myself a break and just hang out with my husband. If I am working though, I do light work that can be done with the tv on.
Throughout the Day
All of the gaps throughout the day where nothing is happening is time spent playing with H. This could be going outside, playing with blocks, or maybe reading a book. For the most part it is spent with her. She doesn’t exactly play independently yet. She likes to know I’m close by. I hope to encourage some independent play as she gets older.
During this playtime I occasionally get a small work task done, but not very often. Usually, I spend this time trying to get household tasks done instead, such as folding laundry while watching her play.
Total Work Time
My current schedule with a ten-month-old limits my actual work time. By this, I mean time where she is sleeping. I cannot expect to get anything done while she is awake. If I do, I consider it a happy bonus. I do have small moments throughout the day to accomplish 2-minute tasks or sneak off while my husband plays with H after work, but that is about it.
My typical day adds up to a minimum of 3.5 hours of work. My maximum amount of work with this schedule and no other help would be about 6 hours of work. That would be pushing it and not likely to happen. I am realistic in knowing that I just cannot maintain an eight-hour day. There is absolutely no way and I would never put that kind of pressure on myself.
Work while Baby Sleeps
I used to think the only time I could eat, brush my teeth or do the dishes was while my baby slept. Then I realized these tasks are not what I want to be doing while my baby sleeps. These are the tasks to squeeze in and get done while my baby is awake. Find a way to get your “stuff” done while they are awake. Check out my article about Why Moms Need to Take Better Advantage of Nap Times.
When baby sleeps you must go straight to work. No getting distracted with household chores. Sleep-time is pure gold. It is your only uninterrupted time to work. Respect sleeping time. This means no scrolling through social media wasting it away.
Work! Work! Work!
Prioritizing
You must clearly know what your priorities are. And I don’t mean this to sound like work is a priority over your child. That is not at all what I am going for here!
What is more important to you sleep or getting up to work? Is a perfectly clean house a priority or is a clean-ish house ok?
You can’t do it all. You can’t have it all. There are only so many hours in the day.
If you want to work from home and care for your child you are going to have to be organized, efficient, and always have a plan.
Working from home with a baby, child, or children is a huge challenge. You must have low expectations and realize the day likely will not go the way you would like it to.
Comment down below how you navigate working at home while raising children.
Check Out My Articles
Why Moms Need to Take Better Advantage of Nap Times
Creative Ways to Generate Income and Save Money While Being a Stay-at-Home Mom
From Birth to Baby’s First Birthday: My Top Takeaways as a New Mom
Save Money and Enjoy Life as a Stay-at-Home Mom with These 8 Tips