BellaOnline Forums Career Small Office/Home Office Working at home with baby

I am 2 months away from giving birth to my very first child AND I will be starting a work from home job when my baby will be approximately 2 months old.

Since I have never worked from home before AND I have never had a wee baby before....I need any advice from WOHM's who have been there, done that.

So...Any words of wisdom out there???

Thanks!

The only way I managed to work at home with a baby was to start a home daycare!

One thing you can do is try and have a good schedule with the baby as soon as you can (esp by 2 months when you go back to work) so you have some nap times to work. The older the baby gets tho and the more active, the harder it will be to carve out the time you might need for work.

What are you going to be doing working at home? Some jobs might be easier to do with a baby. I tried medical transcription but it was too distracting having the kids there (I had 3 by then). I ended up taking the youngest with me and worked at the office during the summer.

One mom on my health forum has about 5 kids, 2 adopted babies. She advocates play pen time for the little one. Just make sure it isn't too long and that they have things to do-plus you aren't far away. My granddaughter wouldn't have put up with this tho! She'd holler and scream every time she was confined. So it depends on the baby.

Another suggestion is to get a babysitter for a couple hours a day in your home. That way you're there and can heck on things.

It's tough but it can be done with determination and patience!

Hi Candice,
Congratulations!

I have a 13 month old and have worked from home since the first week she was born. I am lucky as my DH works from home too mostly, so we could coordinate.

The jobs I took seemed to get progressively more 'detailed' as Emma got older. At first I only took jobs where I could work flexibly (at night on web sites or graphic design) or even writing. After a few months I started doing more day-time work and going to meetings when I needed to. I found a woman nearby who could take Emma for a few hours now when I had meetings (although I took Emma to many of them!)

Now Emma is at my friend's house a few days a week and I can work during daytime hours those days and get back to sleeping at night

I've also been looking at co-op daycare, so I take Emma and maybe one or two other little ones a couple of days a week and then the other parents take Emma the other days.

Have you thought about what you would do from home?

I am a teacher, so I'm planning to work for an online school that supports homeschooling parents. It will mostly be email & phone communication with occassional meetings outside of the home.

I'm not sure how flexible my hours will be yet. My husband will be working nights, so he'll be available (as in, awake & alert) in the afternoons to take care of our son.

I like your idea of co-op daycare. That would be helpful on the days where I have meetings.

Thanks!

Congratulations on your baby and your work at home job, Candice!

Having help is important, and it's great that your husband will be around.

A few hours of paid care will probably help you, too.

And, once he's two months old, you'll probably have a good idea of his normal nap times so you'll know when to schedule calls.