Hi Friends, I am coming back to this community after a short gap. Got kind of busy with work and with a new comer at home. I am trying to find a solution to a problem I have been facing recently and thought of getting suggestions from experienced ladies here. I have a 4-months old daughter. It is joy and fun being with her that I decided to take up my work to do it from home after my maternity break. My company approved me to work from home and have asked me to put in atleast solid 4 hours of work a day. The first 2 months with my baby was hectic getting to know about her feeding pattern, sleeping pattern, knowing how to pacify her, etc. I thought things are getting better from her 3rd month. Hence, took up the work now when she completed 4th month. I did not want her to go to day care or did not want to leave her with a nanny at home, for I want to breast feed her till she is 6 months and focus on her to develop the bondaage. Thought it can be easily managed if I stay at home and work. But now I feel I don't do justice to my baby nor to my work. Sometimes I find I have enough time between her feeding and nap times and try to get started with work. But soon she would want my attention or I get distracted to play with her or do something to take care of her. It is getting more hectic and tiring with trying to do things required to run the home (the daily chores), do the work from home and taking care of the baby. Please give your expert suggestion on how do I balance baby, home and work. Thank you. Jyoti
Congrats on having a darling daughter Jyothi! I know how hectic balancing work-home-baby can be being a first time mom myself. I have a 14 months daughter too and I work full time. Initial months were very tough....but soon I learnt to manage things. In my personal opinion, work from home can be very distracting with the baby around. See if you can goto office for 4hrs and work. You can leave the baby with your mom or MIL (or any other close and reliable relative). I feel this way you can do justice to both your work and the baby and you won't feel guilty. I started working part time when my daughter was around 3 months. My mom watched my daughter when I went to work. Started full time work when she was around 5 months. My mom had gone back to India then and I had found a very reliable Indian nanny who stayed at our home and took care of my baby when I went to work. About feeding her...you can still breastfeed her by pumping at work. Talk to your other female friends at work and find out if your office provides a room for pumping, if not you can use any empty room with a lock. Try to delegate some daily chores to your hubby. That way you can get some rest. Good luck!
Working from home is a better option - I thought! Hi Sihi, Looks like you have recently joined this community - Welcome! Thank you for posting your suggestions. Coming to your suggestion, I took the decision to work from home because going to office and getting a relative to take care of the child is not possible in my case. Myself and husband ruled out day care option given to know the flexibility of working from home available at my office. May be getting a good nanny home is possible, I need to hunt for one. Meanwhile, I am looking for suggestions on working from home balancing between baby, work and home. Jyoti
Dear Jyothi Congrats for having your own bundle of joy. I guess you live in Singapore. Here getting a reliable baby sitter is difficult(own experience). But it is a good decision that you are staying at home for time being. My suggestion to balance the work/baby/housework is: 1. Get part time maids to do the house work. They come once or twice a week based on your needs and finish the works like vacuuming,mopping,cleaning the kitchen and washrooms,windows etc, ironing,...which are the most tedious works. We can pay them on monthly basis(around $100). I found this option better than having a live in maid, as you already are staying at home. 2. So when the baby rests, you will have time to do the office work because the maid would have finished the bulkier work. 3. You can do simple cooking once a day and always make sure you have idli batter(now you can get it in mustaffa too, if you don't like to blend it.) For dinner you can use it with a simple chutney, kootu etc. Don't go into complex recipies on weekdays. You can make some sweets on weekends and refrigerate it for the other days. Hope the above tips are useful to you. BTW I had an excellent babysitter where I could send my son for few hours and this auntie would also cook the dinner for me most of the days.God bless her. And now I have a full time maid(no choice) as my son is 5 years old. Cheers:wave Vijee
Good Luck to you!!! HI jyoti, My name is Shoba and I have 2 kids. My daughter is 3 yrs old and my son is 1. Your message brought back nostalgic memories for me because I worked from home for about 1 year after my daughter was born. I was lucky because I had a very flexible employer. It all depends on that. What I would do is finish up my work when my daughter used to take naps. And also I would sit in the night and finish my work coz thats when you can absolutely work without any interruptions. One other suggestion would be to put her in a jumperoo or an exersaucer kind of a thing coz babies love it and they also exercise their muscles that way. Just put in a dvd that she loves. That will keep her occupied for a little over an hour. During that time you can take calls or do you work. I did this and it worked all the time. Good luck to you. Parenting is a very hectic job as such and coupled with work is such a challenge. I am sure women are definitely better doing parallel processing compared to men. You can do it!!!!
