My Best Tips for Working from Home with a Baby (what worked for me)
Shortly after our little one came home from the hospital after a long NICU journey, I started on the humbling path of figuring out how to work from home with a baby and be a “work from home mom”.
Back then, it was hard to find blog posts about how to do this. “Work from home parenting” wasn’t a big search term on Google, but now with so much of the workforce self-isolating and temporarily operating from home, information is everywhere!
Caring for a baby and working from home at the same time is a lot, so if you’re here because you’ve found yourself in a similar situation, know I’m cheering you on and sending a big virtual hug.
Molding our children is hard work but it’s the best work.
I could suggest you put on some makeup (this does help me feel more put together), slide into real pants (yoga pants count around here), or take breaks. These are good suggestions, but I’m taking a different approach.
This post is really going to be more descriptive than prescriptive.
I’m not here to tell you what you should do, but I’m happy to share what’s worked for me in hopes that there’s something you resonate with or at least helps you feel encouraged that you’re not the only one trying their best to figure this out.
Nursing
The single most effective thing that worked for me from the beginning was wearing a My Brest Friend nursing pillow and letting Baby nurse + sleep (closely monitored, of course) there with me while I worked at my desk. This also worked with a bottle.
After months spent in the NICU, all I wanted was to be curled up in the nursery in a baby bubble, but at least having Baby right there with me while I worked helped a lot.
Naps
The number one tip I would give myself if I could have a do-over would be to go through a Taking Cara Babies class earlier (we took Taking Cara Babies The ABC’s of Sleep). The time between the newborn days of lots and lots of sleep (for Baby, not me, lol) and more awake time when we didn’t have as much guidance around naps was hard.
After we got in the groove of a flexible nap routine that worked well for us, that changed everything!
Counting on somewhat consistent naps has helped me view my days more in terms of tasks + projects I’ve accomplished rather than the amount of time spent working.
If work tends to expand to fill the time available (Parkinson’s Law), then having less time definitely helped force me to get more done in that timeframe. I don’t really think of a workday as one long continuous amount of time. Even in a traditional office setting, time is usually broken up, just in different ways. I tend to view my day in flexible, moving blocks of time to sprint and get as much done as I can, apart from things I tend to monitor more frequently.
New Mom Morning Routine
Early on when sleep was more sporadic, I basically tried to sleep until the minute I planned to start working that day. I’m all for getting sleep when you can in the newborn days, but for me, shuffling over to my computer feeling groggy didn’t put me in a great mindset.
When we went from the wild west of no sleep to something a little more predictable (thank you Taking Cara Babies!), my day with Baby started earlier in the morning, before I usually started working.
Getting up earlier meant I was able to have more focused time with my baby, which was good for this mama’s heart.
I felt less rushed and like I had filled some of the love tank I had that craved time with my baby.
Now when I sit at my desk at the beginning of each workday, I make a short to-do list of the most important things I want to accomplish aside from recurring tasks that don’t really need to be listed every day.
This isn’t revolutionary, but I definitely had some brain fog so moving from one task to another and back again made simple things feel overwhelming.
If there’s something that doesn’t get done that day, I’ll write it out so I see it the next morning and don’t have it flying around my brain while I try to remember not to forget (does this happen to you too?).
What to do with Baby During Calls
The pinnacle moment of being a stay at home mom/work from home mom was when I covertly nursed my baby while on a video call (with “colleagues”, not technically a client). Yep. I tilted the camera up so only my neck was showing, then did what I needed to do, and you know what? It was kind of awesome. That only happened once, but it felt like a big moment of “mom-ing”.
I try to schedule calls on certain days of the week when I know I’ll have help with Baby.
In our situation, the person helping is my husband Derrik. For some, it might mean inviting a friend over to help for an hour or hiring a babysitter.
Thankfully, I’ve never had to hire a babysitter for calls because I can usually schedule them when Derrik is available to help.
And depending on the call, many of the people I interact with understand the whole reason I’m working from home is to be with my baby so it’s not much of a shock that there’s cute babbling in the background now and then.
Boundaries
Trying to set a mental boundary around dwelling or worrying about how I’ll adapt and figure this out as Baby grows and develops has helped. Ultimately, only the Lord knows the future and that’s where I choose to place my trust. Taking it one day at a time is one of the best approaches so that I don’t start feeling overwhelmed.
I also try my best not to work or be on my phone when I’m in our nursery. I generally only reply to work emails from a computer instead of my phone because it creates a boundary that feels healthy for me. This helps me separate work from play, and gives me more feelings of freedom and less feelings of dread or restriction from constantly being in work mode. I’m grateful for my situation, and I try to be quick to analyze how to make it work best for our family.
Need the bullet point version?
My 7 Best Tips for Working from Home with a Baby
Wearing a My Brest Friend nursing pillow and letting Baby nurse + sleep (closely monitored, of course) there with me while I work at my desk.
Taking Cara Babies The ABC’s of Sleep so we could implement a flexible nap routine + schedule.
Viewing my day in flexible, moving blocks of time to sprint and get as much done as I can, apart from things I monitor more frequently.
Getting up earlier so I can have focused time with my baby before I start work for the day.
Making a short to-do list of the most important things I want to accomplish aside from recurring tasks that don’t really need to be listed every day.
Focusing on my baby when we’re together by reserving email time to a computer instead of my phone.
Trusting the Lord with figuring this out one day and one season at a time.
Are you working from home with a baby? I hope there was something in this post that helped you or encouraged you. You can do this!
