working from home with a newborn? - Page 2

[sh0rtchica]

I did this - and it was AWFUL. but there are reasons it was so rough for me.

i had a c/s and a terrible infection, that i was still recovering from when i started working (6 weeks out), and still receiving daily nursing care.

i had a high-needs baby. he was not big on me ignoring him to get work done, though in retrospect if i'd been able to put him on a wrap on my back, that might've done the trick.

i felt like i was robbed of mommy-baby bonding time by being tied to my computer, even for 3-4 hours a day.

on the contrast, i had a friend who had a baby just before me, and she was able to work from home with ease because he was so chill. it really, really does depend on your baby.

i just started a new position, but in my old job i was able to telecommute once a week. i retained my nanny for those days, because i was able to concentrate on work and didn't have to worry about diaper changes, outside playtime, reading books, etc. i was mommy milk machine, and that was it. otherwise i was free to concentrate on work.

now - i think it's entirely possible to be a WAHM if you have the sort of work that allows flexibility with time. working at night after baby goes down is the easiest time to get things done.

so while i wouldn't recommend it, it is certainly doable. just have a back-up plan ready in case it doesn't work for you!

[siobhang]

Check your employer's policies - many have explicit requirements for childcare while on the clock. My company does and we are probably the most baby friendly place around.

In my experience, it is hard to be consistent when caring for a kid, and many jobs need that level of consistency. It is great if you have a job where you can just not work one day if the baby is having a growth spurt or whatever, but very few positions are like this.

I worked for two months without childcare when my oldest was 3-5months old. And it was HARD. I found it challenging when jobs required long stretches of attention and focus, and I kept getting interrupted by my child. I found myself working every hour I was not sleeping or actively caring for my kid - and when dh got home, I thrust the baby in his arms so I could finally focus on getting stuff done for my clients.

When our au pair arrived, I was so thankful, I was finally able to actually complete a thought or task and not get so frustrated at my baby refusing to nap when I needed him to. I had actual down time that I could use FOR MYSELF (you know, to shower and eat and stuff).

Oh, and when babies get older? Crawling to toddler stage? I found it impossible mainly because my kids were constantly trying to kill themselves. Taking my attention off of them for even a few minutes involved potential to the house or my child or both. Too terrifying.

True story: when my oldest was 18 months old, my au pair was on vacation. I had scheduled to be off, but a client needed to talk to me urgently and I had a conference call, all the while trying to keep my son quiet and safe.

I kept putting the phone on mute and asking Ant "Do you want more milk? Where is your toy? Do you want to watch a video?" etc.

One time I forgot to put the phone on mute and I asked "Do you want mommy to give you a cookie?" and my client said "Yes please!!!!!"

[rivkah]

I am an attorney, and I work at home a lot. I work after dd (9 months) goes to bed and before she wakes up in the morning. I also work on Sundays at home. Usually, I do about 1 hour of billable work for every 2 hours I spend trying to work. Working at home with a baby is terribly inefficient, in my experience. Even though I do it, I don't really recommend it. If you have a child-care provider who can handle the baby and just bring her/him to you for nursing, it may be doable. However, it is really hard to concentrate on the level of detail required to draft legal documents when your attention is divided. The other issues is that it is so much more fun to watch your precious sleeping baby than work, so it is very hard to be disciplined.

To answer the previous poster who brought up the efficiency issue, it doesn't matter to my employer, really. It is up to me to get tasks done on time and to meet a billable hour requirement. It makes no difference when the billable hours get done. The original poster might be talking about a contract position, she will likely only get paid for the hours she works. So if it takes her 10 hours to do 6 hours of work in a day, they still only pay her for 6 hours. It probably doesn't matter to the employer either way, so long as she get the work done timely.

[Quinalla]

Totally depends on your baby. With mine, I would not have been able to do it. I am back at work now with her in daycare, but even now when she is 4 months, still would not be able to. She still does not nap consistently and rarely naps for more than 1 hour if she is not on my lap and yes, she still eats very frequently, every 1-3 hours during the day. I could get things done around the house with her in a sling if I kept moving, but she didn't tolerate sitting still for very long unless she was eating/sleeping and I couldn't do much of anything while she was eating since I needed both hands most of the time.

[crunchy_mommy]

I worked from home with a newborn (still WAH but now he's 14mos). It was tough because he was/is a very high-needs baby and I had set hours that made it difficult to take breaks to calm him etc. not to mention talking to clients with a screaming baby in the background! But I made it work & I'm still going at it, though I've just recently switched to part-time/flexible and that's made a world of difference.

I worked (from the office) right up 'til he was born (I was in labor for all of my last day) so that wasn't a big deal for me. I took 8 weeks off and physically it was fine but emotionally etc. it was tough. I needed more bonding time & more time to just enjoy my son. I wish I had taken at least 12 weeks off. And he got a little calmer etc. around 4 months so if I could've stretched it to 16 weeks that would have been *ideal* -- From 4mos - 9mos or so was the easiest working from home (not that it is actually "easy" in any sense of the word!! ) Around 9-10mos it got a lot harder as his need for constant interaction increased, and now at 14mos I only work when he sleeps for the most part, otherwise it's just too stressful.

If you decide to do it, I recommend 2 things:
1) Make sure you have flexible hours!! This would have made my life 150% less stressful!
2) Aim to have help for around 20 hours a week... whether that's only working when your partner is home, or having a friend/family member come over to help a few hours a day, or hiring a nanny or part-time daycare... That will help make sure your baby gets the attention they need and that you will have enough time to devote to more demanding tasks, phone calls, etc.