Happiness is...

anna7602

Getting to work from home on a gross, rainy day without DD bursting into my office every 5 seconds. She has been happily playing with the sitter all day and has barely paid attention to the fact that I am here.

I feel like we have turned a major corner. This never used to happen. I've been decamping to the local coffee shop or sending her out to the playground or on playdates for months when I need to get something done. Hallelujah! 

webMistress0609

As a fellow WAH mama, I can totally empathize! Glad she's doing better & I hope it keeps up.

BabyButler2010

Hi Anna   Yay for you!!

 Can I be nosy?  What do you do for work from home?  I am in sales and call on distributors and other food buyers...and I'm finding it SOO difficult to work from home...DS is too small to be bursting into my office yet, but my attention span has been so limited since coming back to work that I feel pathetic!  There is no way I would ever want to go back to working in the office, so I need to figure out a way to make myself more productive and I don't have the ability to work from a coffee shop or another remote location unfortunately.  I do have a nanny, but still nurse ds thorughout the day since my pumped milk tastes like dish soap...ick.

Did you have a harder time in the beginning with keeping yourself on task and has it gotten easier? 

anna7602

Hi, Baby Butler. I am a translator and I also do human rights advocacy (I used to do the latter full-time in an office for a non-profit, now I do occasional projects for that same non-profit). Most of what I do can be done directly on my computer and when I am translating, I don't even really need an internet connection for long periods of time. Occasionally, I have to make phone calls for the human rights stuff, but I try to do all of that when DD isn't in the house with me or else she wants to talk on the phone, too!

It was an adjustment in the beginning and I have to say that since I work on a per-project basis and not at an hourly rate, my productivity sometimes stinks and I find myself sitting at the computer at midnight or 1am to make up for a day spent on and off the bump. The best thing is to set clear deadlines for myself. So, today, for example, there's a chapter I want to finish translating by 4pm. I am surfing the internet a little right now, but I know I have to get back to this chapter and if by 3, I'm not as close to the end as I'd like, I am going to close out of the internet entirely.

The other thorn to my productivity is that I get so lonely sometimes working in my little office that I feel like I NEED to talk to people out there anywhere- the bump, facebook, email, etc.  

But, the upside is that I make my own hours and spend lots of time with DD. Monday is really the only day now that I work all day and I have DD in school on Wed. & Thurs. mornings. So we get the whole rest of the week together. I do, however, do a lot after she is in bed for the night and on weekends.

I nursed DD until she was 25 months old, but I rarely nursed her when I was working. It was too distracting for her for me to be in the house at all when she was younger, so I used to go out to the coffee shop, then the nanny would call me when DD was down for her morning nap and I would come home and pump, then leave again. We did the same thing again during her afternoon nap. After about 13 months, I stopped pumping, relied on my freezer stash and by about 15 months, she was drinking any milk at all during the day if I was away from her.

I hope this was helpful!

BabyButler2010

anna7602:

Hi, Baby Butler. I am a translator and I also do human rights advocacy (I used to do the latter full-time in an office for a non-profit, now I do occasional projects for that same non-profit). Most of what I do can be done directly on my computer and when I am translating, I don't even really need an internet connection for long periods of time. Occasionally, I have to make phone calls for the human rights stuff, but I try to do all of that when DD isn't in the house with me or else she wants to talk on the phone, too!

It was an adjustment in the beginning and I have to say that since I work on a per-project basis and not at an hourly rate, my productivity sometimes stinks and I find myself sitting at the computer at midnight or 1am to make up for a day spent on and off the bump. The best thing is to set clear deadlines for myself. So, today, for example, there's a chapter I want to finish translating by 4pm. I am surfing the internet a little right now, but I know I have to get back to this chapter and if by 3, I'm not as close to the end as I'd like, I am going to close out of the internet entirely.

The other thorn to my productivity is that I get so lonely sometimes working in my little office that I feel like I NEED to talk to people out there anywhere- the bump, facebook, email, etc.  

But, the upside is that I make my own hours and spend lots of time with DD. Monday is really the only day now that I work all day and I have DD in school on Wed. & Thurs. mornings. So we get the whole rest of the week together. I do, however, do a lot after she is in bed for the night and on weekends.

I nursed DD until she was 25 months old, but I rarely nursed her when I was working. It was too distracting for her for me to be in the house at all when she was younger, so I used to go out to the coffee shop, then the nanny would call me when DD was down for her morning nap and I would come home and pump, then leave again. We did the same thing again during her afternoon nap. After about 13 months, I stopped pumping, relied on my freezer stash and by about 15 months, she was drinking any milk at all during the day if I was away from her.

I hope this was helpful!

 Thank you so much for your thoughtful reply!  I find myself spending more time on the bump than I really should- and I do have set hours...that I can make up during other times, but rarely want to b/c I don't want to be in my office any more often than need be.  I find that I get into a great "groove" and then the nanny will call me to come upstairs and nurse DS...don't get me wrong, I LOVE my time nursing him, but it definitely makes me lose concentration and I find it hard to jump back in where I left of with the same intensity. 

Maybe I will start pumping in the morning for the nanny so she can give him is first feed of the day- that would buy me a little extra time before being distracted.  I am salary based with commision & bonuses...so I feel super guilty if I'm not as productive as I should be- so seriously thanks for that suggestion.  I have a freezer stash, but my lipase levels are high so it all tastes terrible and ds refuses to drink it...so at least if I pumped once in the morning and could leave it at room temp it would be more appealing to him

Anyway- it is nice to know what you do...I always wonder what other WAHM moms do   And- how neat to be a translator! 

Oh- and I do know what you mean about feeling lonely sometimes...even though I talk on the phone most of the day, it is not the same as having a couple of co-workers to talk with between calls...which is what I always intend for my "bumping" to be...but some days find that I get a bit carried away!

Ok- back to work I go...for real! 

 Thanks!