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Hawaii Babies
inamra
member
omg full-timeworking moms
inamra
member
How do you have the time to cook, nurse & play with LO, clean/prep for next day, and sleep when you work 40hr weeks!?! It's day 3 of work for me today (I'm full time this week cuz it's my first week and I need training) and I'm about to DIE of exhaustion!
Sept 2008 Wedding | May 2010 & Mar 2012 Babies
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Re: omg full-timeworking moms
It's gotten easier over time, and I think it's just one of those things you get used to. DH helps out too. He usually drops my dd off at my mom's in the mornings & then I pick her up on my way home. He's off 2 days during the week so he keeps her on those days & will sometimes even cook dinner on those days. As for sleeping, I for sure don't get the recommended 8 hours a night
On the weekends though, when DH is at work all day well that is a different story. I often wonder how the SAHM mom's do it every.single.day without any help!
Yeah, you def get used to it. If your DH can help, that makes a world of difference. Here is what we do:
We get home around 6:30 p.m.
Alexa can walk around and/or play for 15 minutes, while we take turns changing out of our work clothes. She's in her high chair and eating her dinner by 6:45/7 p.m.
When we are getting to the end of her dinner, DH goes up and starts the water so that her bath is ready by the time she's done. So I whip her out of the high chair and carry her upstairs and hand her off to him. He does bath.
I then go back downstairs and clean up the high chair, make her bottle and put all of her daycare bottles, nipples, breatpump parts into a bowl of warm soapy water. Then I go upstairs as they are winding up the bath... He picks her up from the tub and hands her to me, holding the towel.
We take her into the bedroom, put diaper on, onesie, sleep sack, brush hair. Sit in chair and DH reads her goodnight book. Then he kisses her goodnight, kisses me, turns off the light and puts the sleep sheep on.
I then nurse and/or feed her a bottle while he goes downstairs and starts dinner and/or the bottles. We do easy dinners, like frozen pizza, chili from the can, chicken that he can put on the grill, pasta with salad, etc.
After Alexa finishes her bottle, I put her in the crib and walk out. We aim for this to happen at 7:30 but lots of times it's 7:45 or 8 p.m. I grab the monitor and go downstairs. One of us finishes dinner while the other does bottles. Then, around 8:30, we sit down for dinner together. :-)
Whew!
Malia & Dave & Alexa
Happily married since 2-17-08! Three since 9-9-09!
Baby Blog
aww it will get easier!! but i agree w/you - working FT and juggling a baby is hard work!! i am glad to be working PT.
Malia - wow, that is great how you guys hand her off to each other and each tackle parts of her bedtime routine like that!! I pretty much do her entire bedtime routine by myself, though DH does load the bottles into the dishwasher for me (i still have to wash the pump parts myself). it is hard coming home from work and rushing to get them to bed before it is too late! we are like you and don't get to eat until after 8pm usually, after she is fed and gone to bed! i only cook 2-3 times a week though and we eat lots of leftovers
Jaime & Brent
Oahu, Hawaii | Sept. 9, 2005
My Food Blog - Good Eats 'n Sweet Treats
yeah, I would try to figure out ways to involve your husband! We recently had to switch up our routine when DH went back to his old job 30mi (and depending on traffic over an hour) away.
I really don't feel over worked or anything. Honestly I am not afraid to admit that being a 24/7 SAHM was way more exhausting than FT work - DH is so much more helpful now that we are both working outside the home.
Our joint effort starts in the morning.
Wake up at 6:20 - DH showers I get Jack ready for the day - including putting out the daycare stuff (Jack usually eats at 5:30 or 6 - mostly while sleeping).
6:45am Jack plays in his playpen in our room while I shower and DH gets dressed. They are out the door for daycare by 7:15. I get ready and leave at 7:30, get to work by 8:15 with a stop for a latte
Pump at 9:30, 1, and 4:00 or 4:30.
4:30 leave work, pick up Jack at 5
5:15 home, play with Jack, soak bottles, prep dinner (Trader Joe's prepared and semi prepared foods are my new BFFs). Thow in diapers if it's laundry day.
6:15 DH home by now (hopefully) - the 3 of us sit around the table and eat dinner. we dish about our day and Jack seems adequately entertained by his food and/or our stories. Poor Jack is going to hate the legal profession - or else be really interested. Clean off Jack, let him nurse if wanted.
7 - clean up (usually me) and DH and Jack play/read books - Jack's bath time if needed.
8ish - start to try to get Jack to go to bed. DH washes bottles.
9ish - pack Jack's lunch and bottles for the next day, lay out his clothes. Transfer diapers to the dryer, pick up clutter around house (have learned not to let it get out of hand). We are each responsible for our own stuff - put away shoes, hang up clothes, take dry cleaning out to the car, etc. I recycle or file away the mail and DH takes out the recycling/garbage.
the rest of the night - I work on crafts, read, or play online while DH watches TV, does work, or catches up on folding the weekend's laundry.
Dream feed Jack at 10:30-11 and then go to bed.
easy, right? HAH!!!
Eta: Thought about it some more. Maybe my expectations are off. Should I not expect to sleep 8 hours on worknights? I need to get more sleep on the weekends to offset that then...
I don't cook, DH does. We work opposite schedules so he makes dinner around 3:30 p.m. for himself to take to work and then I eat the remainder of it with Libby around 5 p.m. I get to work at 7 a.m and get home between 3:30-3:45 p.m. and he's out the door by 4:15 p.m. and home around 11 p.m. We don't see each other for more than 90 minutes on work days.
He's off on Mondays and Tuesdays (from work, he does have school) and I am off most weekends. So on those days we have a little more time together.
We share the baby duties fairly equally...he'll start the diapers in the laundry, I'll see that they get dried and put away. He'll pick up groceries after work sometimes or I'll go early on Saturday morning.
I pump in the mornings at work and come home at lunch (which DH makes) to nurse. I put all of the bottles, pump parts, etc. in warm soapy water in the sink and let them soak until I get home. Then I put the stuff that goes in the dishwasher in to run later that night and the rest gets hand washed and dries on the bottle rack for me to pack up the next morning.
When I get home at 3:30 p.m. I take Libby and nurse her (she's usually getting up from her second nap around that time) and then we play while daddy gets ready for work. I have dinner with Libby around 5 p.m. and then bathe her, change her into PJs and read/have quiet play until about 7 p.m. when we start the bedtime routine. Sadly, some nights this can go on until about 9 p.m. because she really fights going down for the night. If I am lucky I'll sleep 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. But usually it's more like 11 p.m. until 5 a.m.
Big chores like lawn mowing, pet grooming, cleaning house, laundry, etc. is generally done on the weekends, although sometimes I can get some laundry done during the week.
Now here's the question...how am I going to keep this up and start my accelerated MBA program later this month? I am nuts. My plan right now is to let my mom help with some of the evening routine (bath, playtime, etc.) during the week and to also get up at 4 a.m. to have uninterrupted study time from 4-6 a.m. and then get ready for work much quicker than I do now (I am usually up at 5 a.m. and out the door by 6:45 a.m. but know I can be quicker about showering, dressing, grooming and eating if I have to be).
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