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D.C. Area Babies
Returning to work ?s
I still have a few more weeks of maternity leave, but I know it will sneak up on me!
C has been a great sleeper, except he goes down around 11:00pm, wakes around 6:00am to feed, then down again until about 10:00am. This obviously won't work when I go back on to my work schedule. How do I go about readjusting his nighttime schedule? He's a night owl, as in wide awake and wanting to play & interact between 7-11pm.
Also, when you returned to work, how much eariler did you get yourself up to get ready before work? Did you get yourself ready and then feed your LO or did you feed first and then get ready?
How do you handle daycare pick up/drop off? We are thinking that DH will drop off in the morning and I will pick up in the afternoon. However, that means that we will most likely have some double Metro parking fares (not sure yet how we will do this). We work at Navy Yard and Courthouse, and C's daycare is just north of Glenmont Metro, so we have to figure in our long commutes & daycare hours.
I'm sure I will have many more questions as it gets closer, but these have been on my mind lately. Thanks!
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Re: Returning to work ?s
I don't really have advice about your commute or getting LO to bed earlier, but in terms of morning routine, here is what DH and I do (and have done since the LOs were born):
--5am: DH and I wake up and feed the babies a bottle together (they almost always wake up at 5am hungry). The babies then go back to sleep.
--515am to 6:10am: DH exercises and gets ready for work (we own a treadmill). I either go back to sleep or putter around the house. I'm also responsible for the video monitor and tending to the LOs if they wake up. Occassioally, I'll run if DH gets done early
6:10am-6:45am: DH eats breakfast and gets the video monitor while I get ready for work.
6:45am: We wake the babies and get them dressed for daycare. We leave the house at 7am. By feeding them a bottle at 5am, they aren't hungry again until 8am, and daycare feeds them their next bottle and solids.
This schedule has worked great for us b/c it gives us time to do stuff in the AM without worrying about the babies.
Great news that BabyWalton sleeps 11 pm - 6 am. I wouldn't try to readjust baby's schedule if it works well enough for you. From my experience, the baby will likely sleep the same number of hours in a row but not lengthen it. DS slept 9 pm - 3 am, and I would have loved the 11 pm to 6 am schedule!
DH and I took "shifts" - he's a night owl, and I could handle mornings, but I needed about 5 - 6 hours of sleep, together or in chunks, to be functional the next day.
8 pm - I nursed DS
9 pm - DS and I went to bed. DH was responsible for any wake-ups between 9 pm and 3 am; this was my protected sleep time. If DS woke and was hungry, he'd get a bottle from DH. I had low supply, so this was formula; it could be pumped milk.
3 am - DS woke up and I nursed him.
4 am - 6 am - My "shift" was on. Sometimes DS slept and sometimes it was touch and go.
6 am - Nurse DS again, hand off to DH or hang out in the bouncy seat in the bathroom while I got ready so DH could get some more sleep.
Hope this helps as an example - I found the transition back to work smoother than I expected!
I don't think he started going to bed earlier until he was around 4 months old. For a long time he didn't go to bed until 10 or 11 pm.
For daycare, H drops M off in the morning and I pick him up in the afternoon. Our daycare is close to our house, so that helps. I've had to change my work hours (I work an earlier schedule now) to make it work, but it's going pretty well.
I don't have any comments on the feeding - since I assume you're talking about breast feeding (and we were formula feeders - so, it was a little more flexible...)
But, with regards to Metro - We only do one car, and have slightly staggered schedules. Here's the way it goes in our house - G drops me off at WMetro, drops J off at DC, Parks at GMetro (in a certain "area" of the station) and goes to work. After work, I ride to GMetro, pick up the car, pick up J at DC, drive to pick G up at WMetro.
Since we're walking distance to metro, sometimes we skip the dropping off/picking up at WMetro, and just walk. Just depends on timing.
I sometimes leave from your office to get to GMetro - despite the transfer at FTotMetro, it seems to be a little shorter than my "typical" ride from Farragut north.
And, as for the schedule - DD is also a late sleeper (and always has been...). In the early days, she took 2 naps at DC. In the morning, we'd usually just wake her up and get her ready, assuming she'd get the sleep she needed during those 2 naps. She still takes an approx 2hr nap at DC, after lunch in the afternoon. Yesterday, she was super tired for some reason... and went down for an extra nap in the morning. She still slept fine last night. I know she's a toddler, so it's not quite the same.
Have you been able to get a parking spot at GMetro? I know hippotree previously had issues, and had to wait a long time... we got lucky, and were able to get one in a couple of weeks (with a LOT of calling to the Metro office....) If you want 2 cars, and don't want to pay double fees for 2 reserved spaces - I know there are some lower cost options near WMetro (that aren't really "legit" - but, people have used them for years... ask zerf)
with both kids, i fed first, then got myself ready. when DS was a baby, i got up about 30 minutes earlier so i'd have enough time to nurse without being rushed. i showered and packed my lunch and his bag the night before so all i needed to do in the morning was nurse, eat breakfast, get dressed and leave.
when he started solids, DS always ate breakfast at DC, so we never had to do that at home. i just nursed him when he got up.
i'd try putting him down just a tad earlier in the evenings for several days, then a bit earlier than that for several days. perhaps in the morning after his 6am feed, don't put him back (where ever he is currently sleeping) and leave him in your room while you dress, etc. C will probably adjust on his own and nap on the way to DC or take a longer morning nap when he is there. these little guys figure things out pretty well!
I'd change that schedule gradually over the next few weeks before you go back to work. Our kids go to bed at 7:30. We dream feed our DS (4 months old) sometime between 10:00 and 11:00 am. He wakes up once around 1:00 or 2:00, then again around 5:00 or 6:00 (at which point I'm up anyway). Between 6:30 and 7:30 am is when we're all up getting ready for school/daycare/work.
When I was BF-ing I got up with my babies, fed them, put them back down to doze while I got ready. When we switched to formula, I'd get up before them, get ready, then tackle the day. That's what I do now. I get up at 5:30 and the rest of the house gets up at 6:30.
We just use one car for our commutes.
We both hop in the van in the morning, load up the kids, drop the two younger ones off at daycare, drop the older one off at preschool, then DH drives me to the metro or sometimes, if he has a client in DC, he drives me in to work in Federal Triangle.
In the afternoons, he goes and picks up the two younger kids at daycare since they have to be picked up by 5:00, then he comes and gets me from the metro station, then we pick up the oldest from school around 5:30.