D.C. Area Babies

If your H travels for work...

How do you manage to get yourself and your kid(s) up and ready for the day by yourself? H is going to be doing some traveling in April, and this will be his first trip since I went back to work. I have no idea how I'm going to shower and get myself ready for work in the morning. Usually one of us showers while the other person is on baby duty. When I was on maternity leave, I could put M in his bouncy seat in the bathroom while I got ready, but he's way too big (and too mobile) for that now. My only idea so far is to put a blanket down on the bathroom floor and lay out some toys for him and hope he's ok for 10 minutes.
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Re: If your H travels for work...

  • Can you get up before he does and get in the shower then? That's what I did. Sometimes he would wake up and cry for a bit while I was showering but that's OK. It also helped to have as much done the night before as possible (bags packed, outfits picked out, etc.).

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  • If DH or I are home alone with C, the only way we can really shower is to get up before him.  Once C gets up, he just gets milk (or was nursed), gets changed and gets out the door. Everything else is pretty much done before he wakes up. Right now, DH does all of the morning stuff (I'm often out of the house before either get up) and he just makes sure to get up a good half hour before C. I prep a lot of stuff the night before, and always have.
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  • I thought about setting my alarm earlier. That may be the best solution. M wakes up between 5:30-6:30 am (exact time can't be predicted), so that means I probably have to get up around 5 am to get myself ready. Ugh. But I guess that would give me 2 whole hours to get us ready before I leave the house at 7, so that should be plenty of time. This is not going to be fun.
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  • Can you shower the night before?  I do this, and it's the only way I can get out of the house on time.
  • I recommend a night shower as well.

    Or DH is the one alone with DS in the morning and he usually showers. He'll just bring DS in his high chair in the bathroom. But we have a 2-bedroom apt so our dining room is right next to our kitchen.

    Does he have a jumper that he might like to jump in while you shower?

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  • I'm not sure how old your baby is, but my key to showering when the baby is awake is taking down the shower curtain and just having up a clear liner curtain.  After she was out of the bouncy chair, but before she was truly running all over the place, I would set her baby tub (empty) in the middle of the bathroom floor with all of her bath toys (or I'm sure regular toys would be fine) and she would happily play away.  She could pretty much see me through the curtain and I would play peekaboo around the curtain.  It took months before she realized she could climb out of the tub and run around and even then she just picks up random stuff.  Of course any cleaning supplies are locked away, I set the trash can outside of the room, etc.  I guess she could pick up the toilet lid or unroll the toilet paper, but she hasn't figured that out yet.  And I can see her the whole time.  Getting up earlier works too, but this might be another solution :)  Now that she is almost two I just put her in the back of the shower and she plays with her bath toys, but then you have a wet child to deal with at the end of the shower.
  • The bathroom is small and our house is 5 levels (weird house layout), so lugging baby gear into the bathroom isn't easy. The bouncy seat used to work because it's small, and back then M was small and less mobile, but there's no way I could put a jumperoo or high chair in the bathroom now. Besides having to lug them up and down the stairs, M isn't thrilled with anything that contains him these days (jumperoo, pack n play, etc.). He's crawling and wants to move around all.the.time. So getting up extra early may be the best idea. I could shower at night, but then I'd still have to figure out what to do with him while I get dressed and do my hair and makeup in the morning.
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  • I have a short 'do that produces some MEAN bed head in the mornings, so night showers are not an option for me.  I get up between 5:00 and 5:30 to get my shower in before the rest of my house wakes up.  It's early, but after a while, you get used to it.

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  • My husband travels a lot for work and I have to wake up before the boys to get ready, get the dogs taken care of, etc before they wake up. The baby wakes up bw 5:30 and 6, so I'm up around 5 to make sure I have enough time. If he happens to get up earlier, I feed him a bottle, then put him in his Bumbo seat in the bathroom with some toys while I take a quick shower. Before my husband's first trip though, I was stressed about how I would make it work, but you find that you'll get into a routine quickly. Now, I am out of the house faster when he travels than when he's home ;-)
    Good luck to you.

  • I shower at night

    in the mornings, if DS wakes up before I'm ready, I let him crawl around the bedroom and the bathroom while I get ready. He plays with toys, and has fun watching me.

     

  • imageArtslvr:

    I have a short 'do that produces some MEAN bed head in the mornings, so night showers are not an option for me.  I get up between 5:00 and 5:30 to get my shower in before the rest of my house wakes up.  It's early, but after a while, you get used to it.

     

    THIS and the clear shower curtain comment...the lighting in our bathroom is such that we use a clear curtain anyway, otherwise the shower feels like cave.

    And ditto the pp re: getting out the door faster when DH is not home...it's one less person I have to herd lol.

  • I SAH, but DH leaves the house every day before any of the rest of us are awake.  So I've always had morning duty, but usually the only thing I have to get us out the door on time for is preschool or an occasional doctor's appointment.  I know myself; setting an alarm to get up before the kids if I had no burning reason to would fail after two mornings.

    My kids didn't like being contained once they were mobile either, but I put them in the pack-n-play with a bunch of toys anyway.  Sometimes they were fine, and other times they wailed.  But 10 minutes of crying wasn't going to permanently damage them, and eventually they got into the routine.  To shorten my morning preps, I'd sometimes shower right before I went to bed so that anything like shaving my legs, taking off nail polish, applying lotion, etc. didn't eat up time in the morning.  And in the morning, I'd use the sprayer attachment in the shower to wet my hair down again (without getting my body wet) and do a quick blow-dry.  Could you do that, and put on your make-up, while keeping an eye on him and letting him crawl around your bathroom or bedroom?  Or would he be so into everything that you'd be hopelessly distracted?

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  • We are night shower takers in our house - and sadly, I have no hair and makeup. I've just realized that I value my extra thirty minutes of sleep more, so people will just have to deal with me looking like the walking dead for a few years until my LOs are more self sufficient in the mornings. Sigh.

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  • I take a very quick shower and put my DD in her highchair (buckled in) with toys and turn the tv on. It's the only time I really let her watch it and she is always fine. I only do it once in a while though
  • imagevtmezzo:

    We are night shower takers in our house - and sadly, I have no hair and makeup. I've just realized that I value my extra thirty minutes of sleep more, so people will just have to deal with me looking like the walking dead for a few years until my LOs are more self sufficient in the mornings. Sigh.

    this. i value my sleep and am willing to give up other things in exchange!

    i found a way to do something with my hair before i go to bed so that it doesn't require more than a couple minutes in the morning (bun on the crown of my head). and i only wear mascara and lip gloss (might put on eyeshadow if it's a special day). 

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  • I put LO in an umbrella stroller in the bathroom, with a toy if I have to shower while she's awake.
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  • I usually night shower (but this is also so I can decontaminate myself after a day at the hospital - yuck) but I have also done some of the things previous posters mentioned such as the jumper (but we have the johnny jump up which hangs on the door frame) or strapped him in the umbrella stroller. 

    We don't have a pack n' play but I sometimes load his crib up with toys and turn the baby monitor on and then go shower.  Our living area is also on one level.

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  • imagemembrn:
    I sometimes load his crib up with toys and turn the baby monitor on and then go shower. 

    This is what I do as I'm always the one with the baby in the morning alone.  He has "special" toys that he only gets when I'm showering & he's in his crib.  I find that balls work especially well in the crib.

  • DH was gone for a week in Boston back in November.   Honestly, I just woke up earlier and did all of my stuff before it was time to wake up Snuggle, get him ready for daycare and go to work.  I also checked with daycare b/c DH dropped pff Snuggle at 8 am whereas I had to drop him off at 6 am.  It was a bit of juggling, but it worked out.

    Can M play in the crib for a few minutes if you need him too?

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