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working moms--what does your schedule look like?
I am returning to work next Tuesday and am just curious how you other working moms get everything ready in the morning! Do I shower and get myself ready first and then wake my LO to feed her before we are out the door? Do I feed her first, then get ready? I am contemplating having a pumping session after her first nursing session because I seem to pump the most milk at that time. I just don't know which was I should do things. My DH needs to leave for work by 7:15 and I need to be out the door with LO to drop her off by 7:35. Any advice would be great!
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Re: working moms--what does your schedule look like?
I shower at night and wake up at 530am. I have to be at work at 7am. When I wake up at 530, I get myself ready. DS usually wakes up about 630 and I feed him. After I feed him I pump.
It is going to be trial and error at first. You will get used to it!!! Good luck!
I need to be out the door by 6:30 in the morning. I have my pump clean and ready, clothes picked out, lunch packed, and DS's stuff packed if he is going to my IL's house the next day. We get all of this ready right after dinner.
I wake up at 5 a.m. This gives me time to pump, clean the pump, shower, get ready, eat breakfast, and feed DS if he wakes up on days he is staying home with DH or wake DS up and feed him in days he is going to grandmas and grandpa's.
I pump first and then shower and get ready. But it doesn't always work out. Today, for example, DS woke up at 4:40.
You just have o give yourself enough extra time to roll with whatever happens.
I'm going back to work on Tuesday too and am so nervous about the morning routine. I also have a 3y/o DD and I have to get us all out of the house by 7:45am. DH has to leave around the same time, so hopefully he'll be able to help with DD. I'm just worried because DS's sleeping patterns have been way off. Sometimes he wakes at 6am, sometimes 7:30am, sometimes not until 9am. I'm hoping that once he's in daycare full time, he'll get himself on a schedule (or be so tired that he sleeps all night LOL!).
I'm thinking that I will get up at 6am, shower, get ready, & eat. Then I'll get him up at 7:15, change & nurse. I'm planning on pumping in the car on the way to work so it's one less thing I have to deal with in the morning at home. I hope this works.
I try to get everything ready the night before. I have two DD's and have to be out the door by 7:30. Here is my advice:
Buy two sets of pump parts. One for work, one for home. I pump after DD goes to bed and in the middle of the night. This saves me cleaning parts before having to go to to work in the morning (and allows me to pack up my pump the night before). I clean all pump parts at night when I get home from work.
I also bought some cheap Gerber bottles. If you have a medela pump they will screw to the pump parts. This way it saves me money on breastmilk storage bags and I don't have to use the bottles that fit in the cooler that I use at work.
Get bottles for baby around the night before. This saves sooo much time.
DD2 usually wakes up anywhere from 6-6:45. I usually get up at 6 to shower. If DD2 wakes up around 6 my DH will take her and rock with her until I am done (usually around 6:20). I will make breakfast and actually nurse her and eat breakfast at the same time. She nurses on both sides in the morning, so I don't bother pumping at home. I will usually pump though shortly after getting to work.
Goodbye little angel(7/22/2011)....see you in heaven
Goodbye my second angel (9/18/2011)
I try to get as much done as possible the night before. Showering, having the pump bag together, having DS's bottles and solids assembled and in the fridge, and having my clothes for the next day set out go a very long way in making for an easier morning!
My DS is unpredictable in when he wakes up. He's also very mobile and curious, which can make for a tough morning if he wakes at 5 and decides to be up for the day. Then I have to find a way for him to stay (mostly) still and occupied long enough for me to get dressed and ready for work!
Usually what I do in that case is nurse DS, change his diaper and outfit, have him hang out in the PNP while I eat breakfast, and then have him play in his exersaucer while I get dressed and put on makeup. Then out the door by 7:30 or so. My DH goes to work super early (4:30!), so it's a one-woman show in the morning at our house.
I used to pump at home in the morning too, but I thought it was too much of a hassle. I find it a lot easier to pump as soon as I get to work in the morning.
Good luck! It is a big adjustment, but you'll get into a good routine soon enough.
I also get everything I can ready the night before. I get DD's bottles ready for DC and I pack up my pump bottles and parts. (This prevents me from forgetting them in the morning rush, which I have done, so I now have an extra set of parts and membranes etc at work too in case I forget...) Then all I have to do in the morning is pop the ice packs into the cooler with my bottles in the pump bag, and in DD's cooler with her bottles for DC.
When I first went back to work, I also pumped before leaving. I would use another set of parts for that so I didn't have to wash them before getting out the door, I could do it that night. I would wake up and shower before DD worke up (back in the glorious days before the 4 month wakeful ruined her sleep LOL) and then would feed her when she woke up. DH would shower while I fed DD. After his shower, he would watch her while I pumped for 30 mins. That was a GREAT session for me and I just dropped it about a month ago. DD would take 3 bottles at DC and I pumped 2 more times while at work.
Now my routine is easier because I don't pump at home in the morning, so it saves me that time. I pump 2X at work around 10 and 2, when DD has her 2 bottles at DC. This works great for us now, since DD is taking less millk and is into solids at a year. But for starters, I would try for that morning session because it really got me the volume of milk I needed to also have a stash for emergencies etc. GL with your return to work!
It depends on what time my guy wakes up.
Our alarm is set for 6am. Sometimes at 6am I'm feeding a baby who will go right back to sleep, so DH takes a shower while I do that. That leaves him ready to grab/entertain a baby if the baby wakes up while I shower.
Sometimes at 6am the baby is sleeping, so DH stays in bed while I shower and then he showers.
If the baby is sleeping, we both dress and get ready and the baby is usually up around 7am. If the baby gets up earlier, we bring him into our bedroom while we finish getting ready. Then it's breakfast.
We eat breakfast together and then DH heads off to work at 7:30. (So he has 90 minutes from wakeup to get ready for work and that accounts for "entertaining baby" time.)
The little guy and I don't head out till 8:30, so that last hour we finish breakfast, clean up, I get him dressed, pack his daycare bag and my pump bag, and give him one more nursing session before we're out the door.
I drop him off at daycare, and pump on my way to work.
I have to be at work at 9am. My husband is already long gone before we wake up, so I do everything solo. Here's our rough schedule:
6:30am wake up, usually LO wakes me up around this time, I go get him from his crib and change his diaper. I put him in his RnP where I can see him if I peek out of the shower. He literally spends his entire morning attempting to eat his Oball rattle. Usually I am able to shower, dress, dry my hair while he's happy. If I'm lucky I can also throw on makeup & brush my teeth. I am very lucky in that LO is in a super great mood usually in the mornings. If he starts to fuss, I put on the Moby or Beco carrier and wear him to finish up everything I need to do to be ready.
by 7:15am-7:20am we go walk the dog (less than 10min walk, he knows it's all about business!)
Come in, feed the dog. I prep & pack my breakfast & lunch for the day as fast as I can. I make his bottles the night before, but in the morning I pack them in the cooler. I check my pump bag to make sure I have all the parts I need, then carry my purse, my pump bag, his bottle cooler, my lunch bag, his daycare bag ALL to the car in the garage (this usually takes two trips). All this time I am still wearing LO in the baby carrier, which is a LIFESAVER.
By this time it's approx 7:45-7:50am. We go upstairs and I nurse LO. Sometimes he just wants to look up at me and smile and talk. But if I'm lucky he'll drink up lots of milk. Then I change him again, and dress him for the day (up until now, he's still got on his pjs).
8:15-8:20 I load him in the carseat and off we go. 15min to daycare, 5 min to talk to them while I'm dropping him off, and 15min to work.
WHEW! To be honest, I oughta be getting up at 6:15 so I won't be as rushed, but what can I say, I need all the sleep I can get because he wakes up 2x or more a night!
In the beginning (this is only my 3rd week back), there were times when he woke up hungry. So I would nurse first. But I really like it this way with nursing being the very last thing we do. My first pumping session is around 10:30, so that's about 3 hours after I nursed. I have plenty of supply (previously had oversupply), and he only nurses 1x a time. When I pump (3x a day, but only one side a time), I get 5 ounces from my first pump, then 4.5-5oz, then 4. I'm producing around 13-14 ounces, but only send 11 oz in bottles. And he actually only drinks about 9 oz. Once he drank all 11oz, but usually not.
The key thing for me is the period in which I wear him. I get a lot done that way. I also find it really helpful to have my car completely loaded, so after I nurse, it's just load him up & go. That way I can give him as much time nursing as I need if he's being fussy or distracted. Before my very first day back I actually had everything except my lunch & his bottles loaded in the car the night before! Definitely do what you can the night before. I need to be better about picking out an outfit the night before as I sometimes waste time figuring out what the hell to wear.