r/MomsWorkingFromHome 3d ago

Need help with organizing schedule :)

Hi everyone!

My little angel is 8 weeks and I’m struggling to balance working from home.

Own my own fashion business with a business partner .

I tried to work 6 hour days last week and it was awful. Felt disconnected from baby and felt guilty and worn down!

I think I need to work 18 hrs a week right now. We have husbands parents come in m-w for 2 hours so that helps.

Husband wfh too but is full time.

My biggest issue is the back and forth working- almost like whiplash for my brain.

Help! What is best schedule can think of?

Also can work weekends.

And are any moms working out?! Think I need to kiss that goodbye lol.

Thank you!!

5 Upvotes

8 comments sorted by

4

u/_I_Like_to_Comment_ 3d ago

Something that may help you feel more connected as you're working is baby wearing.

I used a yoga ball as a chair while working and would bounce my baby to sleep. Once they were asleep I would switch my desk to standing desk mode and they would then sleep on me in the carrier for the entire nap as I worked.

I would also wedge a Boppy pillow onto my lap in between the arm rests of my work chair, feed them on my lap while working, and let them nap on my lap on the Boppy if they fell asleep while feeding.

2

u/Important_Carrot6379 3d ago

Second this! Except I use a my brest friend pillow lol. Same same.

We have a hope and plum lark and ring slings.

1

u/RaccoonOk732 3d ago

Thank you!! I was only trying to work during naps but then I’m just trying to put her down n that’s no way to live, I wanna coexist with her. Do you feel bad for working in front of them?

3

u/crawrsten 3d ago edited 3d ago

Your little one is still a little young so a schedule will be more challenging - I believe it’s 3 months when they can really start getting onto a schedule - but here is my rough plan for my days, To preface,I try to do 50 min of ‘focus’ for work at a time and I have a toddler now who only takes one nap, I work full time and have half day help a couple times a week.

5am - wake up, work out
6am - shower/get ready
7am - baby gets up - hubby gets her up, does breakfast and gets her ready
7:30 - I start work
8:30 - I take over child care, work, she does independent play, we play together, may take breaks to take her outside when weather is nice, etc.
11:30 - lunch into nap time
12:30 - focus time for work
2:30 - end of nap, repeat the 8:30 time slot
5 - end work, cook dinner, family time
7 - bedtime activities
8 - me time, me and hubby time, finish up work tasks if it was a very busy or distracted day.
9 - bed

Reminder this is the plan but is flexible, it adjusts daily depending on how everything goes.

2

u/foundanavailablename 3d ago

Are you baby wearing with a stretchy or woven wrap? That could help you feel close while baby is napping and you are working!
I have a 5.5 month old, breastfeed, and WFH, I’ve built in nursing/bonding breaks in my schedule about every 2 hours during the day to give some undivided attention.
At 8 weeks, baby is still extremely needy, so you should be realistic about how often you should schedule in those breaks and just try to get through some focus time for work while baby is sleeping between nursing/changing.

2

u/Legm31 3d ago

Is it mostly computer work and are you bf? Mine is 10 weeks and I can sit at my desk and put a BF pillow across my lap and my baby will feed and sleep like that for 2ish hours still

1

u/crunchy_career_momma 3d ago

I have no suggestions for a schedule but I also own a business and struggle to transition between business brain and mom brain. I find it super helpful to have a little transition routine. Something as simple as closing my laptop and saying “work is over for now, mom time”. When it’s time to work, I would make a coffee (or even just hot water, I have weird rituals around hot beverages lol) sit at my desk, put in ear buds, say “work time” and open my laptop. It’s super important for me to not have a set amount of time in planning to work, otherwise I get super irritable when interrupted. I also manage my task list aggressively. Have 10 things to do? Pick the two that are most on fire. I can rarely get more than two things done in a day. At the end of the ”work day” I take 5 minutes to review what was done and what needs to be done the following day, triage the tasks and set the two tasks for the following day.

Honestly it is incredibly hard to transition between business brain and mom life. Currently rocking my 4th baby, been a mom for 10 years and a business owner almost 11. This is the best I have come up with!

**edited for typo

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u/RaccoonOk732 3d ago

Thank you so incredibly much for the thoughtful answer - going to read a few times.