As I sit here writing this, my 3.5 month old is having her tummy time while I have my much needed coffee. As a very busy woman, working from home with a baby can be difficult. If you are new here, I am a wife, mother of 3 ages 4 and under, a wedding photographer and educator, and from time-to-time a clay jewellery maker. By the way, I also work full-time as a Radiation Therapist at the local cancer treatment centre however I am currently on maternity leave.

Support System

I often get asked, “How do you do it all?” and the answer my friends, is that I don’t. Working from home with a baby would not be possible without my support system. I have an incredible husband who takes on more than his share of household chores including almost all of the cooking. Our families also live nearby and are a huge part of our children’s lives and when my mom is over and not being forced to play hockey in the basement or go for a nature walk, she tidies up the mess that is somehow always around. I guess if you’re a parent, you understand that!

So I guess what I’m saying is that while I am going to share what a typical day might look like in my household, I am aware of how fortunate I am to have such a supportive husband and family. Their support allows me to do all of the things that I love while working from home with a baby.

*Break – baby needs to be fed*

Morning Routine

If you plan on working from home with a baby, first understand that you need to be flexible and patient. If you have a newborn, you know that a sleep “schedule” is a loose term and could literally only be a schedule for a few days before it changes. Last week we were getting up at 6am so I will pretend that we do that everyday even though most days it’s earlier.

As soon as I wake up, I turn the frying pan on to start warming it up because if the fried eggs on toast isn’t ready when the boys decide they are hungry, all hell breaks loose. Typically, hubby will make everyone their breakfast and serve me my coffee like I’m a queen. While he’s making breakfast, I nurse the baby and while I’m nursing, I will check and respond to emails and social media messages.

Once I am done nursing and burping the baby, I will take some time for cuddles with the other two on the couch and set her down on her play mat. This is also the time I will throw in a load of laundry and if there are clothes to be folded, I will bring the basket out to the living room so that it’s in my face all day which will give it a higher chance of being folded LOL!

Our goal is for my husband and the two boys to be out the door by 7:30am to be dropped off at daycare. For some reason or other, the boys insist that I do everything instead of their dad so I usually go help them get dressed and ready to go.

*Break – baby wants attention*

I have no idea how much time I am going to get so this is when I try to tackle the MOST important task of the day. How do I know what that is? I write it down the night before. I always write down a to-do list in order of importance before I go to bed. This also helps me get all of my thoughts out of my head and onto paper so that I can get to sleep easier.

So today, that was to pay bills, print off wedding day timelines, write blog post and email to subscribers. On that list is also fold and put away the laundry, and empty and fill the dishwasher. If I finish all of those, then I always have another list of to-do’s that I can work on if time becomes free such as: content for my wedding photography course, tweaking my website, and creating content for social media.

Working from home in the afternoon

As most of you know, a full night of sleep is a bit of a luxury (at least at my house). So with that being said, I ALWAYS prioritize an afternoon nap. If I’m tired in the afternoon, then I will lay down with baby girl when she naps. I’m also someone who doesn’t nap if it’s not going to last at least an hour so some of you may call that a full blown sleep but i’m okay with it.

During this time, I continue to work on my to-do list and then around 3:30pm, I try to prep dinner. This looks different each day. Sometimes it might be peeling and cutting potatoes, other days it might be making the kids up a smorgasbord. Often times, I am still napping when they get home so dinner is served later in the evening and we bust out the snacks instead.

Kids are home from daycare

Once the kids are home from daycare, all work stops unless I am leaving the house to go on a photoshoot. Typically, those are scheduled after 7pm so that I can spend the evening with the kids.

The oh so dreadful bedtime. It’s a struggle over here, every. single. night. Whether it’s that they didn’t get to watch a show because we were outside playing, or they don’t want to bath, or they don’t want to wear clothes. It could literally be anything that sets them off at this point. When we are putting the boys to bed, we often take this time to read our own books. This might be a physical book or one on our phone.

Off to bed they go

If the day was crazy with little time to myself, then I have to stay up after the kids go to bed to finish my tasks but I’ve learned what my threshold of tasks are. I make reasonable goals to reach each day, knowing what I have the capacity for. Worst case scenario, I bump the last task to the first one on the following day. This is when I write down my list for the following day taking into consideration if there’s anything on the calendar that needs my attention.

Some nights I will go to bed early to read, hang out and catch up with hubby or yes…scroll TikTok mindlessly, watching comedy skits.

I really hope that this was helpful to you. A few takeaways for you if you got bored and skimmed to the bottom:

1. Create a to-do list nightly for the following day
2. Check email and social media when you are nursing your baby
3. Understand that each day will be unpredictable
4. Be okay with not getting everything completed
5. Let some stuff go (ie: mopping daily or hell, washing your hair each time you shower)
6. Give yourself some grace!!

Thanks for reading and coming along for the ride of my chaotic life 🙂
Make sure to check out this post for a few of my favourite planners!

P.S.
I linked the sandbox that the boys are using here. This is their third summer with it and play in it daily!!

Until next time, keep snappin’ 📸 ,

Nicole