I haven’t been as consistent posting, and you can probably guess from the title of this post it’s because I’ve returned back to work. I’m still working on settling into a schedule with my husband and Korbin, but I wanted give some advice and hopefully help you with returning to work.
I’ve gotten a few more followers recently so I want to take a quick minute to re-introduce myself. I am a wife, mom, Police Officer & blogger/YouTuber. Pheww, got a little stressed typing that, but life is good, everything is good and we are all making it!
1. Plan
Plan, plan and plan some more. Plan meals, childcare (obviously), and chores.
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed being a new mom and working 40 hours (or more) a week, no matter what you do for work. Having a plan for who was watching Korbin, my meals for work and when I would get household chores done made the transition a little easier.
Since I work overnight I am home during the day, but asleep. Tyler is at work and we have the sweetest nanny come and watch Korbin for 6 hours while I get some sleep. It hasn’t been easy but I know it due time Korbin will get use to her. Start looking early! We started in November, knowing we wouldn’t need her to start until January. We used care.com and had a good handful of applicants. We were luckily enough to do one interview and find the perfect person.
Use your baby’s schedule (I use that word very lightly) to help plan your day. Korbin takes very short naps, so I’ve learned to get most of my daily tasks done while she’s awake to include working out, showers and doing laundry. And use her naps to rest, eat and edit.
She typically sleeps 6-8 hours at night now before she wakes up to eat, but I’d be lying if I said she did this every night, so I can get a lot done when I’m off and she’s asleep as well.
It works best for me to get my wifey chat things done at night, but that may not be true for you, so you have to find what works.
2. Break up your leave
Since I was returning to work about a month before Christmas I decided to come back to work after 10 weeks, and then go out another 3 ish weeks for Christmas and the New Year. With paid parental leave and FML I was able to get 12 weeks. I took a couple vacation days also to extend my leave a little longer. In my opinion this was super helpful. After working about a month I knew I’d be able to spend another 20 days home with Tyler and Korbin.
3. Start in the middle of the week
If you’ve already returned back to work then you know that no matter when you start it’s difficult. You’ve probably haven’t left your baby more than a few hours, by the time you return back to work, or at all due to the current pandemic. I started on a Wednesday and I have a 4 day work week. So only 2 days away from Korbin then the weekend was a lot more manageable than a full work week.
4. Ask for help: *me talking to myself here*
Whether it’s your husband, boyfriend, wife, mom whatever. Just ask for help. Trust me, it is already an overwhelming time in your life. And if you have a supportive family and friends then they will be more than willing to help you. You can’t do it all, and that’s okay. Work on transitioning back into working and creating a new schedule for your family and not only accept help, but ask for it.
5. Automatic pump
If you plan on breast feeding this is a must! Grab yourself a decent pump bra also!
I pump twice at work during my 10 hour shift and it can be really tedious and time consuming. So having a pump and pump bra make the process a lot quicker and smoother.
Most insurance will provide a pump for free! And if yours doesn’t, you can always catch one on sale. I actually have 2 pumps and it makes it so much easier. I leave one at home and one at work. I have the Spectra (from my insurance) and the Madela (gifted from my mom). The spectra stays at home and the Madela goes to work. If you’re a working mom, who works outside of the house I’d highly recommend the Madela. It conveniently comes in a bag and can be transported to and from in said bag very easily.
I feel like some of this advice might be obvious. But when you’re in the thick of things trying to get everything situated for your new normal you might be a little overwhelmed. I know I was. Oh and probably pretty emotional, I definitely was. But if being a working mom is what works best for you family, then get it done mama!
If no one has told you I want to remind you that you’ve got this! You know what’s best for your baby and your family. What works for some one else may not work for you.
Let me know in the comments what helped you transition back into the workforce.
xo
