What do your weekday mornings look like?

[nhope]

I am going back to work after maternity leave later this year with my first baby. He is 12 weeks old and I feel like the last few weeks we finally have gotten into the swing of things. But the thought of going back to work while being a mom is flabbergasting, even if intellectually I know that's what millions of women do! How do you all do it??

Some context... He'll be almost 5 months old when we start daycare. My husband WFH every day, and I will have to go into the office 3x per week / be remote 2x per week. My commute one-way is about 30 minutes, I should be there by 8:00 AM. I exclusively pump, and the plan is to pump before, during, and after work. My husband and I haven't figured out the specific details yet, but we are flexible on who does pick ups/drop offs for Little Man depending on what either of us have going on that day.

With that, what does your morning look like? (I purposely don't want to say morning "routine" because I'm looking for reality and am sure they can change day-to-day.) What time do you go to bed/wake up?Do you exercise? Put on a full face of makeup? What are some tips to keep in mind when getting a baby ready for daycare? E.g. prepping bottles, what time you should wake them up, etc.

Thank you, fellow moms!

 

[aaronq10]

@nhope Personally I’d try to do one of the pumps on your drive in or out or both.

 

[mooke147]

@aaronq10 I pump while driving a few times a week and it's not too bad!

 

[carolb]

@nhope Good luck transitioning back to work! I have two in daycare (ages 1 and 2) and my husband and I have a similar work situation to you and your husband. We alternate dropping off/pick ups.

I want to sleep as much as possible, so I try to take care of as much as I can at night. We normally go for a family walk after dinner then do their nighttime routine. I shower at night and put my hair in curlers that I sleep in. And I pack my lunch for work at night. And try to pick out my clothes for work.

We normally wake up around 6:15 and I start getting ready and my husband gets the kids up and gets them dressed and gets their breakfasts. I wear pretty minimal makeup just concealer, eyeshadow, and mascara so it doesn’t take long at all. Once I’m done getting ready, I join my husband to pack the kids lunch/snacks for school. We keep most of what we reuse daily at their daycare. Such as bottles, water cups, nap gear, and so on. Then we’re out the door by 7:15.

I tend to keep my kids lunches pretty simple and use what I know they’ll eat. I like to either buy or meal prep meatballs that have veggies cooked in to them. I like using pouches that have fruit and veggie in them. And then I do some fruit and some crackers. And I work in leftovers as I have something that could work for school.

Since my husband works from home, he’s really great about letting me take the time that I need to get ready and he gets the kids ready but I do normally pick out an outfit for them.

I have not pumped when they were in daycare so I’m not sure about those logistics!

But overall you’ll fall in to a routine and it will end up being easier!

 

[mooke147]

@nhope My LO is 6 months old and I have been back at work since he was 10 weeks old and here is a typical day:

5:30am: wake husband up by kicking him so he has time to wake up before the baby does. I usually dream feed the baby around this time.

5:45am: I get up, rush to get ready before the baby wakes up. It takes me about 15 min to get fully ready

6:00am to 6:30am: pack lunch, get bottles ready, put my pumping bag together.

6:30am: wake up baby and say goodbye

6:30am to 7:30am: husband entertains the baby while I go to work and he drops the baby off at daycare.

I personally like going to work early and be home by 4pm so I can workout or do whatever I want for an hour before the baby is home. We go to bed around 8:30pm and start all over the next day.

Staggering work start times helps us out and we can get a lot more accomplished. If all else fails, but Hey Bear or Mrs. Rachel on TV in the morning for 20 min while getting stuff done. Good luck!

 

[linhlinh9988]

@mooke147 Can I ask what your evening routine is? My 6 month old goes to bed at 6pm and I head to work in the morning by 7:30 so it leaves little time to see her

 

[mooke147]

@linhlinh9988 We really don't have much of an evening routine. Typically my husband gets home with the baby around 5:45pm, one of us feeds the baby at 6:30ish, and we eat dinner around 7pm. The baby plays until he starts getting fussy around 7:30pm, which is when I nurse him while watching TV. He usually sleeps in my arms until 8-9pm until I go to bed where I will feed him a bit more before going to sleep.

90% of the time he falls asleep in my arms while we watch TV at night. I have never been able to stick to a routine because we are busy people and several nights a week we are out doing stuff.

 

[natk]

@nhope I have a 9 month old, husband works in person full time, I work in person 2 days a week.

Mon/tues/friday: up at 7:30, get myself ready, pump coffee, breakfast, get baby up. Grandparents show up at 9 and take over until whenever I'm done with meetings for the day.

Wed/thursday: up at 7, pump, pack milk for the day, get ready, baby is almost always still sleeping, wake him and get him ready, in car by 8:30 ready to work by 9:30
I will leave by 4 to pick him up, and can finish email whenever I need to.

I pump 2 times during the work day when in person, otherwise I'll try to nurse him if I can, i always nurse him after work and then i pump once at night before I go to bed.

 

[jack_stewart]

@nhope Preschooler (2.5 years old) usually wakes up between 5:30am and 6am. I crawl out of bed and play with him in his room, we eat breakfast together. I make formula and label bottles for daycare.

Baby (6 months) wakes up around 6am and 6:30am, give her a bottle.

7:30am husband wakes up and plays with kids while I throw on clothes for drop off. I dress toddler and baby for school.

7:45am We both take the kids and dog to daycare. Husband waits outside with dog while I take them inside. Then if I have time I Join him for the dog walk.

8am-9am Straighten house, shower, workout, or go back to bed. Dealer's choice!

9am - Be at my computer for work.

noon - Workout on my lunchbreak.

5:30pm - Husband and I go pick up the kids.

 

[tabernaculumnus]

@nhope 11 month old - mon-fri & sun up at 6:30 (unless she wakes up earlier) sat- my shift starts at 6:30 so that’s daddy day. I shower at night, so I get dressed , grab her clothes we both go downstairs.
Giver her a change, take off sleep sack, let her play while I read cats, make breakfast, pack lunches.
7 ish- breakfast
After breakfast more play time
8 ish- get her dressed, offer bottle.
8:45 pack her up for daycare. Once she’s in her chair get the cat pans quick, get bags in car.
9:15- day care drop off head to work 10 am shift start.

I shower at night. I works better, plus not fighting for hot water, exercise, I’m on my feet all day, pacing for a lot of it, so I don’t really work out . Food prep tends to happen after she’s asleep, same with laundry

 

[courtneye92]

@nhope I work 7-3:30, my husband works 9-6, both full time WFH. I wake up at 6, dreamfeed LO, empty the dishwasher and make coffee. I get dressed and quick hair/makeup then log on at 7. My husband gets up at 7, gets ready, starts the Roomba, then gets LO whenever she wakes up (usually about 8). He gets her dressed, brings her to me for a quick feed, then drops her at daycare before starting his workday.

I pump at 9, at 11:30, and 2.

Staggered work schedules have made a HUGE difference in quality of life. And prepping everything possible the night before.

 

[draab]

@nhope Well. My morning started at 3 am because my toddler wouldn’t stop crying. So I went to his room and soothed him for 30 mins. Put him in bed and “slept” next to his crib on the floor for another hour. When he fell asleep again, I went to bed.

He still woke up at 7:30. But I was so exhausted I couldn’t get up until 8. Was running late for work so took him to daycare without a formal breakfast. got to the office late at 9:30.

 

[fmp6954]

@nhope I do as little as possible in the mornings. I like to just get up and go. For reference, LO is just about 5 months and we started daycare about 4 weeks ago. He's there from 7:30 to 4:30.

6:30 - I wake up, brush teeth, put on clothes, hit the snooze button once if I can

6:45 - wake up kiddo. Depending on his mood, I'll nurse/change/dress him in whatever order works. We're usually done around 7 but there could be plus 10 minutes in there sometimes. while I'm doing that, husband is making bottles and checking diaper bag to make sure we have everything stocked.

7:00 - hand kiddo to husband, who plays with him a little bit. fix up my work/pumping bag if I didn't last night.

7:10 - we're all out the door. husband drops him off at daycare, I'll pick him up around 4:30.

 

[mattd624]

@nhope Not much for mornings as grandma watches them now so no more daycare drop off but I get up at 3:30/3:45 do a dream feed then I’m out the door within 20 min.

I prep everything I can in the evenings. My lunch, oldest’s lunch and bottles.

 

[jesseman]

@nhope Some of these responses make me feel incredibly lazy lol. I wfh and my husband does drop-offs, our mornings look like this (LO is 21 months old):
* 7-7:15 ish - I wake up and doom scroll in bed
* 7:45 - LO wakes up and I get her dressed immediately. She has a quick snack like fruit or crackers, because she’s ravenous upon waking up bur gets a real breakfast at daycare.
* 8:05 ish - Husband leaves for daycare dropoff and I log on to work. At some point in the morning I change out of pj’s and wash my face. And put makeup on if I have a video call.

I should also add I am 7 months pregnant. When I wasn’t pregnant I would wake up at 6:30 and do a home workout like peloton before LO got up. But im too tired for that now.

 

[nhope]

@jesseman I love the realness! I’m a morning doom scroller too. Every day I say “I’ll stop tomorrow” congratulations on baby #2!

 

[lpwillia]

@nhope Ugh. Just know that it gets better. Go easy on yourself. Prioritize sleep and focus on getting through instead of excelling at work for now.

I think my last iteration of a pumping routine was to nurse in the early morning hours (sometime between 4 and 6 am), then pump her morning bottle right before we leave for daycare. I would leave that room temp in a bottle but otherwise brought a stash of frozen milk weekly.

Now I have a 4 year old and a 1.5 year old. I try to wake up before them to exercise and get as much done for myself as possible. On a good night I have lunches packed and in the fridge for the next day. On a good week I have all their outfits laid out ahead of time.

 

[christianbikerg]

@nhope My biggest tip: don't put on your professional stuff until RIGHT before you leave the house. I call this the "T-shirt Time" rule.

Anyway... I work in-office and I have to be in by 8:30 with a ~ half-hour commute. My spouse is a rover going between a few offices but he doesn't start before 9:30/10, so he does the daycare dropoff (usually between 8:30 and 9) and I do pickups. We have a 9-month-old.

I always do the daycare prep the night before: labeling bottles, popping the bottle bag into the freezer so it will be cold, and packing anything else she needs (spare clothes, etc) I also throw my lunch together (either leftovers or sandwich + sides), pack my work bag (pump parts too) and lay my outfit out--all of these help a lot. My spouse does all the bottle and pump washing and sterilizing the night before.

4:30- get up and pump for half an hour. In an ideal world I'd work out and then shower after but in this reality I have sciatica and I basically can't do anything, so I shower and do house chores with 1 ear on the baby monitor and the other ear on podcasts.

~6-7- Baby wakes up, I nurse her, change her, and we hang out. Sometimes she will fuss before 6 but we rarely get her up because it throws off the rest of her sleep schedule.

7:15/7:20 Spouse gets up and takes over baby care including solid breakfast. (I'll start breakfast if she gets up super early) Then I go brush my teeth, put my work clothes on, slap on some moisturizer and collect all my things to go.

I pretty much go to bed as soon as I can at night. I'll do the prep outlined, pump one more time at 8pm and try to be lights-out by 9. At least twice a week my spouse gets home and I'm already asleep... which kind of sucks but it's just the stage we're in. I am super looking forward to when I stop pumping and magically find 3 hours of time in my day.

 

[jimwif]

@nhope I’ve been back at work 3 weeks now with a 15 week old.

6am - husband wakes up and starts getting ready; always cleans the kitchen at this time
6:30am - I wake up, and baby usually wakes up at this time too. Nurse baby
6:45am - take a shower, baby does tummy time during
7:00am - pack work, daycare, and pumping bags, possibly pump if I need more milk
7:15-7:30am - leave for work. I do daycare drop offs Tu/Th when I work in office. Husband does other days.

 

[abigail8290]

@nhope 9 month old sleeps 6:30-6:30 ish (on the earlier side of 6:30 in the AM). I WFH full time, husband goes to work full time about 20 minutes away. day care is 8 minutes away, on husband's way to work.

we alternate wake-ups so one of us gets up at 6:30 (or earlier) with baby. bring him downstairs, bottle, change diaper. let dogs out into yard and feed dogs. maybe start some coffee.

other person typically sleeps or doomscrolls until ~6:50 then joins the family downstairs.

i take over at 7:00, feed baby as much breakfast as he is willing to eat (waffles most of the time). husband meanwhile goes upstairs to shower and get himself ready to go. i change baby into his outfit for the day (which i have to remember to bring downstairs in the morning).

husband and baby head to daycare by 7:30 (he showers very fast), he's normally at work by a little after 8. I walk dogs around the neighborhood, shower if needed, and try to sign on by 8:30 or 9 while snacking and coffee.

at the end of the day i head to day care by 4:30 and me and baby are home by 4:45. husband usually gets home around then, sometimes much earlier, sometimes late as 5:30. one person hangs out with baby while the other cooks dinner, empties and fills dishwasher, and makes tomorrow's bottles, and we all eat together around 5:45. bottle after then bath time at 6:15 and in bed by 6:30.

i think pumping during your commute is a great idea!!! i think a good rule is that whoever is WFH takes baby while other person readies themselves for commute. it's worked for us that my husband does drop off because then i don't need to make myself presentable to do the drop off, and i can get myself decent-looking during my workday before i do pick up.