Work travel and babies

[spk926]

DH traveled pretty frequently before switching jobs when DD was 9 months. Now he doesn't travel at all.

It was nice having our daycare really close to our house. I could come home after work, deal with the dogs, figure out dinner, having a few minutes alone and then go get her. If possible I would try to do that.

[spk926]

Aug 14, 2015 21:23:33 GMT -5 @bigreddog said:

Aug 14, 2015 21:20:46 GMT -5 spk926 said:

DH traveled pretty frequently before switching jobs when DD was 9 months. Now he doesn't travel at all.

It was nice having our daycare really close to our house. I could come home after work, deal with the dogs, figure out dinner, having a few minutes alone and then go get her. If possible I would try to do that.

 Did you feel completely drained on the nights you were alone?

Yes definitely. I am a teacher so I rarely sit all day and then coming home and doing everything alone was exhausting. Plus I would get up even earlier than usual to make sure the dogs had plenty of time out of their crates before leaving but that was my own weird hang-up. 

[spk926]

Aug 14, 2015 21:46:19 GMT -5 @bigreddog said:

Aug 14, 2015 21:25:52 GMT -5 spk926 said:

Yes definitely. I am a teacher so I rarely sit all day and then coming home and doing everything alone was exhausting. Plus I would get up even earlier than usual to make sure the dogs had plenty of time out of their crates before leaving but that was my own weird hang-up. 

One of our dogs needs to be exercised at least an hour a day too. I'm trying to figure out all of this and it's just overwhelming. 

One thing I would do if he was gone for the entire week was drop DD at daycare then drive a little out of my way and drop the dogs at doggy daycare. It added time to my day with an additional drop off and pick up but they would be so exhausted after a day of playing it was worth it. Also, for 2 dogs it's $50 a day but I didn't care.

BUT, to do all that I also had to wake up earlier than usual. Plus I would pump before DD woke up so I think I was up at 4:45 so I could pump, shower, get ready, get her up, nurse her, and drop her off at daycare by 6:45, then I would drop the the dogs off right when that place opened at 7 and then half hour to work to be there by 7:30.

[VillainV]

There are a lot of variables here. If you have an easy baby who goes down early and sleeps well, it might not be too bad. If you have a difficult/demanding baby or one who doesn't sleep well, it's a different story.

Would your H's travel be like one week a month? Two weeks every two months? A day or two at a time? This makes a big difference. Can he block himself off from travel within the baby's first few months of life? That would help a lot.

And your job -- do you have flexibility in your schedule to adjust your work start and stop times? Can you afford to have someone come and exercise your dog (or do doggie daycare) for the 25% of the time your H is gone for work?

If you want to work, and are a little flexible, then I see no reason why you couldn't make this work. If you hate it, then it sounds like you could afford to quit. Sometimes you don't know what will work for your family until you a try a few things, and that's OKAY :-). You don't need to have every detail figured out yet.

[badgergrl]

I have two kids and solo parent anywhere from 2-6 days per week 2-4 weeks a month. I also work outside the home myself. It's been this way since I was pregnant with my first.

It sucks but we do what we have to do. If you have specific questions i can answer them.

[KKD]

My H travels frequently for work and has done so since before before our second was born and even more so since our third was born. It hasn't been an issue for us, although since our first baby was our biggest adjustment, I'll admit I'm glad we didn't have to deal with his traveling on top of everything else back then.

In any case, as with most parenting issues, you just figure out a way to make it work. For me it involves lots of pasta dinners. lol.

[lindyanne]

My sister and her husband both travel a lot. They did a lot of coordinating schedules. She only bf to six months bc of the craziness of the schedules. They don't live local to any family but luckily they had a few friends and neighbors that were able to help them in a pinch.

[brady2012]

My H travels 8-10 times a year, I travel twice a year but have 90 days where my schedule is completely unpredictable. We have no family nearby for coverage and we just kind of wing it and make it work. In our 4 years of having kids only once did we have a situation where we needed add'l coverage at night. We always make sure to use day care open until 6:30 to give us breathing room. If someone is traveling this lets the other person walk the dog bf getting the kids.

I accepted a new job on Mat leave with my first. The job required me to work really late 14 times in an 8 week span early on. That was incredibly difficult because DD refused to take a bottle when she'd get home from daycare. She only wanted to nurse. The result was she would scream and scream with my H. It was awful. Had it been DS he would have chugged a bottle and passed out for 8 hours. A lot of this is kid dependent but you will work it out as you go.

[loskadoodle]

We got a nanny. It's great to have someone to fall back on and that your child knows and loves too.

[thebreakfastclub]

My baby was really easy, he slept great, and I chose the convenience of formula. He went to bed at 7:30 after a 10 minute bedtime routine.

The times my H travelled were less extensive but totally doable. Daycare is close to work and home and I had a short commute.