I always find it fascinating to read about how other people spend their day, or what their typical schedule looks like. I can’t be the only stalker nosy one out there, right? I thought it would be fun to share my own day in the life of what my schedule has been lately.
Right now I’m self-employed and work from home while also taking care of Little Miss (LM), my 9-month-old daughter. I don’t send her to daycare or hire any babysitters, so I manage to bring a part-time income into our home while still getting to be a stay-at-home Mom.
While it’s certainly not easy, I love my work and I love being able to be at home with my baby girl even more. I know that being a work-from-home Mom is not for everyone, but for anyone wondering how it’s possible to juggle work and a baby simultaneously, this is proof that it can be done.
A day in the life of a work-from-home Mom:
2:00am: LM wakes up from what I suspect to be teething pain. Poor girl has been in teething hell the past few weeks. I nurse her for a few minutes and she goes back to sleep.
5:30am: LM wakes up again, nurse and back to sleep. At this point I decide to get up for the day to start on work. Head to the kitchen for breakfast and a cup of coffee the size of my head. Eat breakfast and then enjoy my coffee while doing research for an article I need to write today. Uninterrupted time in the early morning is when I am always the most productive; I try to avoid checking emails during this time to focus on my most important tasks for the day. More often than not lately, I’ve been sleeping in until the babe wakes up for the day. We’ve had some really long nights due to teething lately, so waking up early today was an exception.
7:00am: LM wakes up for the day. I wish I was as happy as she is when she wakes up; her smiles and giggles in the morning make the sleep deprivation I’m currently feeling so worth it. I change her diaper and nurse her and then we head to the family room to play. I sit on the floor and play with her for a few minutes, and then I let her play independently and grab my laptop to check a few emails while we hang out.
8:00am: Time for some solids for LM – oatmeal and bananas are on the menu today! She gobbles it up, and naturally makes a huge mess. I clean her up, wipe the high chair down, and then we go to her room to get her dressed for the day. After which, we read a few books and then play some more and end up making a game out of Mommy folding the laundry.
9:00am: Naptime #1! Aka time to get shit done! Naps are always a crapshoot. It could be 30 minutes…it could be 2 hours. I never know which it will be, so I always assume it’s going to only be 30. Then anything beyond that is a huge bonus. It’s usually around 45 minutes, so just enough time for me to knock out a few work tasks for the day. Today I’m working on some social media marketing for a client.
9:50am: LM wakes up chatting to herself. I go in to get her and then nurse her. If we are going to go run an errand or be out and about anywhere during the day, this is the time we usually go. Today there’s a free infant storytime at our local library, so I quickly get ready, do part of my daily morning cleaning, grab a snack for myself, and we head out the door.
10:30am: Storytime at the library. Always the cutest part of our day when we go. It’s so nice getting out and spending time with other Moms and babies. I feel grateful that I get to do things like take her to activities in the middle of a work day. Although I have to work a lot of nights and weekends to be able to get all of my work done every week, I feel super blessed to be able to do things like this with her.
11:00am: It’s a beautiful day in Chicago suburbia, it’s in the 50s which is so warm for us lately! The library is right in the middle of our town’s adorable downtown area, so we decide to grab the stroller from the car and walk around for a little bit after storytime. Much needed exercise for Mom, and LM loves getting to see new sights.
11:30am: We head home and both have some lunch. We have her Jumperoo setup in the kitchen, so I plop her in that for a few minutes and she happily jumps around while I clean up the kitchen a bit and empty the dishwasher.
12:45pm: Naptime #2! Still cranking out that social media marketing that I started earlier in the morning. I finish that up and then move onto that article I’m writing for a different client.
2:00pm: LM wakes up. Woohoo, I got over an hour of work in! I nurse her and then we head to the family room to play. We play for awhile, and then the fun quickly comes to an end when she starts to get cranky and won’t let me put her down. I realize that I should probably wash my floors at some point today anyway, so I strap on my Ergo baby carrier and decide to sweep and mop all the floors. Mommas – I definitely recommend investing in a comfortable, high quality baby carrier. Baby wearing is nothing short of a life saver, especially as a work-from-home Mom.
4:00pm: LM starts to get hungry again so I nurse her and then we play in my room as I put away some clothes and pickup our bathroom a bit.
5:15pm: Daddy is home, hurray! We all hang out for a bit together and play on the floor in the family room. I then get dinner going while Dad is on baby duty.
6:00pm: The hubby and I eat our dinner while LM eats hers. She loves sitting in her highchair next to us at the table and laughing her head off as we make funny faces. She’s been fiesty in a lot of ways lately, but we are really loving getting to experience her little personality.
6:30pm: Bathtime for the babe! Daddy gives her a bath and I speed clean the house a bit during this time. Sometimes I just take a moment to sit down and relax during this time, depending on how exhausted I am from the day.
7:00pm: Bedtime for LM. I nurse her and then into her crib she goes. She fusses for a few minutes and then finally gets comfortable and conks out.
7:30pm: Not time to relax just yet! I finish the article I started earlier in the afternoon and wrap up a few other little tasks I have left for the day. I then spend 5 minutes figuring out my work priorities for the next morning to get a game plan into place.
8:30pm: Quality time with the hubs! I love this part of the day when we get to just relax and hang out together. We typically watch some tv and talk during this time…and usually all while goofing around on our phones or laptops. Then we typically tackle dishes from dinner together and tidy up a little bit before calling it a night.
10:30pm: Time for bed! Some nights I stay up until as late as 12:30 or 1 depending on how much work I need to get done, or if I lose track of time while playing around on the internet. One of my goals lately has been to get in bed earlier every night, so I’m really trying to not stay up super late anymore.
If you made it through my entire day and I didn’t bore you to pieces, congratulations! Haha. I should mention that no two days are ever the same for me, I try to just go with the flow as much as I can and fit in as much work as possible while the baby is sleeping. I manage to be surprisingly productive while working from home with what little time I have to dedicate to work each day.
Is your typical day similar to mine? Any tips and tricks for handling working from home with kids?
Great post! I love seeing how other people spend their day. I have so much freedom right now while working from home without a baby, I know I’m in for a big change come Sept. I’ll probably have a similar schedule to yours, except I might have 2 1/2 days where I’m out of the house to meet with clients.
Thanks Sara! I think you’ll enjoy getting out of the house a few hours every week without baby, it will be good for you to take a break from being Mom for a little bit, even if it is for work 🙂
Great posting girl! Even though I am not a mom (yet anyways) I really enjoyed the insight to your day. Since it is a part of life I haven’t experienced yet, learning about other people’s daily routine and work/life balance is extremely interesting. Great post!
Thanks so much Marissa! 🙂
Loved this post!! I am totally one of those people who loves reading about other people’s days! It looks like you guys have a really good routine going! Our days are super similar (too bad we don’t live close!!) – except both my girls only take one nap during the day (a longer one, though) and we do the part-time daycare thing. We also try and take advantage of the library’s story time or run errands in the morning. Today it was Trader Joe’s for some yummy foods for this weekend.
Hope you’re having a good day! Keep up the great work!
Ah I know, that would be so great to be able to have play dates with another work-from-home Momma! Thanks Sarah!
Thanks for giving us a look into your typical day Christina! I used to love taking my kiddo to story time at the library. I think it’s nice that your daughter still takes a few naps during the day to allow you to catch up on other tasks. I would love to do a post like this one day but just like you I feel like no two days are ever the same for me so it could be a bit tricky, but still pretty fun.
You should totally do one Chonce! I would love to get a peek into a (not so) typical day for you 🙂
I’m so glad you’re getting to enjoy every moment of your daughter’s babyhood. The time goes so fast. It doesn’t feel like it when you’re in it, but all of a sudden, *poof*, another year goes by. A lady told me that once when “Junior” was a baby. I never forgot it and I strove to experience every moment. 🙂
I am too Kay! Although some days seem longer than others, these last 9 months have flown by and I’m sure before I know it she’ll be in school and I’ll be wondering where my baby went!
Awesome! I really enjoy day-in-the-life posts. And story time at the library sounds lovely!
I do too Daisy, they are so fun!
That’s a full day, alright.
Here I thought it was bad trying to juggle my work plus a husband who’s home all day. And easily feels ignored. And likes to watch TV while I’m trying to work.
But no teething pains or weird wakeup hours. Nor do I have to nurse him. (Though I’m sure he’d try if given half the chance.)
Haha you crack me up Abigail!
I’m also fascinated by how people spend their days. I think a lot of people at my workplace would be surprised to see how my time outside of work is spent. Even though I don’t have kids, I still have very busy nights (and don’t get much sleep!). It’s hard for the other workers with kids to picture me being busy on weeknights, but I am.
I bet you are insanely busy with everything you do, DC! It’s clear all that hard work has paid off for you though 🙂
I didn’t see a nap in there. With the interrupted sleep of life with LM, don’t you find you need a nap? That is one thing I’ll do every day once I can leave my day job : ) So great that you can make it all work as a stay-at-home mom.
Prudence, I wish I was a napper! I’ve taken 2 naps since Little Miss was born, and they were in the early days. I just can’t manage to sleep during the day. Naptime is also precious time to get my work done, and I find myself super motivated to use that time productively so that I have less to do on nights and weekends. We’ll see what happens when we eventually add a second kid to the mix (I’m sure I’ll probably take more naps then! Hah).
Great post! I also like to see how other mom’s spend their days working from home. While my sons are older than your Little Miss (love that nickname by the way) our days are very similar.
While blogging is an important part of my life, my family also comes first. After all that is why we are at home with our children. :o) I have always been more of a night owl than a morning person so I tend to stay up until 12 or so and then my husband is on kid duty a lot during the weekend so that I can have uninterrupted time to get other things done.
Thank you Tennille! Agreed, it can be important to lose sight of that when you have other passions too. That’s great that you have a system going that is working well for you and your family!
I too enjoy snooping on other people’s routines, so thank you for indulging us :). Sounds like you have a super productive system worked out! I love that you’re able to stay home with your daughter and work at the same time. That, to me, seems like the best of both worlds. Congrats to you for making it work!
You bet! Thanks so much!!
My day is actually pretty similar to yours. The kids go to daycare and school though. Other than that, it’s play time, bath time, and bed.
I’ve been thinking about daycare for Little Miss maybe in a year or so, I think it’s a great way for kids to socialize!
I love reading how other mommies schedule time to get things done while also maintaining somewhat of of a work schedule! Thank you for sharing! I am thinking of doing a similar post soon!
That’s awesome Danielle, please do let me know if you end up writing a post on your schedule as well. I also love reading about how other Mama’s balance working from home with their kiddos!
I just started my blog, HomeWorkin Mama where I will share my experiences as a WFH Mom, first time mom, etc. I am also going to homeschool my daughter and share information I learn and use for that! Please check it out!
http://homeworkinmama.com
I just started my blog, HomeWorkin Mama where I will share my experiences as a WFH Mom, first time mom, etc. I am also going to homeschool my daughter and share information I learn and use for that! Please check it out!
http://homeworkinmama.com
Thank you for this post! Your day does sound very similar to mine- packing in as much as I possibly can during naps, getting up much earlier than the rest of the family to work, and trying to have fun in between. It’s tough to balance keeping the house straight, making meals, and time with each person who needs me. I’m so glad to have someone to look up to that’s got it down! I’ve been wondering if this is normal for work at home moms or what, so it’s nice to have some reassurance. I don’t have any tips though- it’s just hard! Thank you!