Working from home, with toddler in tow part 2

written Wednesday July 24, 2013

So today is the day. Our first official day in our Work from Home with Toddler in Tow Trial Period. To sum it up real quick: So far, so good!

Heres the detailed breakdown of how things went on Day 1:

7:30am (early for us)
Matthew wakes up

7:45
Bottle for Matthew in his little rocker in the living room as Mommy feeds the cat and dogs, makes the bed, puts in contacts, gets dressed.

8:00 - 8:45
Playing on the floor with some toys while watching Disney Jr. Says hi to Poppy who came over to take trailer to the local dump. Who also mows 1/4 of the lawn were the trailer was, and leaves the rest unmowed. So annoying......

8:50
Mommy makes juice, cheerios, strawberries, and bananas for Matthews breakfast. A smart ones breakfast quesadilla and the trusty ol' Red Bull Total Zero (zero points on Weight Watchers by the way) for mommy

9:05
Clean up baby and turn on work computer.

9:15 - 10:25
Matthew plays in his walker, getting into everything and anything (bubble wrap, cat litter box, pool toys) while mommy does some work, checks emails, reads some favorite blogs.

10:30
Breathing treatment for little man, as he has a lingering cough and refuses to let me do the treatment any other time besides right before napping or going to sleep

10:35 - 12:00pm
Matthew naps. Mommys works some more. One conference call. Aunt DeAnna stops by to drop off some mango. Mommy finishes mowing the front lawn before Matthew wakes up.

12:05
Matthew is heard loud and clear screaming through the monitor while mommy is out front finishing the lawn.

12:10
Mommy makes some lunch, turkey and cheese sandwiches for both of us. Applesauce for Matthew and some mango for mom. Matthew got to taste his first little bit of mango. Seemed to like it, but didnt want to give him too much as Poppy, cousin Andrew, and Uncle E all have mango allergies.

12:45 -1:00
Clean up lunch mess. Play with matthew and dogs on living room floor.

1:00-2:00
Somewhere during this time Matthew must have pushed to hard on Ruger (our bigger dog) which startled him, and in return snapped on Matthew. I think it was more of a shock and scare for all of us, opposed to an actual harmful or worrisome situation. I grabbed matthew who hysterically started crying, disciplined and threw the mutt outside, and continued to console my lil one. There was no blood, nor broken skin, but you could see something, either a nail or tooth must have scrapped the side of matthews face. I was able to calm him down, and he went right back to playing as normal. Unfortunately, it scared the shit out of me, and the for the rest of the day I was extremely cautious and a tad nervious anytime Ruger was around.
note: Our dog has never shown any aggression towards any of us, and is actually extremely protective over Matthew, so Im not too worried, and honestly think it was one time thing (i hope)

You can barely see it, but by the corner of his eye and the two lil marks on his che

2:15
Set up a play area for Matthew using my sisters gate she lent me for the couple of days shes gone. I knew I had my biweekly 1x1 with my manager from 2:30-3 and didnt want to take the chance of matthew getting into something if I wasnt watching over him for a couple of mins

2:30-3:00
Matthew plays in his area, mommy has conference call. We did extremely well. Only thing I would change is next time I will set up the monitor to point into that area because I completely forgot about this part, and literally was peaking around the corner as I was trying to pay attention to the conversation but all keep an eye on him.

3:30
Matthew gets a sippy with milk, while watching a cartoon in his rocker in the living room.

4:00 - 5:15
Matthew naps while mommy gets some more work done.

5:30-6:00
We play and have a few snacks as we wait for daddy to get home from work.

All in all, it was a good day. Im sure there will be days that are completely out of control, and possibly some days that go even smoother, but I defintely think this is something that we will be able to do moving forward. Which makes me one happy mama!

Working from home, with toddler in tow part 1

For anyone who knows me well, knows that my dream has always been to be able to work form home while having my kids home with me. Its basically my #1 reason for wanting to be a graphic designer in the first place. When I first starting working from home it was actually kinda by accident. The company I worked for got bought out by an out-of-state company, and i was actually kind of forced to quit my job. Then they came to their senses and realized they needed me, and that I could technically do my job just fine remotely.

I was thrilled, I would finally have the opportunity to possible fulfill my dream, seeing at the time i didnt have any kids. I also didnt know how difficult it in fact would be to work from home. Not the job part. That was easy. I love my job, so it doesnt really feel like work. But being a remote employee definitely comes with its challenges. For one, you have to make sure you are in fact an asset to the company, being that they dont get to see you walk into the office everyday like all their other employees. And two its easy to be and feel left out of your team and the day-to-day tasks, so you must remember to constantly keep in touch, be it video conferences, instant messages, email, or hell just pick up the telephone (in my case a VoIP phone).

 So Ill be 100% honest with all of you, I was scared shitless when I did become pregnant, on whether I would be able to handle caring for a newborn while working. My number one fear being, "what would I do if I was on a call with a client and the baby starts hysterically crying?" I was so in fear of how I would be able to balance both being a stay at home mom and a work from home mom, that I decided to give up on my dream entirely and asked my sister if she could watch Matthew, mon-fri 9-5, while I worked from home.

I always told myself that when he was on more of a schedule and I could plan around his naps, that maybe i would then keep him home with me. But as every mother knows, you cant always depend on a childs naptime. One day it could be 45mins and the next 2hrs15mins. It could be 1 long nap, 2 short naps, or no nap at all. But I always had this deep feeling of missing out on all of my sons firsts.
I knew my sister would take lots of pics and videos. We also often facetime at lunch so I can see him and talk to him. And I love that its family that is watching my son grow up. But Id be lying if I didnt say I was a little jealous. I see how he reaches for my sister. Almost like shes his mother too.

Now dont get me wrong, I love their bond, and am happy that he loves her and is comfortable with her. I hope they have the same type of relationship I have with her kids (my neice and nephew). But it does sting a little when we are both around and he reaches for her. And i cant blame him. His time is basically split between the two of us. I know I get him on weekends and such, but during the week, by time we get homes, its dinner, bath and bed. Not much quality time if you ask me.

I was originally  a little nervous to talk to my sister about it. I didnt want her to think I was taking him away due to something she did. And I know she counts on the money each week, and I didnt want to take that away too. But I had to at least try to live out my dream right? So I basically put it out there to my sis that maybe 2 days a week he could stay home with me. And on those two days she could go clean our friends house (for which she gets made alot more hourly than I pay her daily). Turns out, she was kind of thinking the same thing and didnt want to hurt my feelings by having my think she was trying to "get rid of my son" lol.

Unfortunately, at the time we had this discussion we were currently living with my parents during out bath renovation. I told her I thought we should kind of do a trial period once I moved back into our house, to see how it would work. As i didnt want to try it at my moms, where I had my moms help, lots of room, and get comfortable with that setting only to fail at it once we got back to our normal routine.

We agreed, and figured the week of July 23rd would be perfect, as my sis and her family were going to be out of town for Lobster mini season that Wed-Fri. Well thats this week, and I feel like I want to make sure to document it and see how it either works out or doesnt. Im hoping it does, because being with my lil man will always trump my work day!