WORKING FROM HOME WITH A BABY

Well, it's not the easiest thing, let's be honest. A month before Sylvie was born I was all "Yeah, I'm not having any primary-coloured-plastic-noise-making crap in the house" and when she hit four months I found myself texting my friend asking if her Jumperoo was going spare.. Give me all the baby entertainment options you've got for an extra ten minutes of getting things done!

Work is getting busier now and will continue to be a real juggle until the end of September/Mid October when it'll get a bit lighter again. So far there have been a few nights working later than I'd like and also a good few moments of 'oh shit I didn't do that' and dragging the laptop back out in front of the tv on an evening.

What's still working well for us, even though it can be restrictive at times, is having a routine for Sylvie. She wakes up and has a bottle, I'll work and do the school run before her porridge feed at half ten, then I have a bigger window where she'll usually have a longer nap until a milk feed mid-afternoon and I'll work until the school pick up. I do enjoy her being around while I'm working, and most days we'll get out in the buggy and I've also been enjoying seeing friends during the week and taking more time for myself and 'breathing space', otherwise the Monday-Friday work week at home starts to feel very intense.

Sylvie, this week, has started rolling around - oh. the. joys. We were hoping this time would come a little further down the line and all of a sudden I'm having to strap her into a buggy/secure her in the baby bouncer before I can even nip to the loo - now I feel I'm looking forward to her sitting up so she can be propped up with toys and things to play with properly.

I do feel working at home with Sylvieboo is going to get harder as she gets more mobile and even more vocal - I think it'll very much be a changing situation over the next few months. The next step for us is really planning out the Summer holiday stretch while Vivienne's off too. I feel quite strongly that I take some full days off to see the girls properly - I've asked V to make a list of things she'd like to tick off during her Summer break for us to work through, and plan on having on lots of down time in the garden and crafting/baking at home too. It may be time to enlist the help of a little childcare here and there now!