It’s really sinking in – you’re going to be working from home with a baby.

Whether this is short-term or long-term, every day or just certain chunks of time, you’re likely looking for all the tips possible for keeping your sanity and your job.

It’s not easy. But with some trial and error, it is entirely possible. This season of life will be as rewarding as it is challenging!

Roll With It

I’ve been a work-from-home mom in three different full-time jobs to two different babies. I’ve been able to maintain breastfeeding, pumping, and special needs parenting while moving forward in my career.

Adding family assistance, creativity, and gray hair to my life has been both chaotic and massively rewarding.

As a first-time mom without a secret stash of funds, my mantra became to just “roll with it.”

This means roll with the schedule changes, the blowout diapers, the acting like you didn’t just slap on a cardigan over some spit-up, or whatever wild circumstances come your way.

When I say, “roll with it,” I don’t mean to sound cavalier. It is very important that you build a structure for your days, even if it’s flexible.

Most of the time, your colleagues will have no idea how resourceful you had to be to make your work hours happen. The more resilient and flexible you can be with yourself, the more you will make it work. Sometimes you might need to say out loud to yourself, “Okay this is fine, I can make this happen.” At the end of the week, you will often feel proud of what you accomplished despite the hurdles.

Here are some things I do to stay productive and efficient:

Mastering Multitasking:

• Use the chunks of time when the baby typically naps for phone calls where you need no background noise.
• When you are nursing or pumping (look into hands-free pumping options), opt for read-only emails and social media tasks you can do from your phone.
• Schedule baby-related appointments for lunch breaks or slower days like Friday, when possible.

Managing my work time well:

• Download apps for all the platforms your workplace uses.
• Invest time into structuring your day using a task management tool with phone reminders, like Asana or To-Doist.
• Sync your work calendar with your personal calendar. Keep personal appointments marked as “busy” to your colleagues to maintain your privacy.
• Use text and email scheduling apps (like Moxy) and plugins (like Boomerang). That way, you can compose texts and emails at any time of the day and schedule them to arrive during business hours.
• If possible, arrange your schedule to work at home with your child only on certain days of the week or during certain chunks of time. Schedule meetings and detail-oriented tasks during that uninterrupted time. Even better, if you have some help from a sitter, daycare, or family member, take full advantage of those work hours.
• Save less urgent tasks that you can do from anywhere, like brainstorming or text message follow-ups, for those times when you are stuck under a sick or sleeping kid.

Even with a strategy and a schedule, expect the unexpected and psych yourself up with a few backup plans. Always factor in extra cushion time around your deadlines for this reason.

Have Baby Carrier

There are many types of baby carriers out there and you can figure out which fits your lifestyle best based on reviews. Although some carriers can get pricey, there are often options to purchase these used or “open box” when you are seeking a high-quality brand that holds babies beyond the newborn stage.

I recommend carriers with lumbar support to minimize back pain when you are using the carrier frequently. I personally love ErgoBaby because it can be worn seven ways for a wide range of weights.

During particularly hard days, like teething time, I would strap my son into the carrier and bounce him to sleep as I stood at the kitchen counter with my laptop. For audio-only phone calls, I would even pace the driveway or neighborhood to keep him content as I took the call.

Sometimes you may get lucky and your baby will fall asleep in the carrier so you can gently unbuckle the carrier and lay them down without waking them. Score!

Stay Professional

Remote working mishaps that blend home life and work-life can happen to anyone, not just moms. The occasional “Sorry, that was my baby” or “Can you repeat the question?” isn’t the end of the world. Still, it’s a good idea to set up some safeguards to appear as professional as possible.

• Go about your video or audio calls as though your audio and video are on, even when you believe they are not.
• If you are listening into a conference call, it’s still a good idea to whisper and attempt to calm your baby.
• When you are on a video call with video turned off, turn the camera away from yourself so you can still listen and view from an angle.
• Investing in a few staple nursing business tops will keep you looking professional on calls but comfortable during quick breaks.

Keep Baby Entertained

Messes will be a real part of your day when you are working from home with a baby. This can be a hard one to compartmentalize. Mom guilt over cleanliness of your home may come in waves. Try to remember that exploration and unstructured play are good for your baby.

• Get outside. If you have a safe, enclosed yard, you might go to an outdoor table and allow your walking baby to tottle around the yard. If you have a crawling or sitting baby, they can enjoy the sun inside a play yard.
• Get messy. I recall a few times when washable markers or stickers landed where they ought not, but the clean-up later was worth wrapping up a major project.

• Get creative. Consider stashing away a few toys or saving a few holiday gifts to pull out at a desperate time.
• Give yourself grace. Realize that a certain amount of screen time for baby will sometimes have to be okay in a pinch.

Sometimes, you just have to let messes happen. If your baby pulls every toy they own into the living room but you were able to finish a needed report, call that a win.

Be a Transparent Team Player

Always be transparent with your supervisor. Be transparent with your team as appropriate as well. The last thing you want as a work-from-home mom is the additional stress of hiding the presence of a tiny human.

To make this work, you and your supervisor need to be on the same page about your situation. Additionally, your team should not be surprised to learn you occasionally have a parenting-related emergency. If you make it clear that you often get resourceful in order to exceed expectations in your role, a healthy team will appreciate you regardless of your parenting schedule.

You may be able to talk to your supervisor and find schedule alternatives that work better for parenting. In one role, I negotiated working from home with my baby two days a week for a bit less pay. This ultimately saved me money, since I was paying less for childcare.

Freelancing or working on contract might be an option, too. To earn more money while maintaining flexibility, I worked as an independent contractor for a time and put in hours at night. Depending on what benefits you need, this may or may not be a good option.

In some cases, you might have to pass on a role because your childcare reality won’t work for the employer or nature of the job. It’s hard to make that choice, but it will sting a lot less than finding yourself in a role where you can’t keep your promises.

Odds are, there may be some times you will need to ask for some grace for your team. Even if it can’t be helped, like your baby getting sick right before a deadline, you may feel the pressure of using social capital to ask for an exception. Try to remember that every working parent, whether in an office or not, has likely been in a related situation.

To build goodwill with your team, volunteer to be a team player where you can lean into your strengths. If you are particularly gifted in editing, writing, using technology, or finding good bargains, for example, offer to do your team a favor.

Don’t run yourself ragged trying to prove your worth, but do be mindful of where you can naturally take something on that demonstrates to your team that you do pull your weight, even if they don’t see the half of it. A healthy team will notice when you prove yourself to be an exceptional partner.

At the same time, give yourself permission to draw boundaries, especially for nights and weekends. If you are the overachiever type, it can feel natural to always take the lead on the majority of projects. But this may not be the season of life for that.

Working from home with a baby is possible!

Learning how to work from home with baby is still a relatively new concept. There will be times you feel like you are working like nobody else on the planet.

But don’t forget that many wise women have gone before you and worked through pregnancy and motherhood! Striking this work-life balance can be crazy, but shining moments of pride come through too. That’s crazy beautiful.