Anyone applying to study next year?

[shells79]

I know I'm reviving an old thread here but I am new so have been reading through a heap!!

I am pregnant with my first, due March 2013 and I feel like this pregnancy has given me so much clarity about what I want to be when I grow up!! I am thinking of going back to do my grad dip ed in secondary. I worked full time and studied part time for a Masters which took two years so I know I can buckle down and do these things- but now I have a 13 yo step son living with us full time, I have a new born due in March, I am still working full time and my husband works away a lot. So... how manageable is it to study with a newborn and a teenager?

I feel like I could buy the books now and study hard now before bubs is due. Then once bub comes along she will sleep peacefully in a hug a bub through lectures and tutes and I can take advantage of maternity leave, plus I will be a little bit ahead of myself! Am I being totally crazy here? Or would I be better off waiting until second semester to enrol, because bub is due in the third week of uni!! Or better off waiting until 2014 to start full time?

I feel like I would like to have the three months just to relish in having a lovely new baby but I really am so sick of my current job that two years feels like such a long time to have a career change. Perhaps the hormones are making me rush things...

Is it doable- newborn & study & work?

[raffy]

just finishing my cert2 in animal studies and next year starting my cert3 in captive animals. when i started my kiddies were 21 and 5 months and when i finish they will be 4 and 3 also just started workplacement at our local 'zoo' sooooo much fun. they say you should never work with children or animals but im doing both and loving every second of it

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

I am pregnant with my first, due March 2013 and I feel like this pregnancy has given me so much clarity about what I want to be when I grow up!! I am thinking of going back to do my grad dip ed in secondary. I worked full time and studied part time for a Masters which took two years so I know I can buckle down and do these things- but now I have a 13 yo step son living with us full time, I have a new born due in March, I am still working full time and my husband works away a lot. So... how manageable is it to study with a newborn and a teenager?

Babies do a lot more than sleep - and learning how to BF can take a while. Also, why assume that you are allowed to take a baby into a lecture or seminars? My lecturers would have not been happy, nor many of my classmates - it's worth checking, but you may not be allowed to bring baby with you. What happens when the baby does a huge poo that covers baby, carrier and a 5m blast radius?

By all means buy related books and do some reading, find out what essays you will need to do and get cracking with those - but don't take a baby to a lecture. Please. FWIW, Liebling has attended University with me: on a field trip where children were allowed (nightmare for me, learnt very little other than Liebling knew how to get out of his reins, doesn't sleep on transport like other children and that he really likes dinosaurs - but to be fair, all the parents who had brought children hung around together so we could help each other out) and, by prior arrangement, on the last day of the year (he was a bit of a distraction and many people chose to just stay away from us, so not overly social, and I wasn't able to pay full attention to the lecture, despite Liebling behaving excellently and playing quietly through the lecture - many of the physics people were really into his toys, so Liebling distracted them too). I didn't take him again.

[Purple Penguin]

Next year will be the last year of my Bach Ed - Primary

[shells79]

Congrats on your final year Purple Penguin!!

Good points flying butter- I was being a bit tongue in cheek! I know babies do more than just sleep and some don't sleep peacefully And I must admit I hadn't thought of a huge poo scenario!! So would you recommend waiting until baby is at least 9 months or so rather than 4 months or do you think its doable to study with a 4 month old - just not at lectures or field trips? How did/do you manage study with Liebling- ie. do you wait till he is asleep or do you get up early etc?

Thanks!

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

I did a lot of reading when Liebs was a baby, but he really didn't sleep and would have me up for several hours at night, so couldn't study when he was tiny. I went back to school when he was 2 to study chemistry. I dropped him at Nursery an hour early and used that time to study/write essays/do homework, I sometimes picked him up an hour late and used that hour too - I liked to leave when lectures finished and sit in the nursery car park and get my homework done. I wrote up lab work in the evening and at the weekend. I did get up early, as he did 5am wake ups some days. Waiting for him to sleep was never a sure bet either. He often went to sleep after me. Still does, sometimes.

Liebling likes us to "work together" now - so I can sit and write/type/mark and he will do the same. Or sit and colour. It's together time, that's what counts.

It really depends on the baby - I know some people who can study with a 4mo because they are "good" babies (unlike evil Liebling, who was clearly mugging grannies at that age - sorry, I have a bee in my bonnet about the word "good") - that is, they sleep in expected patterns, don't demand 100% attention during all waking times and are fairly calm - or will do alongside activities (so give them a crayon and some paper while you write and they're happy). But it does depend on the baby. While I could (and did!) read just about anything to Liebling, just so long as I was reading to him and holding him, others don't have that luxury.

[shells79]

Thanks for your reply, those are really good strategies, very organised but also quite full on- I see I'll have a lot to learn. Its also good to know that I really do need to be realistic and just wait and see, I won't know how baby will sleep until I come to it. I think I will need to just calm myself down a bit and see how I go

Liebling will be miles ahead in chem given all his early tutoring! I wish my mum had done that for me.. as a pharmacist she could have imparted so much knowledge- but I ended up having a chem tutor!

I agree that labels like good and bad, naughty etc are terrible for people/ babies and particularly destructive once they get to toddlers.

[Mildez]

I have accepted an offer to do my Masters in Child and family health to start in 2013. However I just found out I got a scholarship and am now applying to do the Graduate certificate in Child and Family health through the College of Nursing. This will be my first time studying with 3 children. I did my RN's with 1 and my middy with 2. I'm abit nervous about the workload and I still have to work in my paid job and do unpaid clinical hours (like I'm sure most of us will be required to do) I'm worried about failing as if I do I have to pay the scholarship back so I have extra incentive to do well

[My Three Sons]

Congratulations!!! You'll cope. Us mums always find a way somehow!