It is a hard question to answer as it really depends on the baby in my opinion.

I went back to study when DD was 8 weeks old. Just past that newborn babymoon phase. I actually took her to Uni with me and she slept during classes. At home I got a lot of study done (and work too - I was doing accounts for our business). I found if I kept her in a pram near me she was pretty happy cooing and looking around and sleeping.

I finished that semester by the time she was about 7 months old. By that stage she was more active, needing more attention and wanting to move so study would have been much more difficult. Her sleeping patterns deteriorated at that stage too so I was less able to cope with added things in life such as work and study. I dropped everything then and focused on full time mum.

So for me, DD was a very settled newborn and needed me more later so I definitely say getting study done earlier was easier. On the other hand, I have seen many babies be the opposite and allycat06 is a good example of how things can work better the other way.

Oh, and in my situation - I didn't have family around to help and DH was doing crazy long hours setting up a new business so I was really on my own which coloured my experience.

Good luck with whatever you decide and remember to check out cancellation dates. With my uni, I could do a month or so and still pull out if it wasn't working out without being up for the costs.