Taking my baby to the office?

[satya]

I think it would be extremely hard to manage what you are planning on.

I have a 4 week old baby and normally work in a partitioned office area similar to what your's sounds like. There's no way known I would contemplate taking my baby into work with me in 8 weeks time. I'd get very little work done.

Briggsy's girl is right - you are planning around a perfect baby scenario. The reality is likely to be quite different.

I planned on breast feeding - I was 100% determined to do it. My baby ended up in special care due to an infection on the night he was born. He also ended up under lights for jaundice. He had attachment issues, still does even though he's been well now for 3 weeks. I am not producing enough milk to just use expressed milk. Didn't plan on any of these issues and breastfeeding got very difficult because of it all. I have to express and then bottle feed the EBM to him then top up with formula. This takes time. If I was at work it would take about 1/2 an hour for each feed (including burping & nappy change), so probably an hour and a half a day would be lost to this.

Then there's the clothes changes (for me and bubs when he projectile vomits, or just has a bit of an overflow), the nappy changes in between feeds and the time spent popping his dummy back in his mouth to calm him down (wasn't planning on using a dummy either). More time is spent on cleaning his face when he dribbles milk, cleaning gunk out of his eyes several times a day and just soothing him when he's upset. Couldn't guestimate how much time this would take up, but it would be a considerable amount of time.

Trying to get 8 hours of work done in less than 8 hours will be stressful. Stress can effect your milk supply and cause issues with feeding. Adding extra time on at the end of the day to make up for it would be exhausting. If you didn't manage to do all your work it would cause problems with coworkers.

You are likely to be quite tired too as you will be up for nightfeeds and just keeping up with the extra washing at home (I'm using disposables but am still shocked by how much extra laundry my little one has created) can be quite a task and you will be doing this after you get home from work.

Then there's the noise factor. It would not work if you are working in a partitioned office. You would disturb others. Even if you could get your own office others would still hear the crying when it happens. If your job involves being on the phone your bubs crying would cause havoc to your day - they often cry when you pick up a phone.

You mentioned there were a number of pregnant women in the office. If they allow you to work like this they will then have to allow others to do the same. This could cause a lot of disruption in the office in general and I think there are very few employers who would be willing to allow it. There could also be health and safety issues.

My workplace has a work from home policy but in reality it just doesn't happen unless you are in senior management and even then it's for short periods of time - not a regular arrangement. Chances are your boss hasn't discussed the implications with HR and it wont turn out to be an option at all.

Better get going, bubs is a callin.

[Fibi]

Thanks for the messages above!
You are probably right that I am imagining a very easy-to-handle baby. So, I will start discussing the alternative to work from home, and how/where to express milk at the office.
And yes, my husband is fine to stay at home.. but any shared scenario is a lot better, for both of us.

I'll be re-reading your comments above over the next few weeks...
Finally, I am getting somewhere - Thanks again!

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

Speaking as a mother who considered having DS in with me (with the blessing of my office mate!):

You'll need a good day-sleeper. Which generally means a bad night-sleeper so you'll be knackered.

You'll need space and an easy-to-carry playmat, a baby won't be worn all day. Most playmats have noisy toys, so be prepared for a day of "hickory d1ckory dock". Babies like to play with your things so get ready for an attack on your computer!

Smelly nappies - can you change in the loo or is there no room? Smelly nappy in an office... ewww!

I'd say you could maybe do a couple of mornings or afternoons with a baby, not more than 10 hours a week in an office, assuming no colic, you're feeling OK, no reflux, no anxieties... even a "good" baby can't do a 40-hour week with no stimulation! Don't forget the hour-long feeds at first, you can get loads of typing done but not so much running to meetings. And if the baby sleeps and the phone rings, do you comfort the baby or answer the phone? I'd look at working from home, sharing care with your DH (maybe you could meet for lunch and he take the baby home, you work the afternoon without the baby) and even doing unsociable hours so you're not as disturbed or have people complaining that the baby is a distraction.

I wouldn't have DS with me. He needs me too much. Yes, I can get him playing cars and his "brrrm-brrrm"ing isn't too distracting, but he'll not do that all day. I need my computer for me - people don't like letters with baby-typing in! He's not only "good" but bloody fantastic, even so he couldn't do more than 2 hours without me tearing my hair out at the office - but that's now. At 4 months I could have maybe managed a morning or two.