{"id":1217,"date":"2013-10-28T10:00:57","date_gmt":"2013-10-28T15:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/?p=1217"},"modified":"2013-11-03T17:42:39","modified_gmt":"2013-11-03T23:42:39","slug":"working-home-baby-sleep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/working-home-baby-sleep\/","title":{"rendered":"Working from home with a baby &#8211; sleep"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My favorite age for babies is 3-9 months. They can&#8217;t yet walk, so they&#8217;ll really only get into trouble with things in an arm&#8217;s reach. They (hopefully) <a title=\"Newborn Sleep Deprivation\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/newborn-sleep-deprivation\/\">sleep through the night<\/a>. They can hold their head up, so I feel more comfortable man-handling them during diaper changes and play time. 3 months has also been the magic marker when my wife goes back to work. So whether I want to or not, that baby is going to be in my hands quite a bit more now.<\/p>\n<p>Many have asked me <a title=\"How to work from home\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/how-to-work-from-home\/\">how I get work done at home<\/a> with the baby at home with me. For my part, I only work part-time. It would be near impossible to work a 40 hour week with a baby at home and still maintain a relationship with my wife.<\/p>\n<p>For the baby&#8217;s end of the bargain, the key is sleep.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Despite what many think, babies are actually pretty easy to care for. They really only\u00a0<em>need<\/em> one of three things:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Food (breast milk or formula)<\/li>\n<li>A diaper change<\/li>\n<li>Sleep<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And babies sleep a lot. At 3 months <a title=\"Women in Tech: My bout with Sexism\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/women-in-tech-my-bout-with-sexism\/\">my daughter<\/a> was taking 2-3 naps during the day. The key is to work during these times. If your baby has a somewhat regular napping schedule, you can even schedule home-office meetings or calls during these times.<\/p>\n<h2>Recognizing the signs<\/h2>\n<p>By 3 months you should have an idea of what your baby&#8217;s nap schedule is like. But there always is the element of recognizing the signs of sleepiness and\u00a0<em>acting quickly<\/em>. The second my daughter rubs her eyes like this, it&#8217;s time for a nap:<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"thickbox\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/files\/2013\/10\/Photo-Oct-14-7-03-00-PM.jpg\" rel=\"gallery-1217\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"1236\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/working-home-baby-sleep\/photo-oct-14-7-03-00-pm\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/files\/2013\/10\/Photo-Oct-14-7-03-00-PM.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1936,2592\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Photo Oct 14, 7 03 00 PM\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/files\/2013\/10\/Photo-Oct-14-7-03-00-PM-224x300.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/files\/2013\/10\/Photo-Oct-14-7-03-00-PM-764x1024.jpg\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1236 alignnone\" alt=\"Photo Oct 14, 7 03 00 PM\" src=\"https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/files\/2013\/10\/Photo-Oct-14-7-03-00-PM-224x300.jpg\" width=\"224\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/files\/2013\/10\/Photo-Oct-14-7-03-00-PM-224x300.jpg 224w, https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/files\/2013\/10\/Photo-Oct-14-7-03-00-PM-764x1024.jpg 764w, https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/files\/2013\/10\/Photo-Oct-14-7-03-00-PM.jpg 1936w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 224px) 100vw, 224px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Your baby will probably continue to rub her eyes, but if you miss these cues, it will be increasingly harder to get them to take a solid nap. She will become over-tired and fussy:<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"thickbox\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/files\/2013\/10\/Photo-Oct-27-1-01-58-PM.jpg\" rel=\"gallery-1217\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"1238\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/working-home-baby-sleep\/photo-oct-27-1-01-58-pm\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/files\/2013\/10\/Photo-Oct-27-1-01-58-PM.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1936,2592\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Photo Oct 27, 1 01 58 PM\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/files\/2013\/10\/Photo-Oct-27-1-01-58-PM-224x300.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/files\/2013\/10\/Photo-Oct-27-1-01-58-PM-764x1024.jpg\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1238\" alt=\"Photo Oct 27, 1 01 58 PM\" src=\"https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/files\/2013\/10\/Photo-Oct-27-1-01-58-PM-224x300.jpg\" width=\"224\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/files\/2013\/10\/Photo-Oct-27-1-01-58-PM-224x300.jpg 224w, https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/files\/2013\/10\/Photo-Oct-27-1-01-58-PM-764x1024.jpg 764w, https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/files\/2013\/10\/Photo-Oct-27-1-01-58-PM.jpg 1936w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 224px) 100vw, 224px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This likely means getting her to sleep might mean &#8220;rocking and holding&#8221; rather than the usual &#8220;place in crib quietly for a good nap.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2>Sleep cycles<\/h2>\n<p>Humans sleep in <a title=\"Sleep Cycles (Wikipedia)\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sleep#Physiology\">cycles of around 90-100 minutes<\/a>. You should be aware of what time your baby goes to sleep and what time she wakes to make sure she&#8217;s keeping to these cycles. Waking up outside of this schedule (like after 45 minutes), may mean that she&#8217;s waking up from a dream or is currently having a dream and may actually go back to sleep.<\/p>\n<p>On a bad day if my baby takes two naps, that&#8217;s 3 hours of work I can get done during the day. On a &#8220;normal&#8221; day she&#8217;ll take a 1.5 hour nap and a 3 hour nap for 4.5 hours of work. Combined with a couple of evenings of work, I can pretty regularly get in 20-30 hours a week of work &#8211; but it definitely isn&#8217;t a regular 9-to-5 gig.<\/p>\n<h2>Embrace the\u00a0(lack of)\u00a0Schedule<\/h2>\n<p>I go with the flow and prepare myself mentally by thinking about what I&#8217;m going to work on while my baby is awake, so that when she goes to sleep I can dive right in. It&#8217;s amazing how far <a href=\"http:\/\/jamesclear.com\/how-to-get-motivated\">a little mental preparation<\/a> can go when it&#8217;s time to actually work.<\/p>\n<p>It may also mean that if baby naps 3 hours in the morning, you&#8217;re probably going to be working through the lunch hour. Go hungry, I promise you&#8217;ll live because if you take off time to eat now, you&#8217;ll be missing it later. Plus baby needs to eat when she wakes. You&#8217;ll have plenty of time for lunch then.<\/p>\n<h2>Don&#8217;t be <em>that guy<\/em><\/h2>\n<p>I want to throw this out there, because I have been tempted to do this: try to work while my offspring are awake. I have never regretted forgoing a full-time job to work at home part-time with kids around. I have however, regretted trying to work while my kids are up and at-&#8217;em. Ignoring them is going to result in two things: they&#8217;re going to get hurt or into trouble, or they&#8217;re going to bother you until no end &#8211; possibly both. Either way, don&#8217;t be\u00a0<em>that guy<\/em>. Interact with them when they&#8217;re awake, and work diligently while they&#8217;re asleep. You&#8217;ll both feel much better about this agreement.<\/p>\n<p>This rule gets looser as kids get older but not by much. My son is content to play in his room sometimes by himself, but I make sure to stay within an earshot to make sure he&#8217;s not getting into trouble. I tend to use these times for what I call &#8220;light work&#8221; &#8211; usually stuff that is not time constrained &#8211; like email.<\/p>\n<h2>Reduction of naps<\/h2>\n<p>As your child ages into a toddler, their naps will reduce. Eventually they&#8217;ll be down to one nap a day, usually in the afternoon. My son (who also stayed at home with me as a baby) eventually would just take one nap in the afternoon at 1PM. As he got older, it increasingly went from a 3 hour nap to a 1.5 hour nap. With regular 3 hour naps, you can still get in 15 hours of work, plus evenings to get in 20 or so hours for the week.<\/p>\n<p>When 1.5 hours of nap time per day becomes the norm, it&#8217;s time to consider daycare if you don&#8217;t want to offend your clients and co-workers. I was able to put my son in day care part-time (3 days a week). We still have some hang-out time, and I could get most of my work done on the days he&#8217;s gone. I suspect I&#8217;ll take the same route with my daughter.<\/p>\n<div class='kindleWidget kindleLight' ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/wp-content\/plugins\/send-to-kindle\/media\/white-15.png\" \/><span>Send to Kindle<\/span><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My favorite age for babies is 3-9 months. They can&#8217;t yet walk, so they&#8217;ll really only get into trouble with things in an arm&#8217;s reach. They (hopefully) sleep through the night. They can hold their head up, so I feel more comfortable man-handling them during diaper changes and play time. 3 months has also been&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/working-home-baby-sleep\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,19],"tags":[110,107,106],"class_list":["post-1217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-working-from-home","tag-kids","tag-nap","tag-sleep"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1217"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1245,"href":"https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1217\/revisions\/1245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}