I’m returning to my job from mat leave in a few weeks and trying to figure out what a typical day will look like. For those with little babies, what is your typical (or ideal) schedule? I have a 2000 hour billable target.

It will depend so much on how you work/whether you’re a morning person/how flexible your firm is/baby’s sleep schedule etc. But here’s my best shot at remembering what my schedule was like:

5:30/6 Wake Up, start getting ready
6:30/7 Baby wakes up, make breakfast
7:30 finish getting ready, prepare diaper bag
8-8:15 leave house to drop off baby and head to work
9-6 in office, sometimes leave earlier when I had to pick up baby (husband mostly did pickups)
6:30 arrive home; eat and/or prepare dinner
7:30 baby bath time and bedtime
8-11 clock back in to work as necessary. Otherwise cleaning/downtime then to bed.

Obviously all of this is highly variable, but it’s an average day.

We have a one year old. We started with a nanny at 7 months. We looked into daycares and toured a lot but are so happy with our nanny. She comes to us and she’s switches days if needed (she comes 3 days a week and I stay home with our little 2 days a week as I am on a reduced hour schedule). She comes from 8-4 but is flexible of we are running late. Daycares charge by the minute if one is running late. I work when baby sleeps on my days with our little or after bedtime. Our little one has never slept through the night since birth. Reduced hour schedule is the only way I can make it work.

I have a 3yo and 2yo and my current schedule is working 9-5, plus a few hours after bedtime, and then a few hours on weekends, but I am transactional, so around signings and closings, that goes out the window and I might start calls at 7am, work all weekend, etc. Shout out to my wonderful husband who picks up all my slack.

Are you doing nanny or daycare? Which one makes a significant difference.

I did daycare with my first. I worked 9am-5/5:15pm so I could do dropoff and pickup. Husband is a resident doctor so he couldn’t do either most days. Then I’d work 8pm-10,11,12 after baby went down.

We now have 2 under 2 and we switched to a nanny. SO much easier. She comes to us 8:30-5:30pm so I realistically get an extra 1-1.5 hours during the day to work. (A nanny removes the commute to/from daycare, light housekeeping related to the babies, and the need to pack and label the food, snacks, and bottles). I still have to work most nights after the kids go to bed but the nanny has definitely made things easier.

2000 isn’t possible while being a present parent. 1600 is more like a typical FT job.

7:15 baby wakes up, husband feeds him while I get ready, then I watch the baby while husband gets ready and makes breakfast and coffee, we go on a walk with the baby and dog
8:30 nanny shows up and I start work (or drive to work one day a week)
30ish min lunch break with the baby days I’m home, sometimes another visit if I have time or need a break
5:30 nanny leaves, I stop work and watch the baby while husband cooks (on days I’m in office I try to be home by 5:30 but it’s often 6 and husband watches baby til I’m home), we eat dinner, hang out, bathe the baby once every 3 days
7pm I feed the baby, down by 7:15/7:20
7:30 log back in as needed, personal time and time with husband when I’m finished
11pm bedtime for me

We tried daycare for almost a month but after just one week we had decided to switch to a nanny.

I work 9-5 in house but with a long daily commute, so I’m gone 8-6pm and that’s our nanny’s schedule. My husband works on and off so some days he’s home the whole day and sometimes he’s gone for 3-4 days. The days he’s home he takes on almost 90% of the parenting and household responsibilities, and it’s still hard to navigate because I wish I had more time with my baby. Not only is it extremely convenient to just have baby at home, but between daycare sickness (which take parents out of work a lot too) and the one on one attention, it’s been worth every single penny.

We had to stop saving as much to pay for it, but we’re planning on doing it again for baby 2. My 2 year old will start part time preschool for socialization in the fall and baby will start home with the nanny once I go back to work until they’re probably 18/24 months.

We did consider doing a part time daycare and then afternoon nanny so baby wouldn’t be there the full day but it seemed silly as that would be somewhat close to the price of a full time nanny anyway. A nanny share was also high in our list but we couldn’t find someone close to our house to switch between the homes with a similar age, but it would also be a good option at about 2/3 of the price of a full time nanny usually.

There are also meal services for babies if you’re interested that can help with logistics and make life easier. We did little spoon for purées when we stayed introducing food and just had nanny feed those and we did BLW at night for dinner when one parent was home. Once they got older we started buying the premade meals for the nanny to feed baby so we didn’t have to worry about prepping food (they eat same as us for dinner) and I think this would be helpful even if you do daycare. Having to plan/make/pack food+snacks daily is such a pain!!
There are also those hanging clothing organizers by day of the week that I’ve seen at friends’ homes and they just pick clothes on Sunday/laundry day and leave them ready for the week.

I think the more you can optimize your routine the better. There are many ways to do so, so it will depend on your family’s preferences too.

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