Member Lifesavers

Dear all, I would like to share a little lifesaver with you. My daugther Sonia wakes up very early and usualy comes to wake me up is the morning. So I started to leave in the evening on the kitchen some sandviches and drinks. Also I learned her how to turn on the audiosystem and have bought her children CDs. So now she is not coming on 8 am, she can entertains herself when I get get some Saturdaysleep!

My son loves to eat Kraft Easy Mac, in the little microwave bowl. Problem is, after cooking 3 minutes in the microwave, it is way too hot for him to eat, and he is way to impatient to wait for it to cool. So I toss in an ice cube and stir it up, the cube will melt and the food will cool in no time! This saves me lots of toddler sized whining for "eat-eat".

To juggle work and family the Main thing I have is my organizer......and a Mini van..:-) ...Still its not fool proof but working on it for sure!!!! Quick stress reducer is giving myself a time out (when possible) or sitting in the rocking chair on my front porch just to catch my breath! Me time....still far in betweeen.....Will def take advice on this one.

It drives me crazy when I see a floor full of toys, I really can't relax in a room like that. So I figured out this rule: no more than one box of toys on the floor. We don't open up another box until the first one is cleaned up. I have a boy - so small cars are in one large container, trains are in another, puzzles are in another one. To speed clean up - I start a game, we throw one toy each in the box, taking turns, or play who will be first to clean up - so far works like magic, the floor is clean in under 5 minutes and my stress level goes down drastically :).

I am the kind of a person who would pre-plan crazily and try to go by it as much as possible.I tend to get irritated and disturbed if things dont fall the way I intend to and strangely my life has somehow supported them:) Right through my pregnancy,I had been planning on how to switch between baby and work all at the same time.. Barely 2 weeks after my child was born,I logged onto my laptop and started keeping myself updated with what's happening at work.I even started doing a couple of reports and attending a few conference calls when the baby would sleep to swing into the work mood assuming life would be easier when I actually resumed work.Initially it was really tough but gradually I could manage it(my long stay at my parents' place really helped here) When I joined back work after 3 months,I could really sense a bit of relief when my pre-planning worked out to a large extent. Things to keep handy that could help: 1.A diary to note down plans.I usually attach a time to each task..For e.g. Getting up - 8:30 AM,Feeding and taking bath - 8:30-9:00 AM,etc. and try to stick to it. 2.Invest in a multi-rack stand for keeping baby clothes(tshirts,pants,cloth diapers,etc) to pick up things fast. 3.Multi-tasking is the key(A word of caution : Dont try to be a superwoman:) 4.Get a domestic help/cook (Cooking and cleaning take up a huge chunk of time that could be utilised to attend to your baby. 5.Try and convince your boss to agree on work from home for sometime.This will ensure some good quality bonding time with your baby in the initial few months. 6.Look out for a quality day care centre in the proximity of your office so that you can attend to the baby whenever required.. 7.Stay in touch with your day care caregiver over phone regularly.Volunteer to help if time permits like partnering to take care of other children in the day care at times. 8.In case the baby is sick,split the day and responsibilities with your husband,work from home if possible,get external help from family or relatives or save some leaves to take care of the baby yourself if nothing else works out. 9.Save the weekends to spend most of the time with your baby ,to unwind and relax 6..Try to keep an alternate plan if all your pre-planning fails (We are all human beings and can not predict the future)