For quite a long time you have been with the baby day and night. You would run to take care of them the moment they moved in their crib or made a sound. The idea of staying away from them makes you cry however then you need to. When your maternity leave ends, you have to report back to work. And that isn’t simple since you will be far from the baby for almost the whole day and then your responsibilities simply get multiplied.
In the event that you are coming back to work after maternity leave, KingdomOfBaby finds you some useless tips to help you .
Maternity Leave : Things To Do At Home
Make each conceivable arrangement at home. Set up a checklist of things you want to do, and continue ticking off once they are done. Here we share some of them:
1. Find an alternative caretaker
This you need to do much before you join work. Ask your parents or parents-in-law if they can take care of your baby in your absence. If that is not possible, try to find a nanny from your known sources.
In any case, it is hard to find a reliable person. In that case, go for a daycare. Whatever might be the option you have, introduce the change much in advance so that your baby will get used to the new caretaker before you rejoin work.
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2. Look For A Childcare Center
Find out in your office if there is any childcare facility on the premises or somewhere nearby. This will enable you to go and see your baby during the break time; you won’t miss your baby and they won’t miss you.
3. Adjust your work timings
If leaving your baby in daycare makes you overwhelmed, coordinate with your husband, and adjust the work schedule in such a way that either of you is with the baby. One of you can leave early in the morning, while the other will go later in the evening. This will deprive you both of being together but will make sure the baby is not away from the parents.
Alternatively, you or your partner may explore the work-from-home option.
4. Invest in a breast pump
If your baby is still on breastmilk, they don’t have to miss it since you are away. Buy a breast pump, express the milk and refrigerate it at a moderate temperature. Ask your baby’s caretaker to feed the milk to the baby whenever they are hungry.
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5. Cook some food beforehand
Now, you will not have your regular food prep time for dinner, as you’ll be away most of the day. Bake some food the night before work and store it in the refrigerator. This will make you avoid after-work fatigue and cut down on the chores. Alternatively, you may hire a cook at home.
6. Test run before joining work
Have a trial run when your maternity leave is ending. If your office hours start at 8am, practice getting up early and do chores that you have to do before leaving to work.
You may find that feeding your baby is taking more minutes than you thought, or heading to the daycare at rush hour takes more time than usual. This trial run will help alleviate stress on the first day at work.
7. Remember your needs
You, the supermom, need to take care of your awesome self. You should be relaxed. While you’re running around taking care of your tot, take up a journal and write down all the things you need to pamper yourself and anything that’s important for you. It can be buying a pair of shoes, monthly beauty care or just stocking up your favorite chocolates.
Remember, one who takes care of everyone else needs to take care of oneself first.
8. Take off the mental load
During the maternity (Maternity Leave) period, you mostly stay at home and the responsibility of household tasks falls upon you. Yet, when you join work, you will be pressed for time. In spite of the fact that your partner might help you, you may still have a lot to do.
Therefore, you end up constantly thinking about the work waiting for you back at home, and this is called mental load. You can avoid it by hiring some help, or pushing the unimportant tasks to the weekend.
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9. Have a backup plan
Your baby or the babysitter may fall sick or your baby may cry incessantly and doesn’t leave you. If such a situation arises, whom can you reach out to? Have a backup plan for such situations. Have an arrangement with your husband to take turns to be with the baby.
Things To Do At Work
You are going to work after a long gap, and that means you need a plan here too.
10. Start right
Schedule a meeting with your boss once you are back. Before starting on anything right away, have a conversation to figure out:
- The changes, if any, that took place when you were on leave. Any reorganization or shift in priorities for the team.
- The tasks your boss wants you to focus on. This will help you get a clear picture of what’s most important, instead of getting involved in unimportant tasks.
- Find out if there could be any flexibility in timings and work-from-home option.
11. Be professional
While you’re at work, focus on the job and do not let your mind wander. The truth is, people will politely come to you and hear stories about your newborn. But if you fall out for the baby often, people will talk about it. So, be professional as you have decided to take up work after a lot of consideration.
12. Have patience
After a break, you will take time to understand the changes that took place in your absence, and get used to the work. Don’t get depressed about it. Your boss will understand this, and give you some time provided you are making sincere efforts to learn the new things.
13. Carry nursing pads
Even if you express milk before coming to office, your breasts are likely to get full within a few hours. Leaking breasts might cause some embarrassment at work. Therefore, keep nursing pads handy. Disposable nursing pads are readily available, so make use of them. They absorb well and aren’t visible through the clothes.
14. A photo frame of the new one
You will miss your baby for sure. And you need to wait for a long day to end before you can take your little one in your arms. But until then keep looking at their photo on your office desk. That can make you feel better and happier. Then again, a photo might upset you about staying away from your baby. Give it a try once, bring a sweet mom and baby photo and keep it at your desk. If that saddens you, take it back home.
15. Eat healthy while at work
Getting back to the daily grind after a long gap is not going to be smooth. Hectic work might make you skip meals or eat junk that is handy. This will undo everything healthy that you have done in the past months. To avoid such problems, pack some healthy snacks and fruit from home so that you don’t have to starve (Maternity Leave).
16. Dress great, feel better
You are in your post-pregnancy period now, and probably your pre-pregnancy clothes won’t fit you anymore as it is unrealistic to hope that you’ll lose all the baby weight before returning to work.
Being at home, you may not have focused much on your clothes, but it is time you updated your wardrobe with some latest trends. This is not to make a fashion statement but to feel nice about yourself.
17. Figure out how to say ‘no’
After you join work, if your workload is unduly heavy, learn to put down your feet and say no to the unnecessary burden. Do not allow others to dump their work on you just because you have come back from a break (Maternity Leave).
Before the baby, you might have been fine taking additional burden but now the circumstances are different.
Here are some more tips you can follow to keep your priorities on the right track:
- Reach office early, so that you can leave early for home and come back to your munchkin
- Schedule your sleep hours properly so that fatigue doesn’t make life harder for you at work
Returning to work is not just about managing things at work and home but also about holding your emotions. In fact, you will feel very bad to leave your little baby with somebody and go to work. Let’s see how your emotional rollercoaster ride would be.
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