moms that work full time with baby in day care

Hannah will be in full time day care when she is 13 weeks old. I figure that I will pick her up at 5:30 and be home around 6:00pm (give or take).

What time should I establish as bedtime? I see a lot of 8pms, but how do I get home, spend time with her, make dinner, eat dinner, feed her, bathe her, etc all by 8pm? Plus my DH lleaves so early he doesn't see him in the morning and doesn't get home until 7:45 I guess he'll never see her Should I establish a later bedtime? How do you ladies do this?

Please let me know its possible....

Message edited 1/4/2007 9:40:46 AM.

Re: moms that work full time with baby in day care

I may not be the reassurance you need

DD before daycare used to go to bed at 9pm everynight, she was 4.5 months old when she went to daycare.

Daycare wore her out! She was there from 7am to 4:30pm or so fulltime.

There's so much to look at and they keep the kids pretty busy, plus she didn't nap there like she did at home.

By the time we got home it was at least 5pm, we had just enough time to give her a bathe, pj's and a bottle, she was old cold everynight by 6-6:30pm.

I am not sure if you can establish a set bedtime yet for a 13 week old, DD is 8 months old and kinda set that bedtime herself, if we try to fight it, she is a raging crankfest!

It's hard, believe me, we know, it's like we never see her during the week

Re: moms that work full time with baby in day care

It's possible, but we don't usually eat until after he's in bed. I get home at 6, play a little then bath bottle and bed. He is exhausted for bed by 7 from all the action at daycare so there's no way I could keep him up later.

By the time I make dinner at 7:30/8:00, it's usually something fast, like ready to eat rice or quick pasta. Prepping ahead on the weekends is key. For me I just want to be with him after work til he goes down anyway so I don't mind. DH sometimes doesn't see him if he gets home too late, but we have some time together in the AM so it works out.

Re: moms that work full time with baby in day care

At aruond 13 weeks Jordana's bedtime was around 8:30-9. Then it has slowly creeped down to 7:30. I just follow her lead. When she shows me she is tried by rubbing her eyes, I put her to bed.

Re: moms that work full time with baby in day care

Andrew's bedtime is 8:00 and I don't get home until 6:45. It's not much time, but I just focus on him until bed (feed him dinner, bath, story) and then I'll go down and make dinner for DH and I and start cleaning, etc.

Re: moms that work full time with baby in day care

Re: moms that work full time with baby in day care

Nate will go to bed anywhere from 7:30pm -8pm most nights. I don't get but maybe 45 min to an hour with him, but I know he needs his sleep. DH picks Nate up from daycare around 5:30pm, they take the dog out and then DH will lget his dinner ready. I get home around 6:30pm and by then he's eaten. I will play with him and give him his bath. After I dress him and read him a story DH will put him to bed around 7:45pm. I'll start dinner in the meantime. We usually don't eat until 8:30pm.

Re: moms that work full time with baby in day care

At that age it is more important that they get their sleep, then you get a lot of time with them IMO. It sucks, but it is reality. Some things you can do to help- use a crock pot and have dinner ready when you walk in the door. Freeze some meals on the weekend and that way you don't always cook.

I do a bath every other night, unless Molly really needs one. That helps with time too.
Also, I always used bed time as a very private, cuddle time for the 2 of us. It was very special. Remember quality of time is more important than hours of non-quality time.

Re: moms that work full time with baby in day care

We would like Liam to be asleep by 8:30 but most nights it's more like 9pm. I get home at 6:30 with him but DH gets home about that time too so it's a team effort. We play with him for 1/2 hour, give him his bottle around 7:15 or so, most of the time he plays with it so it's another 1/2 hour before either a)bedtime or b)bath and bedtime. In between all of this we eat ourselves. It's best to have dinner waiting in the fridge. We may a big stew every Sunday and have that for 2 or 3 days, then the night of the last stew we cook chicken or pork and have that for the rest of the week. I would like to have a firmer schedule going on but DH always seems to want to make dinner right when I want him to play with Liam or feed Liam or bathe him and trying to get him to stick to a specified schedule is NOT WORKING so we do the best we can. Most nights, if not all nights, Liam is in his pj's and off to bed by 9pm.
And we usually wake him up at 5am for his first bottle...that's during the week. Weekends we let him get up when he wants.