If you’ve ever lost your enthusiasm for reading the same story over and over, you’ll appreciate our guest Abbi’s discovery. She sent this tip to us as an alternative to letting YouTube read to your child.

I was first introduced to A Story Before Bed via the Nursery that I work for here in Dubai – Blossom. All the staff were asked to record a book and upload the recordings the Nursery Facebook account at 7pm each night to build a library of interactive bedtime stories for our parents.

This novel (heh) idea was such a great success I was inspired to use it with my own child. I found that, as with all toddlers, my son loves to see himself on video and so we changed the experience up a bit – we all did it together! He may not have smiled during the recording – it was bedtime after all, but he laughs non stop every time we play back it to him! Have a look at our family’s rendition of Itsy Bitsy Spider.

If you have a look at A Story Before Bed, you’ll see that there is a wide choice of books to choose from and they are updated on a regular basis. So far we have recorded just the free books but there are options to sign up for a paid account and it looks pretty fair. Right now, the paid family plan is about $10/month and you can re-record books as many times as you like.

You could record the same book in a variety of ways, get Grandparents to record one to show the kids, or record a bunch of books to be played to your little one if you have to go away on work for a few nights – they can still get a bedtime story from Mum or Dad – pretty cool I think! I hope everyone who has a look gets as much use and fun out of it as we have.

Abbi lives in Dubai with her amazing husband, David, and angelic two-year old, Charlie. We thank her for sharing this creative web service. I shoulda tried using it before going away for the weekend without my kids. Oops.

This post and giveaway are sponsored by Philips AVENT. We put this new pump to the test with an experienced mom, my longtime friend, Crystal. Crys is an active pumper unlike me, a passive weaner. Giveaway below.

Some background. Before Baby No. 3 came into the world, I had spent 34 months of my life nursing. Two separate babies, mind you, but after nearly three years of latching, let downs and nipple cream, I felt like I knew what I was doing. After all, by the end of my second go-round, I could nurse my son hands-free in a Baby Bjorn while I made dinner. (I was very disappointed when my husband didn’t give me a standing ovation after finding me this way the first time.) So, after our third baby was born, I felt a bit smug in the hospital when the nurse came in to check on us and my little ladybug was already nursing like a pro. Look at me, I’m an experienced Mom! I know what I’m doing! I got this!

Ha.

Our story. We arrived home and my milk arrived, as did the accompanying engorgement. The changing state of my breasts confused my little one and she seemed to forget how to latch. As she struggled, my nipples took a beating. Feeding became so painful that I would wince and cry when it was time for the next feeding. I also felt confused – Could I have forgotten how to nurse? Why was this so difficult? To add to the experience, we (both myself and the baby) developed a raging case of thrush. There were clogged milk ducts, which then led to me waking in the middle of the night with a fever and violent shivering due to mastitis. I was a wreck.

Enter the pump. I hadn’t thought about pumping much in the months leading up to her birth. I figured that would be something I would deal with later down the road. But I was happy to have a breast pump on hand so I could give my raw nipples — and my defeated psyche — a break during those first early weeks. Near the end of my pregnancy, the Rookie Moms had asked me to try out a new breast pump, the Philips AVENT Double Electric Comfort Pump, so I broke it out in desperation near the end of week one. I loved nursing my two older sons and wanted the same experience with my daughter. As I sat, cracked and sore and whimpering, my husband figured out quite quickly how to assemble the new pump, then sterilized all the parts for me in a boiling pot of water before giving me the Cliffs notes version of how to use it.

The flanges, or pieces that fit around the breast, were outfitted with a flexible, rubbery cover called the “soft massage cushion” that actually did soften the experience of having my breasts sucked into a machine. I was able to use the pump successfully on extremely sore breasts so I was happy with the comfort level. When turning the pump on, it automatically starts off with a “gentle stimulation mode” that’s intended to get the milk flowing like babies do with their quick little sucks at the beginning of a nursing session. Then once the milk is flowing, there are three pump settings to choose from, which is helpful depending on the state of your nipples. I used the low to middle setting during those early tender days, but have moved onto the fastest setting with no discomfort. I do have to fit my breast into the pumping pieces an exact certain way for the pump to have the right sucking effect. But once I get it in there correctly, the pump is very efficient. Thankfully, we recovered from the mastitis, the thrush and the war wounds on my nipples. I was able to move on to using the pump for more regular, non-emergency sessions.

With my previous babies, I struggled to get even 2 ounces of milk out of a pumping session. But this time around, my husband plans to give our daughter a bottle once a day while I work. I will need to have much more of a milk stash to cover that daily feeding. Plus, with the two older kids needing to live their lives, I will want more flexibility to give her bottles of pumped milk.

But how to increase my stock? One morning while I was pumping, she started freaking out and was trying to eat my husband’s face while I expressed milk into the machine. I decided to see if pumping while feeding her would increase my output. I positioned the baby in the clutch or football hold on my left side and used the pump on my right side. I won’t lie. The first two times, it was very awkward and required my husband’s help to hold the baby in place. But by day three, we had it down solo. I am now getting 6-7 ounces per session, and this method saves precious nap time from being used up by pumping. I can’t attribute the increase in milk solely to the new pump because I never tried using my old pump in this manner, but I’ve been pleased overall with the Philips AVENT Comfort Pump’s efficiency and performance. I pump/nurse at the same time every morning and am feeling more relaxed to see my freezer filling up with milk.

The results. After a few weeks with the right nipple cream, a breast pump, and a corrected latch, we bounced back from our breastfeeding challenge. But of course, as is often the case with parenting, now that we have this nursing thing down, a new problem has cropped up: She’s refusing to take the bottles I’ve worked so hard to make for her. Sigh.

Win a pump of your own!

Please wait patiently for the rafflecopter widget to load and you can enter to win an Philips AVENT Double Electric Comfort Pump (retail value $275).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Disclosure: We are compensated ambassadors of Philips AVENT trying to get the word out about this new comfort breast pump. All opinions and experiences are our own, like that 7 ounces of milk in a single pumping session? That really happened!

[Photos from flickr Tiarescott

This post is part of a series sponsored by Philips AVENT in support of the launch of the double electric Comfort Pump.

Pumping breast milk was still a mystery to me as I made secret lists of baby names and notified my boss of my pregnancy. I learned about it when my co-worker Mimi, newly back to work after having her first baby, invited me over to her house to show me the ropes of having a newborn.  That those ropes would include a tour of her freezer was totally news to me.

What rookie moms need to know about going back to work while breastfeeding:

1- You will need to own a breast pump. This is a device with a small motor that uses suction to extract milk from your breasts into bottles. (Not shown in this picture is the plug.)Place the suction cups over your breasts and press the power button. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, goes the pump, squeezing your nipples, making milk flow through the funnel into the bottle. When you are finished, you’ll unscrew the bottle tops that have the funnels attached and replace them with a regular flat cap for storing the bottles in a lunchbox or small cooler during the rest of your workday. At home, remove the flat cap and replace with a rubber nipple. Now someone else can feed your baby breast milk from the bottle.

2- Pumping will require a private place to be and a 15-20 minutes break a couple of times each day. Your company is probably legally required to supply this for you and if you are not the first woman to go back to work and continue nursing at your workplace, your HR person will know exactly what you need and help you make it happen. If you work at a big enough place, ask someone who has already taken a maternity leave to show you how she does it. [Read the stories we've compiled in our pumping project to feel less alone.]

3- Stockpiling milk during your maternity leave is a really good idea. Thanks to Mimi’s advice, I began pumping about a month before returning to work. My goal was to have enough milk in my freezer to provide a cushion so that when I went back to work, I didn’t have so much pressure to produce the same amount of milk my baby was consuming in my absence from the get-go.  Pumping takes some practice. Getting used to the pump at home will help you relax more when you return to work.

4- Buy some Sharpies. You may develop a different system, but here’s what I did: Locked myself in the “Maternity” closet at my office; pumped into the bottles that came with my breast pump; stored them in a small lunch bag in my office’s refrigerator; brought the lunch bag and my pump home each day; transferred breastmilk into resealable bags for storing in the freezer; washed and dried bottles and pump parts for the next day. I would use a Sharpie to mark the date on the bag. When my husband or nanny used milk from the freezer, they would use the oldest bag first. Breast milk can be reheated from a frozen state for up to four months.

5- You get what you get and you don’t get upset. KIDDING! You will definitely get upset at some point. Frustrating things that pumping moms face are: inconveniently timed work activities that compromise your pumping schedule; having to remember to bring all the components to work each day — and that one time you forget the lunchbox and have to hide a bottle of breast milk in a mug of ice in your desk drawer; producing less milk than you hoped for; co-workers not understanding your need to pump. Other pumping moms will have experienced those disappointments. Feel free to complain to us.

While this post is sponsored by Philips AVENT, all advice and experiences are my own. Heather and I pumped for five breastfed babies between us and we strongly believe that whether you’re going to pump for a couple of months or a whole year, you should treat yourself to a good double electric pump. You’ll be glad you did. (Read more about the Philips AVENT Comfort Pump on Amazon.com >)

Photo Credit: dianaschnuth via Compfight cc

This post was sponsored by UrbanSitter.

My very first time with a babysitter, I was so choked up with emotion about leaving my five-month old in anyone else’s care that I had to excuse myself to another room and cry for a bit (while she was still there!). There was so much to communicate and I had no idea how to say it all.

Since then, things have gotten a lot easier; I am eight years into my parenting journey and have 3 sons so I know a thing or two about their needs. Also, I am more comfortable with leaving my children in another’s care and I have a solid network of sitters. I maintain an evolving list with their evening routines, forbidden foods, and emergency contact info on my fridge for reference.

Despite my preparations, I still find that there are surprises with every new caregiver. Most of the differences are minor and I don’t sweat it (like when the kid’s bedroom doors are left open, which we never do at sleepytime) but other discoveries make “the list” for next time.

This piece of legal paper lives on the side of my fridge forever. The top part includes my kids’ names and birthdates, so I don’t need to frequently update ages, as well as our address and emergency contact info. The bottom part contains my peculiar instructions.

In addition to my overly thorough notes, I have the verbal instructions. I realize that what’s normal for me, might sound wacky to you so I offer a partial list of what I tell a new babysitter in the hopes that if I show you mine, you’ll show me yours:

• Take off your shoes, wash your hands. I’m a nut about this. If I see them do it first thing, I can relax. Otherwise, ummm, please don’t touch my kids or their food.
  Pro tip: If you’re weird like this, tell the sitter before they come over, so you’re not accusing them of being unclean. AWKWARD!
  
• Clean up the mess you make. I don’t need my house to be magazine-ready when I get home but please tidy up the dishes and food prep stuff as well as the toys you got out.
  Pro tip: For this reason, I nearly always ask sitters to make dinner so they’ll do the clean up.
• Keep up with the toddler. The little guy is the craziest. No matter what, always have one eye — if not hand — on him; the bigs will probably be fine.
  Pro tip: I have safe zones set up in every room so adult caregivers can go to the bathroom or open the oven door.
• Lights out at bedtime. I was surprised to learn that my toddlers negotiated for the lights to stay on… and the sitter wondered why they didn’t fall asleep. In our house, lights go off, all the way off. No matter what the kids say.
  Pro tip: I have the whole bedtime routine written down for reference.
• No toys in the bed. Again, my kiddos negotiated for puzzle pieces and blocks to be in their beds overnight. Huh? Actually, that one probably goes into the category of bedroom door left open and other things that are no big deal.
  Pro tip: Let go of what you can. Bedtime 15 minutes late? So what!
  

I’d love to hear what’s on your “list” of instructions for babysitters. Does anything unusual make the cut?

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This post was sponsored by the fabulous folks at UrbanSitter.com, who make it so easy for you to find sitters that your friends and contacts already like. All experiences with sitters described above really happened to me.

Let me just skip to the punchline: I LOVE my Mother’s Helper and wish I had learned about this hybrid person-of-awesome much sooner. I don’t want to sound like a celebrity with a fleet of nannies, but a well-placed assistant totally kicks ass. Ok, now that I see that in writing, I’m sure that I didn’t try this sooner because I was afraid of that very perception. To give the impression, however accurate, that I cannot do it alone felt like failure.

Sigh.

Look at these faces. You can’t leave them alone together for half a minute.

After Alec returned to work and I was faced with the witching hour and three young children, I needed help. You, dear readers, gave me a heap of good ideas for shortcut meal prep. But, I could only get so far with lowering my standards. Truthfully, I needed at least three hands. Or maybe four: one for each child and another making food.

I decided that my ideal helper would be a high school or college student in the late afternoons for about two hours when I was home. Having never hired someone like this, I wasn’t very clear on the rest of my criteria as I began my search. Perhaps she would hold the baby while I cooked or maybe she could do the school run (an hour-long loop that resulted in half of us crying). Nah, I couldn’t trust a new driver in my megavan with my children. Like I said, the particulars were fuzzy and hormones were high.

Then I got lucky. Why do we always find something the last place we look? Because we stop looking! In the case of my phenomenally amazing mother’s helper, I looked everywhere for her. I tried friends, my preschool, Berkeley Parents Network, Facebook, Bananas, Care.com, and Urban Sitter. I really had given up hope when Lorna’s profile fell across my screen (Urban Sitter if you’re wondering).

I called all her references — who loved her — but still wondered if I could really trust a stranger with my infant. I decided that I probably would do all the baby stuff myself and delegate the helper jobs that would keep my home running: Dinner, lunches, laundry. I hoped like heck she could follow a recipe.

My previous helper had been great with the big kids, but she tended to play games only to leave the pieces spread all over the floor. I knew I’d have to be specific with my needs and wants if this was going to work. I had to find a way to get a stranger to do what I would do myself if I had more of me to go around.

Lessons learned:

• Head off any drama. Identify hot button issues before they come up. I let her know up front that I’m a nutjob about handwashing, and if she wanted to make me happy she would need to do it as the very first thing every time. Crisis averted.
• Write it all down. Each day I outlined the priorities: dinner, lunchboxes, laundry. If there were any special projects, I added them to the list and stuck it in ranked order so she could leave at 6pm knowing that the important stuff was covered.
• Take it slow and Train on the job. At first I let her familiarize herself with my kitchen and food prep. After she saved my sanity in that room, she built relationships with my big boys and finally learned the details of Sawyer’s care. For the first weeks, I owned all babycare but as time went on, I trusted her more to take over.

After four weeks of helping with me at home, I left Lorna alone with all three kids. For 10 minutes. She provided bridge care until Alec’s bus arrived so I could go to the BlogHer holiday party.

Over time, she has gone from being a Mother’s Helper to being our go-to babysitter. I credit my comfort with her abilities to feed and put to bed my three little guys to the time we spent together those crazy afternoons when I was so raw and just needed more hands.

Have you used a Mother’s Helper? Do you have any tips to someone else considering this relationship?

Recently, I’ve been confused by my peers who call themselves stay-at-home parents while they publish essays or even books, and run businesses from home. Is it because they are able to do those things without using childcare? Or is it because they take greater pride in stay-at-home-parenthood than the part-time career activities in which they are engaged, so they prefer to use that label?

It seems that there are no longer two buckets: working parents and stay-at-home parents. There are many hybrids. Folks who work from laptops while their kids are sleeping or doing art projects. Parents who take conference calls while they push their kid on the swing.  Parents who travel and work their butts off for four straight days and then spend the next three making every one scrambled eggs before taking them outside to ski. The salary and benefits may be unstable for many of us, but this mishmash of roles can be a beautiful thing.

And thank god for smart phones.

I work between 9 and 3 when my kids are in school, but due to my flexible schedule, I am able to take them to weekday swimming lessons and playdates at the park. If there is a sick day or a doctor’s appointment, my work can wait. (Though it may pile up and keep me occupied when I’d rather be watching TV). I am incredibly lucky this way. Thanks to technology, my husband can also take a work-from-home day when necessary. (His boss and some of his employees are located in other states!) I know doctors, restaurant managers, and teachers cannot “work from home.” I feel more connected to the term “working” than “staying at home”, but perhaps that is driven by a rationale for why my kids have attended preschool nearly every day since age two.

I do wonder if stay-at-home parents find it annoying when folks who earn as much money as they used to call themselves stay at home parents. Or do full-time working parents find it annoying when I say I’m a working mom, but then I am available to go to class parties for my first grader?

Today on Momversation, I got a chance to raise this issue with Tanis from Redneck Mommy and Jessica Gottlieb. Watch our video and let us know what you think.

Can you hear the baby squawking from where you’re sitting? I can. And it sure is hard to concentrate. Doesn’t he realize that I’m trying to write a blog post about him? Gah.

Okay, that’s better now. Where was I? Oh yes… Sawyer, my sweet baby love, my third boy, is about to head off to daycare and I am conflicted.

On the one hand, I am so relieved to be able to concentrate on work during working hours and not be shushing and nursing my way through conference calls or in-person meetings as I have been doing for the past five months. I am looking forward to trying to cram my work back into the school day rather than the unpredictable minutes of naptime or after bedtime. I am ready for a little bit of quiet. With my work being done during work hours, I’ll be able to better focus on my children during family time.

But then. There’s the other hand, of course. The hand that has gotten so accustomed to loving, bouncing, and comforting a small person every second of the day will be empty again. My almost-definitely-for-sure last baby is taking his first tiny steps out of my nest. Just writing that makes me stick my lower lip out into a frowny pout.

Taken today. Maybe THEY can get him to nap outside of the swing.

I love the childcare place where Sawyer is going. That’s not the problem. Milo, nearly five now, is in his last year of preschool in the same building and has assured me that he will keep an eye out for his little brother in the infant room. Making it even easier to trust the process, Milo started in the very same room with the same teachers when he was a blobby little baldy.

If I were speaking to a new mom friend worried about the daycare transition, I would gently offer that the first two weeks are especially painful for the mom. No matter how many babies she’s had. The baby will thrive in his new environment. I know this. I’ve seen it over and over. I might tell her about the first-day I left Holden with his nanny (also five months old, the very week I returned to work and started this site), and I had to run to the bedroom and cry when she asked me a few too many questions about his basic care.

But still I sit here with my frown, wishing that bitter pill of transition had already started working.

Because Whitney is forcing me to take a maternity leave, I have asked several online friends to help out with guest posts. I am grateful to Kristen Chase for sharing her version of how to take a maternity leave from blogging so I can share it with you and learn from her example. I hope you enjoy the many great voices coming together this month!

Kristen with Drew, Bridget, Quinlan, and Margot

Because my job is so incredibly flexible and I’m a little Type-A, I relied on the persistence of my friend and co-publisher Liz Gumbinner to force me into a maternity leave.

My rationale, especially with my 2nd through 4th kids, was that I wasn’t really getting a break anyway since I had another kid (or two) to chase around, so the work, for me, was a distraction and a way to pass the somewhat boring breastfeeding hours, particularly late at night.

For my other writing gigs, I did my best to finish my work in advance, and then give them an idea of when thought I’d be ready to return. The beauty of working with (and for) moms is that they are very understanding about post-partum recovery. If only all employers (and colleagues) were like that.

I do, however, think that it’s important to take a break, whatever that means to you, and if you don’t have someone like Liz or a team supporting you, then I’d remind friends and family to insist on it, even if they know you’ll push back a bit.

photo credit: Kelly from Amerine Photography

Kristen writes so many places, I’m sure you are already reading her somewhere: Cool Mom Picks, Motherhood Uncensored, The Pioneer Woman (ok, she’s not THE woman, but she writes there sometimes!), Momanatrix, and more. I am so grateful to my online, real life friend for sharing her tips.

This contest is now closed. The winner will be notified. The book below is still a break-through so read on.

When I read the new children’s book  Monday is One Day to my kids for the first time, I felt like doing a little jig. Yay for working parents! Yay for kids being raised by grandparents! And for twins! Of color! Yay for parents who wear uniforms to work! Yay for families who have two dads!

Each page of this book validates some child’s special family — and together all of them acknowledge that although we may drop our little ones off at daycare, we are finding fun things throughout the week to celebrate, until the weekend comes again.

Monday is one day, Tuesday is blue shoes day, and Wednesday is halfway day.

If you think your child would enjoy this story, designed to relieve separation anxiety, here’s a way to get the book — and more — into your hands.  Win it from us.

We are super excited about this giveaway because it includes a mini-collection of Scholastic books AND a set of days of the week underwear from Paul Frank. (I know you want these for yourself, too, because I sure do.)

Two (2) winners who comment on this post will receive:

• A copy of Monday is One Day!
• Days of the week undies for a little girl or boy
• 3 additional titles from Scholastic for ages 3+

This bundle is valued at $105 and is courtesy of Scholastic. (Book image courtesy of Scholastic. Copyright 2011 © by Arthur A. Levine. All rights reserved.)

To be entered, tell us what special attribute of YOUR family do you wish to see reflected in a book? Two commenters will be selected at random to win the prizes. Random drawing on Wednesday, June 1, 2011.

When a discussion of using a housekeeper exploded over on The Happiest Mom, I was taken by surprise. More than a hundred women commented on Meagan’s post about outsourcing housecleaning. Many felt too guilty to consider it and more than a few took a stand against it.

My husband and I have a cleaning person come to our house twice per month, and we also have someone who mows our lawn and tends to our landscaping every other week. When Meagan’s commenters started accusing women who outsource household labor of spending their time and efforts on the wrong things, I started making a mental list of all the things I outsource that I could be doing myself.

I could grow all my own vegetables, but I buy them at the grocery store.

I could change my own oil; I’m sure my dad would be happy to teach me how.

I could hem dresses that are too long for me, but I take them to a tailor. Heck, I could sew the dresses myself, but it would take so long, they’d fit poorly, and buying the fabric and notions would probably cost as much.

But I don’t do those things, and I don’t feel guilty about it.

About every two months, I get a pedicure. And if less time has gone by, say six weeks, it’s possible that I will have not cut my toenails in between visits to the nail salon. It is then that I laugh at myself and think “Who am I that I outsource the cutting of my toenails? That’s just plain weird!”

(Yet I outsource my eyebrow maintenance, and I don’t feel uncomfortable about it.)

I know I might get blasted on this post for confessing these behaviors, as a commenter on The Happiest Mom wrote underneath my comment

Because you have soooo much more pressing things to do with your time (making your own notepads–good grief–and going to mommy “summits”) it’s great you have “Maria” (gee, I wonder, could she be latin/hispanic?) to clean your house. Does nobody else find this nauseating?

I don’t feel I have to defend the way I spend my time to a stranger, so I won’t go there.

I actually have made a handful of articles of clothing for myself with my sewing machine. Once, I made a potholder.  I went through a beading phase and made necklaces. And now that I have kids came along I make things for them. Because it’s fun.

Usually, however, I buy things for myself already made. Isn’t this outsourcing? And usually I take my car to a car wash. (And when I am working, another woman puts my child down for her nap.)

Somehow, outsourcing housecleaning and childcare are the hot buttons. I’m guessing folks aren’t judging each other for buying bottled lemonade instead of making it from lemons.

When I hear people express guilt over hiring help, whether it’s for cleaning or childcare, I want to relieve that guilt for them. But we can’t tell each other how to feel.

So tell me, do you cut your own toenails?

Marketing Mommy is a blogger in the Chicago area who has two kids born pretty darn close to mine. And we both had a victorious VBAC with #2, and, we are both in marketing, so we were like, totally best friends, even before we ever really had a conversation.

She works full time, so pumping is part of her every day life. I feel for her, because I so hated the pump and all of it’s parts when I worked outside the home during Julian’s babyhood. Also, there were random drips of breast milk on my pump’s carrying case and sometimes on my lap. Sorta gross, even though I’m not sure why.

Miss Marketing Mommy invented herself a solution. She called it the “Pump Parts Terry Bag,” and like a good marketer, she sells us on it by describing the problem it solves:

My breast pump came with an ugly black tote bag (which I don’t use), but it didn’t come with a good solution for toting all of the pump’s parts and accessories, the horns and valves that come into contact with milk and have to be cleaned between pumping sessions.

Since I pump twice a day, I was washing those parts with dish detergent and hot water and giving them a cursory drying with paper towels. But they never seem to get really dry.

I’d been keeping them in a gallon Ziploc bag in my backpack, but I didn’t like how fogged up the bag would become and I hated using damp parts. Also, I found that cleaning the Ziploc bag even once a week was a pain in the butt. And I was never positive that it was really clean.

Enter the Pump Parts Terry Bag!

This velcro-close bag, designed by me and sewed from an old towel by my sweet mother-in-law, holds all of my pump parts and doubles as a lap pad for me, protecting my work pants from inadvertent milk drips.

No more damp horns and I can throw it into the wash every couple of days!

Nice work, MM!

Related activity: The Pumping Project (Share your story!)

Dear Rookie Moms,

I have had 4 glorious months of maternity leave and am returning to full-time work in the first week of January. We have child care arranged and a steadily growing stash of pumped milk in the freezer.

I would love to know what other rookie (and veteran!) moms did to ease back into the working world. Feeling really sad that this time with my daughter is almost over, and guilty that I won’t be with her everyday.

Thank you!
Sierra

Hi Sierra,
I feel you. We both returned to work around the same time as you, and it was not easy. Studies do show that your baby will be fine, and thrive, as long as she is well cared for but your guilt is another matter. The first two weeks are especially challenging while you find your new groove and try not to lactate at work every time someone asks you casually, “how’s motherhood?” or something else impossible to answer. I’d love to open it up to our community for tips and tricks for you as well. [See below!]

Even after doing it for a while now, I do not know how people eat dinner with two working parents. It’s a constant source of amazement to me. I dedicated a section of our site to work/life (as in balance but more like juggling) and also getting dinner on the table FAST.

Hang in there,
Heather

We got a ton of helpful suggestions from our virtual community on facebook and twitter. Thanks, ladies! Here are several favorites:
Set some boundaries

• @beeteljooz: Focus on work while there. Leave work at workplace, go home and enjoy baby! Only your children and your husband will remember time missed with you. Learn to say no! Let dad and grandparents help Take time out for yourself. The old saying goes: If mom ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy!
• @civil3diva: Own your decisions. If something is making you feel guilty, chances are you need to change. Be brave, do what you know is right!

Master the logistics

• @beeteljooz: Use a crockpot for meals. Throw one more load of clothes in washer before leaving for work and one before going to bed at night. Keep two diaper bags ready to go to save on time when you are in a rush.
• @esanchez6 Lay out as much as you can the night before, maybe even try to prepare bottles for night feedings.
• @HowVeryGranola: Exercise after baby goes to sleep, find another mom to talk with, journal/blog, breathe, get a crockpot, accept the messy house. If you can, get a housekeeper to come 1-2x per month. Not as expensive as you might think.
• @meetmoe: Mostly know that it’s HARD and it’s OKAY and let go of perfection.

Ride the emotional roller coaster

• @HotMessMommy: Returning to work is hard and no one will truly understand how you feel about it. It’s so personal.
• @Beckytwogirls: Be prepared to want to call the day care provider all day. If you have a good provider, she’ll indulge you a little.
• @hikerkira: I found that having too many pics of my baby was distracting and made me miss him even more.
• @lizzieoeltjen: I set aside time each week for mommy time with kiddo, no exceptions. Let the dishes sit in sink and make time for play.
• @HBWMoms: Get a routine every morning that’s special just for you and your baby. Mine was an eskimo kiss and 3 hugs and then let go =)
• @lesleytweeters: Don’t beat yourself up if you quit cloth diapering! [or any of the other things that you need to let slide]
• @abourland: Don’t let stay at home moms get you down or make you feel like you are doing something wrong by going to work. [ahh yes, the proverbial mommy wars]
• @maggieKTVB7: Know that the tears will pass! It takes a few days though. Soon, you get in a routine and baby does too.

Sierra, after you get in the groove, please share some of your tips back with us! Good luck.
And readers, we’re always open to your tips. Please add to the list!

[photo via flickr by Hammer51012]