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Veteran
Posts: 154
 
Location: Tennessee | I am a proud mother to a 4 month old baby boy, & may I just say that I never knew the joy a child could bring into your life. Yet I am looking for some advice from other "stay at home" moms. What is your routine? And do you even have a routine?
My husband just got hired on at the fire department and we also train horses for a living. So for the next 6 weeks he is gone 5 days a week from 6:30 am until around 5:30 pm. Once his 6 weeks is over he will only be working 24 on and 48 off, which is WONDERFUL considering the money and benefits we are receiving. But that leaves me to do everything here at the house for now. I feed a.m. and p.m. and with weather, time, and baby permitting am trying to keep my barrel horse in shape also.
Just wondering if any of the barrelhorseworld moms have any tricks or techniques for getting everything done outside/with the horses while keeping baby happy.
Everyone that has a child knows I have to attach a picture of my sweet boy......
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 Accident Prone
Posts: 22277
 
Location: 100 miles from Nowhere, AR | Get a good carrier. I like a pocket sling or Mai tei type (like a Kozy Karrier)better than the baby bjorn things. You can wear your baby, and zip him into your coat to keep him warm while you get things done, and baby is happy because he's snuggled up to you. As far as keeping your horse in shape, with a newborn and no help, it's going to be tough. Before mine got old enough to entertain themselves, I would try to ride in the yard during naptime and use a monitor. My second wasn't reliable about staying asleep tho, so that made it harder. When you have little ones, your horses have to play second fiddle. No way around it. Good luck and enjoy your baby!! | |
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I Really Love Jeans
Posts: 3173
Location: North Dakota | I have four children, congrats on your new baby! I get up early and clean the house before the children get up. Never leave dishes or anything laying around take that extra time to get it put away. If you are having a busy day and baby is cranky make a quick one dish meal and eat on paper plates that way you have one pan to wash. I clean each morning, feed the children, make sure dishes are away and THEN I take care of horses and outside work. After morning feeding is done I will go over the house again and decide what to cook that evening, put something out to be ready to go.In the evening I will make sure dinner is ready before I feed horses. As long as I put family first it all gets done! I wash cloths on Sunday only. I will do multiple loads and put it all away. On Monday I will vacuum and mop everything! Tues-Thurs I will do any extra work and dust etc... On Friday I will vacuum and mop really good again so the house is ready for everyone to be home all weekend and any guest we may have. I guess the main thing is to never wait until the next day to finish something. The number one thing with a new baby is to make sure you don't over hold the baby or you will never get him to sleep long enough for you to get anything done! | |
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 The BHW Book Worm
Posts: 1768
| blah I needed this thread too im about to pop with my second and im a stylist/ manage a dog kennel. I train my own horses non outside and I have a filly that im starting after the baby comes. Well the husband and I talked and I think im going to try and stay home a while... but im NOT domestic HA I LOVE to cook and I LOVE being a mom but my organization skills/ cleaning skills are lacing when it comes to multitasking ....its either one or the other. I NEED TIPS FOR EVERYTHING. also maybe cutting corners to save money tips ... more than a quarter of our income in lost when im not working. not trying to steel thread so I will make another if I must. | |
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Accident Prone
Posts: 22277
Location: 100 miles from Nowhere, AR | See, I don't think babies can be held too much. I was into baby wearing, although not to the extreme that some people take it. With a good carrier, both arms are free for doing things and baby is happy because they instinctively want to be close. Once they get mobile, all bets are off tho. LOL
As far as keeping a clean house. Ha. Haha. I'm the wrong person to give advice on that. I can save some money tho. Use coupons, buy on sale, make your hubby go kill stuff, grow a garden, make meals from scratch, learn to repurpose leftovers and freeze portions for future use. Buy kid clothes and toys second hand and sell stuff they've outgrown. | |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 357
| My little guy is 14 months now. It is so much easier now well some days.. haha.. when he was first born I also used a baby carrier a lot. Also must have a monitor that can go a long distance. I did and still do most of my outside work at naptime, early morning and bedtime.
As far as saving money I do cloth diapers (which are awesome), breastfed until 1 year old, browse sale ads and coupons. I also planted a garden and did some canning this year. | |
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 BHW Resident Surgeon
Posts: 25352
Location: Bastrop, Texas | .
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 Sexy Bee Yacht
Posts: 5849
Location: WA | Three 4 Luck - 2014-01-15 7:20 AM See, I don't think babies can be held too much. I was into baby wearing, although not to the extreme that some people take it. With a good carrier, both arms are free for doing things and baby is happy because they instinctively want to be close. Once they get mobile, all bets are off tho. LOL
As far as keeping a clean house. Ha. Haha. I'm the wrong person to give advice on that. I can save some money tho. Use coupons, buy on sale, make your hubby go kill stuff, grow a garden, make meals from scratch, learn to repurpose leftovers and freeze portions for future use. Buy kid clothes and toys second hand and sell stuff they've outgrown.
Make hubby go kill stuff.... Hahahaha!!!!
I agree with everything this poster said. I have heard from many experts (not books, actual people) that you aren't going to spoil that baby in the first 9-12 months. I held my baby whenever he was upset, wore him places (even gave riding lessons with him in his Baby Bjorn), etc. and he was fine. As soon as he could crawl, he would go off and play, come back to nurse and then off he went again. One thing we stayed away from was co-sleeping (our choice, no need to debate it, it is said and done in our house) but some have no problem weaning away from that.
I wasn't in your shoes as a stay at home mom. My hubby would do morning hay on his way out the door (we only had 3 at the time) and I would do night chores. To ride we had a relative that couldn't get pregnant so she loved doting on Kodi while I went out and rode. That lasted till she changed jobs and went back to normal hours. | |
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Expert
Posts: 1543
Location: MI | Congrats on the baby, he's gorgeous! and on your hubby's job! My husband is a firefighter for our township's volunteer dept and the area tactic's team, he's mentioned FT firefighter work from time to time.
I currently work out of home 3 days a week, am home 2 and the weekends with 3 children and 1 on the way. I totally, 100% wholeheartedly agree with wearing the babe. I had a sling for when younger, a soft-shelled carrier for my son (he never fit in the sling right, he's a big huge), and we have a Kelty convertible back carrier/stroller for when they're older. I think I used my sling with my daughter until she was near 2, and the Kelty has gotten it's use through the years too because I can convert it into the stroller when tired or when doing something that the baby can watch me do (lunging, etc), and when fussy wear them. I used the sling inside of my dad's old coat when cold outside.
I am notoriously horrible as a mom/organizer/house cleaner/etc and generally fly by the seat of my pants. However, God has been speaking to me lately about setting a better example for our older kids, that maybe that isn't the best way to go about things. But, I get easily overwhelmed by heavy lists and we don't do well with too much structure. I have older kids so it probably doesn't apply, but they now have pretty basic 'morning' and 'night' routines. The morning routine includes getting dressed, teeth, hair, making beds, etc. and the night routines include jammies, putting away clothes, teeth/hair, bathing, and 'stations' - basically one or two rooms of the house (generally their room and/or the living room) that they need to pick up and put away before bed. The 20 month old 'helps'. We have the lists posted decoratively in their bathroom for ease of reference.
As for me, I went back in time to a physical organizer. I just bought and am enjoying "The Home Executive Planner" by Jen Boss on Amazon. What I like is that there are 3 columns, one for me, hubs, and the kids. Also, for dinner throughout the week, and 'other'. I have never planned out dinners before, but it has been really helpful. As a family we use Cozi, which for me is redundant, but it emails my husband weekly the calendar and he appreciates that. I try to do 1 load of laundry daily, generally don't fold and put it away until there are 2-3 loads because I loathe folding and putting away. I don't do as much housework as I should, but we get by and are trying harder to keep things picked up. We have gotten rid of a lot of 'stuff' in the past year, whatever we can't maintain or put away goes (hubs is a work in progress on this, lol). Believe it or not, picking up the house nightly - dishes washed, toys up, etc. has been a HUGE blessing and allows me to take a moment to vacuum, steam mom, or clean quickly when I get a chance.
Seems like everything is always changing and is a work in progress. What works today, will likely not tomorrow. I'll be honest, I don't know if this is much of a help :), but if you can use any of it you are welcome to! | |
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 Serious Snap Trapper
Posts: 4275
Location: In The Snow, AZ | Your son is gorgeous. Absoloutely beautiful.
My one bit of advice, and take it how you want, is not to expect yourself to get everything done every day.
That may sound bad. But what I mean is this, when Amber was a newborn, I still expected myself to clean all the laundry, get it folded and put away. Do dishes. Mop floors. Vacuum floors. Clean bathrooms. Outside chores and take care of a new baby. And maybe that doesn't sound like much... but it felt like a lot. So I took a step back and figured out what priorities were. Realized that three bathrooms didn't need to be cleaned every day when only one got used. Realized that vacuuming a mopping every day was not detrimental to life.
Don't overwhelm yourself with unneccessary things. When it seems like too much, step back, take a breath, say a prayer and kiss that beautiful baby boys head. | |
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| Being a parent is one of the hardest jobs out there and being a stay at home mom isn't easy either. Develop a routine for your baby and yourself. Also if you and your hubby can go on dates, you go out and ride while he watches the baby if that's possible will really help your sanity. Keep your previous hobbies, I think I would of invested in a baby monitor with a video screen while they're sleeping and a pack n play is nice to set next to the arena while you're riding. | |
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Expert
Posts: 1543
Location: MI | newracer - 2014-01-15 12:02 PM
Being a parent is one of the hardest jobs out there and being a stay at home mom isn't easy either. Develop a routine for your baby and yourself. Also if you and your hubby can go on dates, you go out and ride while he watches the baby if that's possible will really help your sanity. Keep your previous hobbies, I think I would of invested in a baby monitor with a video screen while they're sleeping and a pack n play is nice to set next to the arena while you're riding.
We've had issues with baby monitors with video screens, I'm not sure if it's just our house or our location? Our barn (metal) is about 100' away from our house (2x6 construction), and I can't get a video monitor or even a baby monitor to reach consistently. It bugs me! We also have a cheapish security video camera with display that we got one christmas, but that one doesn't have much better range.
I agree with the baby monitor, just be aware of the range and return policy. | |
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| They grow so fast so enjoy every moment you can. My husband is gone 4 days and then home for 3 days. I'm a part-time single Mom.
Keep things simple. Prioritize chores and don't feel like you have to do everything everyday. I have a working to-do list and just try to get as much done within reason.
I wear my baby everywhere (Mya Wrap) and have a jogging stroller that she loves to hang out in.
I ride as much as I can. My husband or Mom will watch her for me or they will walk with her in the stroller if the weather is nice. Some days I get to ride all the horses and some days I'm lucky to ride one.
At the end of the day, as long as my baby is happy, the horses are healthy, and we have clean clothes and a semi-organized house I consider it a successful day.
There will always be another rodeo, jackpot, horse etc. so just enjoy being a Mom to that handsome boy because they're only babies for such a short time. | |
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Veteran
Posts: 154
Location: Tennessee | Thank you all for the wonderful advice! I do have a baby carrier, but believe I need to invest in a better one, 30 minutes wearing him around and my shoulders are killing me. The baby monitor is such a good idea also, will definitely look into that!
Although this is my first child, I do understand how fast they grow. At times I feel like I could just sit around and watch him all day long and be completely content, but unfortunately nothing would get done.
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 550
| Congrats, he is beautiful!!
Great advice as always!! I had a ring sling and a hot sling, I loved the hot sling. Seven slings has a similar kind that is much cheaper, if you register they send codes to make it super cheap. My kids always LOVED being outside, and I would wear them in the sling and put them in the stroller where they could see me if I had to do something that I couldn't wear/hold them and do. I'm sure that is harder to do in colder climates -coat, hat and blanket are usually sufficient here.
And definitely hold that baby!!! They will get big so fast, and you won't spoil them by holding them. I held/hold mine all the time, and they are confident and happy, and not too spoiled ;)
I also kicked all the horses OUT! No more stall time=no more stalls to clean. I only let them in for injuries, or horses that have special feed needs. I even feed most of them in the pasture.
Also, don't stress if everything is not done to perfection.
I cook in the crockpot alot, things I can throw in and let cook while I do other things. That also means less dishes. And sandwiches are an acceptable supper at our house.
I would just ride when your husband is home, and leave them for some daddy/son bonding. | |
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 Expert
Posts: 1898
| My advice for when the weather is good is to get a good baby swing! I went through 3 my baby's first year but it was so worth it. I could put her in there next to the arena while I was riding and she would just swing and watch. A lot of times when she was really tiny she would fall asleep in it and take a nap for hours. | |
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