Self-Employed Mom Life: How I’m Planning To Work With An Infant At Home

As I’m preparing our lives and my web design business for our second baby, I was reflecting back on how I handled the baby stage with our first son, without childcare for the first year and half. There were so many things that I learned about myself and I’m actually excited to take all that I learned the first time around and hopefully have a more enjoyable experience with baby boy #2.

Here are a few tips that worked really well for me as well and one thing I really wish I did the first time around:

Tip 1: Condense all work and life tasks into 15 minute chunks of time

This was seriously the best thing I ever did for myself and it helped me feel exponentially more accomplished each day. Instead of having the task, “Work on XYZ website,” I would make several tasks that could be done in short spurts when my son napped like, “Build out the footer” “Finalize the font” “Connect to email marketing company.” These smaller tasks kept me so clear on the work at hand (oh hey, sleep deprivation brain fog!) and signaled to my brain that things are getting done rather than having that same task follow me around for days and losing sight of what actually needed to be done.

Not only did I break out my work tasks but it was so helpful to break out home and self-care tasks too like ordering groceries, doing a 15 minute workout (specifying which one exactly), taking a shower, folding laundry, cleaning a specific part of the house, and my favorite of all, do nothing! It was so important to my mental health to integrate life and business rather than spending every second working and then having my home and health fall apart.

Caution: You will be living slower than ever before and for someone who is used to moving fast, it’s going to be mentally challenging. But in the end, becoming a mom made me exponentially more efficient with my time and I really owe it to this 15 minute time tip!

I’m not a sponsor for them but I LOVE using Asana for scheduling my days! The little boxes feel like 15 minute chunks and it just made life feel more organized in my brain even in the thick of those sleepless nights and the unfortunate onset of postpartum anxiety that I experienced (more on that in tip 3).

Tip 2: Keep your phone or a notebook near you during contact naps

Something people don’t often talk about is that when you finally slow your life down to a newborn’s pace, your brain chatter slows as well, kind of like meditation. I remember this newfound mental space allowing for so many ideas to flow in and it became so helpful to keep these ideas in a brain dump note on my phone, or in a journal. I know contact naps can be hard and feel like you’re trapped but knowing that I had a place to let my thoughts flow really helped pass those hours. I will definitely do this again!

Side note: Don’t forget water and snacks in arms reach as well!

Tip 3: Create a solid mental health care plan before baby comes

This is a tip I’m bringing you as something I wish I had done with our first son. I developed postpartum anxiety at some point in the newborn stage and it took 3 years (not even joking) to get a proper diagnosis and started on a mental health treatment plan. I think it was hard for me coming from a yoga background and being in that holistic health bubble that often shames Western health care of all kinds. It took all those years of suffering while trying every single natural remedy out there until I finally came across a podcast of two very like-minded women openly sharing their experiences with postpartum disorders. I cried listening to them talk about how much relief they got integrating Western medicine with their more holistic / Eastern approaches. I immediately contacted a psychiatrist, started a low dose SSRI (aka anxiety meds) and started seeing a therapist. It has been life changing! Every aspect of my life, my marriage, my relationship with my son, my work and mindset have transformed. I continue to be in awe of my progress over the past 6 months and I truly feel like a new version of myself.

For baby #2 I am continuing my anxiety medication and upping the dose in the third trimester, and continuing with my therapist who is ready to increase the frequency of our sessions at any time. On the holistic side, I will of course continue using nutrition, hydration, sunlight, movement, yoga, journaling and all the other tools I’ve picked up along the way. I feel so much more confident going into this next postpartum period, despite the major struggles from the first time around, because I have a solid mental health care plan in place.

I want to also share that I think as self-employed women, we experience an even higher level of mental stress because we don’t have things like paid time off or fixed income. The increase in responsibility, while I wouldn’t trade it for the world, I believe adds to the potential for more mental health issues in our demographic. So make sure to make your mental health a top priority, especially if you’re preparing your world for a child! No one will do this for you proactively so you have to create it for yourself.

Of course, every baby and every mama are different so make sure you only take what feels good and leave the rest. Also, if you have any other tips that worked well for you, I’d love to know! Send me a DM on Instagram @designwithmeghan and we can chat.