Balancing Work and Family… While Pregnant |

Musing
Mar 2014

I own a business, just started a new one, take care of my home, cook dinner every night, homeschool my children, and do volunteer work…. All while pregnant with my 3^rd child.

We craft, go on outings to the beach, do yoga together, and have way too many crafts going on at once. It’s enough to make my head spin sometimes! People (mostly other women) ask me how I do it, and still manage to take care of myself, and while it is a pretty serious juggling act, it’s really about priorities and creativity.

Work

While in my first trimester, we were in Costa Rica for 3 months, and I was missing the comforts of home. I got super lucky and avoided morning sickness, though I did feel weak and woozy in the mornings. Knowing I needed to rest during this time, I shifted all my projects to begin after noon, and let my clients know the reason for the temporary change. No one seemed to mind, and work was still complete at the end of the day- most days. Thankfully, my clients are very patient and flexible.

After leaving Costa Rica and settling back into Cozumel (tough life, I know!), I was in my 2^nd trimester. Now it was time to get back into doing chores, running errands, and getting the kids back on a good school schedule. While I used to work through my kids’ nap time, I had to start taking naps with them! My 2-3 hour naps coupled with my need for 10 hours of sleep per night were really messing with my productivity!

I worked out a schedule that has worked well over the last few weeks, and makes the days flow smoothly, even with a hundred other things going on. I begin my mornings with a cup of Chai tea to help me get a good handle on my projects or the day, sort them out in order of importance, and check emails for anything that needs immediate attention. Meanwhile, the kids go about their morning routine, eat breakfast, get dressed, gather school supplies, and then go play outside for a bit. I like this because they can release some energy before we sit and do school work. Once I get them started on their projects, I go back to work. We break for lunch, clean up, and I continue with work projects while they either finish their own work or go back outside. After nap, I usually finish up a couple of things or do some reading for an upcoming project, and by the end of the day, though tired, work is done!

House Chores

My kids are 3 and 5, and are pretty good at cleaning up their own messes. I’m not above bribery when necessary! We are renting our house on the island, so maintenance work is left up to a property manager. During the week, I just try to keep toys picked up, and keep sand off the floor. Sometimes I listen to a class or a webinar while hanging laundry on the clothes line or sweeping the floor. Most other cleaning is done either at night when my Love comes home from work or on Saturdays before we head out to the beach. He is a big help with laundry, dishes, and yard work. He is also great at running out to find whatever food I may be craving that day. Luckily for him it’s almost always ice cream or Chinese food.

Meals

My biggest, number 1 most fantastic tip ever is to USE THE CROCK POT! I grabbed mine from storage on my last trip home to the states, and it is now like a member of the family! It gets attention almost every day. I chop up ingredients in the morning, and let them cook all day. At dinner time, just open the pot, and voila! I always make a full pot and freeze the leftovers, which I give to friends who come take the kids out of my hair for a little while, or thaw on days that I completely forget about dinner. The kids usually make their own breakfast of cereal, fruit and Horchata (a delicious Mexican drink). And now they even insist on making their own sandwiches for lunch too! Yay for independence!

Errands

My busiest work days are Mondays and Wednesdays, while my slowest work days are Tuesdays and Thursdays. We don’t have a car here, so I try to run all errands in one day to keep taxi fares low. Tuesday has so far been our choice errand day, so we start the morning off with work and a little school, head to our volunteer work, and from there, take a cheap taxi ride to the town where we can get all our weekly errands taken care of. I’m usually lucky enough to finish everything before nap time, which means even on those days, I get to rest with the kids. This is especially needed after translating all the grocery foods into English- too much brain work!

Schooling

Ah, my biggest challenge. How do I effectively school my kids while keeping up with everything else? After tons of research, and trial-and-error, I think we have finally come up with something that works well for us. I implement Project Based Learning (PBL) so that the kids can choose their own interests and work independently on a project. We have sort of always done this to a degree, but now we are using it for all our core subjects as well.

For example, this month, my daughter (5 years old) chose to study “how trash and waste affects life on the island”. After she does her “research” for the day, she chooses words within that context that she wants to learn how to spell- thus, the week’s spelling list. She gives me sentences based on things she learned in her research that day, and I write them down with grammatical errors, which she then corrects for language and grammar. She reads books related to waste or recycling for reading time. And we are planning activities to get neighbors involved in her effort to keep our little neighborhood clean. For math, she plays games on the iPad, and for history and science she watches videos, documentaries, etc. I am fairly hands off with her learning, and only step in when she needs me to.

My pre-schooler (3 years old) uses educational board games, workbooks, iPad games, and YouTube videos to learn things he is interested in- mostly volcanoes, sharks, dinosaurs and lions. I don’t push him too hard to sit and do book work, but he does enjoy flash cards, working on numbers, shapes, letters, and sounds. Most of the time, though, he is outside exploring or climbing something much too high for him. He is a hands-on learner who discovers more digging in the garden than sitting still with a book anyway.

Volunteering

As of now, volunteer days are on Tuesdays, before we go to town to run errands. I implement this into our school work as well as a field trip and reading practice. We go to the Humane Society, where my kids play with the kittens and dogs who don’t have homes. They learn how to take care of animals, remain gentle and calm, and practice compassion. My daughter brings books to read to the kittens, and just last week, my son grabbed a book to “read” to the kittens as well. I explained that his calm voice attracted the animals to him, and he soothed them with a story he “read”. This has been the highlight of our week since we have been back to Cozumel, and it benefits all of us, as we read, bond, and care for animals together.

Family time

The kids are always with me. My partner, Jonathan, works in the ocean all day, but is off on Saturdays, so we dedicate Saturdays to keeping our family grounded and connected. We clean our home together, plan an outing together, explore together, and enjoy each other. We try to get together with Jonathan’s family for dinner- his mother makes the most incredible traditional Mexican dishes! During the week, there isn’t a whole lot of time where the 4 of us are together, so we take advantage of bonding moments when we can. The kids walk to the store with Jonathan to pick up water jugs, we read books together in the evenings, we take a taxi ride to the sea wall to watch the sunset, the kids help water plants while Jonathan trims the garden ( I watch comfortably with a glass of ice cold water or Horchata!), or we go to one of our favorite restaurants that has an indoor playground for the kids. Perfect during storm season! hen the kids go to bed, Jonathan and I spend time watching the sky from our porch or we watch a documentary on the couch. It’s not a lot of free time, but it’s at least SOME time every single day.

Self Care

Besides schooling and working during the day, this is my biggest challenge. We do not currently have a nanny or babysitter, so I don’t get out for a walk or go to yoga classes like I used to. In fact, I have spent a total of ONE DAY away from my kids in 6 months, and that was when they went to visit their grandparents for a night while we were in Austin in February. Any other time I get to myself is the moments I lock myself in the bathroom to eat a Snickers bar.

I started to get frustrated that I didn’t have any time just by myself, but once I can’t change it at this exact moment, I decided to just embrace it. before I take my afternoon nap with the kids, I do a little reading on something I’m interested in or I choose one of the 10 books on Kindle I have going. In the evenings, when the air is cooler, and the sun is setting, I put on a pre-natal work out video- either yoga or belly dancing. I may not get out of the house, but I can still enjoy it, and most of the time, the kids want to join in, which is good for all of us. In the morning and before bed, I practice visualizations and affirmations for my pregnancy and birth, and I take time to connect with my body and my growing little Mexican Jumpin’ Bean. I also get time to do this in the middle of the night when I have to go to the bathroom. You know, once every hour or so.

So that’s how I do it.

We have a lot going on, but our days flow smoothly. We enjoy the small moments here on the island. I’m not so stuck on a schedule that we can’t take long walks, pick flowers, work on craft projects, or go explore something one of us is interested in. For now, I’m enjoying how well everything works together because I know as soon as Baby is born, most projects will come to a halt, schedules will be all messed up, and I may not even get my sneaky moments in the bathroom with my Snickers bar.

How do you balance your work and personal life? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

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