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How much time do you "take off" with the birth of a new baby?


Rebecca
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We are expecting a new baby in May. I had hoped to be able to be finished with our school year by that time... but I won't be because of severe morning sickness and other circumstances.

 

I will have to continue on in the summer time.

 

Does anyone have a "rule of thumb" they follow with a new baby.

This will be our sixth baby... but I still don't know. My older children are more "school age" now so we have more school.

 

I have 2nd and 1st, K, and then PK and toddler.

 

Thanks,

Rebecca

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Last year, when I had my fourth, I only took off a week or so after. BUT he was born dec 22 so we might not have taken that much time if it had not been the holiday.

 

I started back out slowly... mainly just read a lot. I let them do their math on the living room floor so that I could lay on the couch.

 

Maybe you could take a break from "new" and do a month of review, instead...

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Honestly, I don't take off much time when they are newborns. I find it much easier to teach when they are at that stage then when they hit around 6 mos and are suddenly mobile!

 

I would probably plan a week for recouperating and allowing for all the baby-mushies that the older ones want to constantly dote on new baby. Then I would probably start back with basics (math and reading) for a couple of weeks until you get into a groove. By about 3-4 weeks, I would be back in the swing of things and giving myself permission to not do school on days when things are just going haywire (or ped appointments, colic, no sleep, etc)

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to take about a week completely off except for read-alouds, ind. reading and some workbook type stuff they can do on their own (I'm due beg. of April w/ #7)). Week 2 will be light (just basics) and then hopefully week 3 will be back to normal. Unfortunately I feel we can't take too much time completely off b/c we must get in those blasted 180 days per PA regs (by June 30). My midwife always suggests that I take a week completely off to adjust to the new baby's schedule and simply recuperating. Even w/ a normal, uncomplicated delivery your body needs that time to rest. Good luck to you!

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This last fall with number 4 I took off 2 weeks. Would have started back sooner b/c I had an easy time with this one, but I had already told the kids 2 weeks, and they made me stick to it! I agree it is easier to get back into things with a newborn than when they hit 6-8 months, she has really just fit right into our day with no major disruptions. Anne Marie

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I. Am. Such. A. Slacker. LOL! I'm planning two months after this one is born.

 

But then, I started thinking about how we do what we do, and really, I'm not slacking. I just kick into a different mode. We read, we talk, we write. We read, we talk, we look things up. We break out new board games and puzzles. We chew our way through a lot of books after the baby arrives. ;) We stare at the baby, and spend a lot of time telling the boys how very much we enjoy them, telling when-you-were-a-baby stories, sharing the things we've learned along the way.

 

We switch from a schedule to a rhythm until the new baby has wormed his/her way into our rhythm, and then, from there, it's so much easier for me to integrate a new "schedule". And when we do, we start up slowly, adding one new subject per week, until we're back where we want to be. (Or, more aptly, where *I* want to be - the boys would be thrilled to stay on the rhythm plan indefinitely!)

 

Of course, I don't know about y'all, but with nursing, I could easily be mistaken for a narcoleptic for the first six months. When the baby nurses, I pass out cold. Inevitably. Text work doesn't go so well when Mom keeps falling asleep on you. But oh, the joy of falling asleep to the sound of a child reading to you... mmmm, I'm looking forward to that again! :D

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but the lack of routine drives everyone crazy. So we just sort of ease into it, too. The older kids can do so much on their own that they really don't miss much, but with the littler ones, I find I read aloud to them or say things like, "Go get your duplos and bring them into mommy's room." They play happily on the floor and think it's a treat to be so close by all day long.

 

I'm due in May, too. Do you know if you're having a boy or a girl?

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Thank you for these replies.

The lack of routine/ productive day is hard without school...

I remember that motivating me in the past with my children.

 

Kendra, we are having a boy!

I will have five boys and one girl...

My first three are boys, then my daughter, then a little boy who will be two on 2/28 and then the new little boy due in May.

Do you know what you are having?

 

I am glad to read these replies. It is nice to read ladies who don't just give the excuse of how "young" my children are and I don't need to do much.

 

I don't know if I will physically be able to resume a full schedule one week after a baby with nursing(and no sleeping)... but I will keep these responses in mind.

 

Press on and Persevere!

Rebecca

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Rebecca -

 

I typically start "maternity leave school" within a couple of days of coming home from the hospital (I have c-sections, so it is a couple days). I try to wrap up what we've been working on, and I find something that the kids can do for 4-6 weeks that won't be as mom-intensive as some of our usual stuff.

 

I make sure we have some GREAT audio books available. And long ones. We listened to Treasure Island last time.

 

I usually take a break from whatever we are doing for science, and plan to work through a couple of the Schlessinger Media series from the library (Earth Science for Children, Energy for Children, etc.) I think we did every Magic School Bus my library had when #4 was born. And honestly, I tended to sleep through the video - good thing my kids are such science geeks. I only had to ask "so what was it about?" to get into some great discussions.

 

With c-sections, I'm not allowed to drive right away, and I'd rather just do school then. When the baby is around two months, we typically take a trip to visit the grandparents, and we take a couple weeks off then (and my mom pampers me!). And somewhere around six months, like momof7 mentioned, I find things get suddenly challenging, and we usually end up taking a couple weeks of doing one or two days of school per week while we adjust to the changing dynamics.

 

Now I know lots of people really need to get a break from school and all. But we do much better with a routine. I've done something like the above with my last three - my oldest was only 3.5 when #3 was born, but we were back to "school" the day I came home from the hospital. All we did was read-alouds though.

 

With #5 (my first girl - and she turns 2 next month), my guys were in 3rd and 1st grades - people told me they were so young and all, and I should take the time off... but routine is nice. I just don't insist on it being the same routine we were used to before. I can nap while they listen to an audio book or watch a science video. Or I can at least close my eyes.

 

Debra

Mom of five, ages 1-10

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Guest St. Francis Academy
Honestly, I don't take off much time when they are newborns.

 

As a recent "mom of 7", I'm w/you on this. We wound up taking all of last week off (baby born on fri. 1/11) and started back up w/"do the next thing" type of assignments yesterday. During the last weeks of the pregnancy, I drew up and printed off about 3 weeks' worth of these types of assignments and put them in a divided binder w/necessary photocopies for each child. So far, so good. Once we finish this work, we'll go back to more specific assignments that include actual page numbers, lessons, etc.

 

Of course, this baby has been super easy and there are so many willing, capable hands to help out with him that I fear I'm getting spoiled. :D

 

Valerie

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are able to get back into schoolwork soon after having a baby. Since my oldest three were born in quick succession, I didn't have much experience with trying to manage a newborn and schoolwork. My youngest is now 18 mos., but when he was born, my oldest was 10.

 

Maybe I am a klutz, but I found it impossible to try to read aloud and turn pages while nursing. There were so many interruptions that it wasn't worth it to me. My oldest son read aloud well, but my other two wouldn't read LOUD enough!

 

This baby did not have a predictable enough nap "schedule" until he was at least six weeks old to get work done without many interruptions. I tried schooling before that, but the starting and stopping were too frustrating for me.

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Well, Meliss, see.... with audiobooks, I don't have to turn any pages...

 

And it has varied with my kids - some of them I could nurse and read a real book, and with some of them, I simply couldn't.

 

Mostly, for us, we started back with things my kids could do fairly independently. And things that were more fun than normal, so they were more motivated.

 

These moms who get back to real school so quickly - I couldn't do that!

 

Debra

Mom of five

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Well, looks like I'm not in the norm here, but we took off 6 weeks when the baby was born. Of course, he was born a couple days after Thanksgiving, so we basically took off until after New Year's. At that time, our oldest ds was only doing 1st grade, and I was doing light Pre-K with dd...so it wasn't a big deal. We did school through June and July and we were fine.

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When DD 3 was born I switched to a 4 day week and kept going. It worked well as she wasn't a baby that took a lot of work.

I'm now prego with twins and wanted to be finished before they were born (end of June). It's not going to happen and somehow we'll just keep going, God willing.

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Thanks again for all these replies!

 

It is nice to see all the different experiences.

 

ArwenA: Congratulations on twins! It is just as you said... God willing...

 

Kendra: I am due May 11! We are right on the same path! I hope you are feeling well! How are you holding up?

 

Sincerely,

Rebecca

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I didn't plan to take off quite so much time, but I think we were off for about 2 months after the baby - and for about 2 months before he was born. I was too crabby during most of my last trimester to continue with school (trust me, this is the truth) and then after my c-section it took a while to feel up to even starting. I think you need to do what works for you. You may find you're ready to get back into some things, like math and reading, after a week or two. I would relax if you feel like it needs to be a bit longer, though, and keep it light at first. I planned on taking about 6 weeks so that I could have that time to rest. The c-section was a bit harder on me than I thought so I needed the extra time. I think if it had been a normal birth, though, I wouldn't have been out of the game for so long.

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are able to get back into schoolwork soon after having a baby. Since my oldest three were born in quick succession, I didn't have much experience with trying to manage a newborn and schoolwork. My youngest is now 18 mos., but when he was born, my oldest was 10.

 

Maybe I am a klutz, but I found it impossible to try to read aloud and turn pages while nursing. There were so many interruptions that it wasn't worth it to me. My oldest son read aloud well, but my other two wouldn't read LOUD enough!

 

This baby did not have a predictable enough nap "schedule" until he was at least six weeks old to get work done without many interruptions. I tried schooling before that, but the starting and stopping were too frustrating for me.

 

I was beginning to think I was the only one who didn't get back to doing school right after having a baby! I had my fourth baby in October and we are just now starting back! When my newborn was about 2 weeks old we did school for about a week because the baby slept all the time. After that, with the holidays approaching and family visiting from out of state we just never got back into until now. Plus my baby has yet to get on any kind of schedule, so it made it hard trying to figure out when to do school. I would no soon lay her down for, what I thought would be a good, nap start in with some school work, and she would wake up 10 minutes later! Plus the nursing while tryin to read and have a 3 year old climb on you doesn't work well for me!

I tell ya, for everybody's elses post I really do feel like a slacker. The last 2 months of my pregnancy school was really hit or miss because I was so tired, and just plan didn't feel well from being pregnant.

I would take the layed back approach and tell you to give yourself time to recover and enjoy that baby! They don't stay little for that long. You will know when you are ready to dive back in!

Congrats!

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