Like many people, my big reason for starting to work at home in the first place was to be there for my kids. With three of them now, that reason only gets more important.

But I have to admit, dealing with a baby when I want to get work done is not easy. It’s been really tough lately to come up with enough hours to get even the minimum amount of work done I’d like to. Especially as she gets older, more mobile and more demanding.

Time was when I could sit her on my lap and still get a little bit done. That’s not quite so simple now. She’s bigger and much more interested in my keyboard and anything she can reach on my desk. Especially if it can go in her mouth.

Yeah. I pretty much need her naptimes to get anything done. And it’s still not easy many days then, as she’s not exactly a champion of sleeping through the night. Thank goodness I don’t have to drive to work that tired.

This is one of the times that it takes incredible dedication to keep going. Believe me, it would be much easier to just take off, but that’s not what I’m going to do, and if you’re in a similar situation, not what I’d recommend either.

When daytime naptimes don’t work for me, working at night after all the kids are in bed can. Other work at home parents prefer early, early mornings, a thought which gives me the chills. Really, really not for me!

But you do what works for you.

Work early in the morning. Late at night. During baby’s nap. When there’s another adult available to watch the kids.

You can even hire a “Mother’s (or Father’s) Helper” to just play with the baby as you work. I did this when I was a medical transcriptionist, and it was pretty helpful. You don’t even need your helper able to feed the baby or change diapers. Just play with the baby and let you know when something more is needed. Older siblings (where available) can also help.

I like to remind myself that this won’t last forever. That means enjoying this time with a baby and not letting it get me down too much just for being tired. And if the price for not losing a post to a baby pounding a keyboard is a little less sleep, so be it.

I’m not exactly what one would call a fitness buff or utterly crazed about fitting into a particular size. If I don’t get back into my pre-third-pregnancy clothes, so be it. I never did make it back into my pre-first-pregnancy clothes. Something about a change in hip size, a rather common issue, I believe.

Well that, and an extra 10 pounds at that point. More than that after this baby.

I really don’t stress much about my weight, though. I don’t even own a scale. If you want to quit obsessing about weight, keeping scales out of the house really helps. It makes it hard to obsess over a number you can only rarely see.

Having low energy because I’m out of shape, on the other hand, drives me nuts.

I’ve started trying to remember to exercise a bit more every day. I’ve always walked daily to my daughter’s school to pick her up, but a half mile total really only does so much for fitness.

Fortunately, babies make really cute exercise equipment.

I’ve always thought that one of the best things about postpartum exercise is that you can use the baby as a steadily increasing weight. Selene’s at the point now where she laughs just a little as I work out with her, which is motivation not only to work out but to take a break while working at home. 3 months old is a really cute age.

I can’t hold her for every exercise, of course. But when it works, it works.

Besides, she did this to me. Surely she should help me get fit again, right?

The worst for me has to be stomach muscles. It’s not just the 3 pregnancies. It’s the dratted two C-sections that I think really pulled a number on them. Everyone I’ve ever talked to about it says C-sections just make it that much worse. I can believe it.

I know I’m not doing badly. At the Mother’s Day picnic I heard a relative commenting on how thin I am for having had a third baby. She also noted that I’d always been thin, which is certainly true enough. Not thin like models are supposed to be (yuck!), but thin for regular people.

That kind of thing is why I do my best to keep this about being in decent shape, rather than worrying about the numbers. It’s better for me and I don’t doubt a better example in the long run for my kids, especially my daughters.

What can I say? It’s quite an adjustment having a baby around here again. It’s just so easy to forget just how much work a newborn is.

Good thing Selene is so darn cute. And sweet. And hungry.

Is she ever hungry! My biggest adjustment right now is probably just how much time I’m spending each day feeding her. It’s tiring but really in a good way. Although if you ask me that around 4 a.m. I might disagree. But that’s just the sleepy speaking.

Between her and my son, there’s very little time for working. Things can actually be better when my oldest daughter gets home if she and my son want to play. They might just ignore me for 1-2 hours! And if I’m really lucky the baby will sleep that whole time.

If I’m not careful, so will I.

Now that I’m more recovered, though, I’m not sleeping quite so much during the day and I’m actually occasionally getting some work done. But it can still be a struggle to get so much as a single blog post done, never mind the two I would like to get done, so I can post on more than one of my sites.

There’s all the extra laundry, of course. We’re cloth diapering this time around, so there’s a decided difference. Plus the older two have rediscovered the delights of digging in the dirt and adding in water to make it mud. Great pictures to laugh at later, but I have to be a bit picky now about the clothes they play outside in. I’m trying to limit the number of outfits stained.

Having 3 kids is getting to be fun again. I’m no longer so exhausted that I feel too worn out to appreciate what I have. Selene is getting awfully cute with those smiles.

It’s amazing how much I’ve forgotten about having a newborn baby from when I had my first two kids. I guess a nearly 4 year break between babies is a pretty long time.

And it’s not just the ever so delightful pains of childbirth, or in this case, C-section. Nope, there are many more things I’d forgotten.

Like how good even a 4 hour stretch of sleep feels. 5-6 hours is even better.

That tired can be a way of life.

That you should tuck those cute little floppy collars into baby’s clothes if you want her to sleep. Otherwise the collar tickles her cheek and causes a suckle reflex. Suddenly your peacefully sleeping baby wants to nurse.

How very fast babies grow out of clothes. Thank goodness for tons of handmedowns.

How much all of my kids have loved “Muttzart”. It’s really too bad they don’t make that toy anymore. Great music, and encourages babies to “talk” to it. Also very soothing when babies cry at night.

That it’s hard to get such little arms into the belts of a car seat. They feel so delicate.

That sometimes diaper changes feel like a waste of time. Selene’s a champion with this one. Change a diaper and… oops, there she goes again!

How hard it is to get work done when a baby needs you… or is just looking too cute to leave alone.

So here I am, blogging after having a baby. Shouldn’t I be taking a rest?

Not to worry folks, I am!

As I said before I had Selene, I took time before she was born to prewrite a lot of posts. Most of what you see is the result of that activity. It’s giving me the chance to take things much easier without completely abandoning my site. All I have to do is keep up with comments and the forum, and write if I feel like it.

I’m also taking this time to work on some site updates and such. A little behind the scenes work, if you will, while letting everything else run on a touch of autopilot. It takes the stress away. I have no idea if I’ll finish before I run out of prewritten posts, and I don’t particularly care. This kind of work can wait longer if necessary.

Keeping up with a little work feels good to me. I’m not so good at keeping my focus only on family and home. Working is an outlet for me.

And of course I’m taking time for my older two kids. They certainly need a little extra while their baby sister takes so much time.

Yes, I’m extra tired. And achy. You know the litany of postpartum complaints if you’ve had a child yourself. That’s why I planned things out so much.

Working this way is something of a treat. No goals. No self imposed deadlines. Just doing what I feel up to doing.

It’ll drive me nuts if I keep it up too long. I like having goals and self imposed deadlines. They ensure that I actually accomplish things. But until I have the energy for them I can call it a treat.