Hellobee Boards

people go back to work at all different times, so i imagine the same happens with school. i don't have experience so take what i say with a huge grain of salt, but i do think it will be really, really hard. not impossible, but extremely difficult. 4 weeks old is around the point where many babies experience physical and cognitive changes that turn them into grumpy little monsters--reflux, 45-minute naps that leave them overtired, "witching hours" and other things tend to pop up around this age. of course, this isn't true for every baby! and even with all that, i'm sure people have done it.

some other thoughts--can you take 1 class instead? if you start with the 3, will it be difficult to cut down the number of classes or postpone if you decide it's too hard? because you can always try and then cut down/postpone if you need to.

Like others have said, people have gone back at different times. Personally, I would not have been able to do it and would have taken a semester off, and I had a pretty easy baby.

I went back to my graduate program when my daughter was 2.5 weeks old. I had class 1 day a week all day on Tuesdays and she was watched by a sitter in the mornings and her dad in the afternoons. Then I did homework during her naps, etc. throughout the week. My husband was in graduate school as well and was very supportive--we worked around each other's schedules. This was our first child as well. It actually worked really well for me. I had more energy with a baby than I did pregnant, especially as DH would do more of the nighttime newborn duties the days I had class. We picked up slack for each other. I actually really liked having the classes as well--it was good mental stimulation and interaction with peers during a time where I was mostly thinking about baby 24/7. Kept me from being a zombie! So I am really glad I went back into grad school and didn't take a leave--in my own experience, it helped me actually recover faster and not go completely insane during the newborn period from being socially isolated at home with a baby.

Good luck! It's definitely not easy and definitely varies from person to person but it can be doable!

If your husband is on board, then go for it. Mine has been finishing his masters (and will) during our first and second child. This time around, I am due in May and he is taking the summer off, but last time he couldn't do that. I finished a masters in engineering while on maternity leave, and it was fine. i was tired, and maybe i half assed a written assignment or two because I wanted to nap instead, but I did it. I planned for it and took an easier class that semester. I would not take 3 classes, though...I would take one or two. Plus if you go late...you could be pretty freshly PP, ya know? Talk to your professors about it BEFORE you have the baby and before you enroll in class. Mine were always fantastic about it (and DH's have been, too) but you want to have that communication established first.

I also have a girlfriend who went back to OT school 2 weeks PP and her mom came and helped her out. It's definitely doable. Is it awesome? No. But totally doable.

I think it depends on the kind of student you are. Some are all in studying taking over and others more lackadaisical. I was pretty low study needs in college and had a pretty easy baby, but with a due date so close to the start of school, I would personally have signed up for 1 class and then talked with my prof beforehand.

If your husband can tend to the baby while you are tied up, go for it. Just don't give yourself a hard time of it doesn't work, but it's worth a shot. I feel like I could have managed it.

I had a c-section on Thursday night and went back to school the following Wednesday. I'm not going to say it was easy ( he was born during mid-terms) but I did it. I had a huge support system. My hubs or my mom would bring him up on my break most nights so I could feed him. I didn't work during that time so I was with him all day and night minus the 4 hours I was at school. You can do it and it will get easier. The hardest part for me was leaving him.

I work and am in grad school I had my baby in November. I was planning on staying in classes and just taking the normal winter break but I ended up taking an educational leave of absence for the semester because I am struggling with PPD and PPA. I wasn't able to hold off work longer than 12 weeks. Unfortunately you won't know how you feel after you have the baby until you have the baby. It might be better to anticipate needed a brief break from school. I was lucky in that I didn't need to take classes that are only offered once a year/2 years (as often happens at my small university) the semester I took off. I wish you the best of luck!!!

I'm also in graduate school, but done with classes and working on my dissertation. I was hoping to keep working on my dissertation in the weeks after his birth, but he's 8 weeks today, and only in the last week have I been able to dedicate a few hours to doing some work (and that's with my mom or MIL staying at the house to help). I didn't have a single second of free time during his first 6 weeks of life, even with help. I had many breakdowns - not just because of the difficulties that go along with having a newborn, but I also started freaking out that this baby was going to take up all of my time for a long time and I would never be able to finish my dissertation!

Breastfeeding (or pumping) adds a lot of time to your day, especially when they're very young and eating ALL the time. In those first few weeks it's really important to nurse instead of pump, if possible, so that your baby's feeding increases your supply to where it needs to be. Naps weren't a reliable time for me to work either, since there was never a guarantee we could get him down for a nap, and if we did he may nap for 2 hours or 20 minutes. Having your husband help will definitely make it easier, but it will still be very challenging. I'm sure you can make it happen, but these are just some things to think about.

Everyone is different, but I would say take the semester off. My first LO was a VERY high needs newborn. I had actually thought about taking an online class that was supposed to start when he was 2 weeks old and I'm SO glad I didn't! Some days I didn't even manage to brush my teeth, so there is no way I would have had the time or energy for a class.

Having done both -- part time grad school with a full time job, and having a newborn -- but not concurrently, I would try to take the semester off. The only exception might be if you're not trying to breastfeed, and you plan to have a lot of help. Breastfeeding is a tremendous time commitment, and no one else can do it for you because you need to establish and maintain your supply.

What kind of program is it? Are there a lot of goup projects? If yes, I'd take the semester off, because that was the huge time suck for me when I was doing a similar program (working/school, but not with a child).

As PPs have said, everyone is different but I could have stayed in school. If you have a supportive DH who is home for those first few weeks it makes a BIG difference. We honestly found having a newborn pretty easy, and I was super dedicated to BF'ing and ended up having lots of issues so we spent plenty of time in our ped's office, lactation consultant office, pumping, and nursing after pumping. And we both still felt like, isn't this supposed to be hard? I went back to work at 5 weeks post C section, working 60-70 hour weeks, and while it wasn't ideal, it was really not that stressful.

These are the things that helped most:
1. Helpful husband. Can't stress this enough. He was at least as committed to baby's well being as I was, and he was staying home with the baby. No way could I have done all of this alone.

2. Chill baby. My baby didn't have colic, was a great sleeper from the start, and rarely cried. As everyone says, every baby is so different and of course you have no control over this. My second baby was very different and I don't think the newborn period would have been nearly as smooth if he had been our first.

3. I am not a high sleep needs person. Its not that I wake naturally after 6 hours or anything like that but if I go a few days on just a few hours a night I'm not miserable or grumpy. I'm also not a daytime sleeper so napping when the baby naps never worked for me, so there was plenty of time to be productive. Newborn sleep deprivation is no joke but some people handle this better than others.

4. We put our baby on a schedule early and he was sleeping alone in his crib for almost every nap from the time he was just a few days old. This worked well for us and for our baby but again, not consistent with everyone's parenting style. In retrospect, I do think that not feeling comfortable with attachment parenting-type activities really helped free up our time, so it just worked out that way, and again, this isn't for everyone.

Sorry, didn't intend to write a novel! Good luck, just take into account what you and DH are like at baseline. Someone mentioned starting ahead of time and I think that would be a great idea, maybe knocking out some of the early semester reading between your summer and fall sessions would be a possibility.

It could work, but you can't really know in advance... if it becomes too hard, would you have the option to cut back to one class and stay in the program?

My mom went back to grad school after I was born, but she had full time child care - my grandma. I was like 3 months when classes started. Oh, and I wouldn't take a bottle - if my mom wasn't there, I'd only eat from a spoon I'm sure that took forever, but other than that everything was fine. My brother, however... he was a high needs kid and she took off a year to stay home with him (this wasn't in the US).

Tough decision for you! Personally, I wouldn't have been able to handle it. Group projects in particular would be really tough. My baby was really hard in the early months, she liked to nurse sometimes every hour, she was a terrible sleeper, and my brain felt like mush. What might help you is to consider the worst case scenario (your baby is so high needs that you fail your class or have to drop it) and if you are ok with that risk. And from a parenting standpoint, consider how comfortable will you be leaving a very young newborn. I know that I was surprised by how mama-bear-ish I got with LO (it was very hard for me to leave her, even with DH, in the first couple months). Good luck!