How to Accommodate a New Baby in a Shift Work Schedule

• Work together as a team. Since both of you must continue working, for whatever reason, and both of you are responsible for this new life, then both of you must work as a team. This means keeping open the communication channels about everything. • Sit down and write out your schedule on paper. Allocate work time, sleep time and baby time. There is no time for anything else for the first few months. Your priorities are these three things alone. Where you find clashes or gaps in the schedule, you will need to discuss who is best able to make changes; or which relatives or friends or neighbors may be able to fill in for you during these times. For example, difficult times might include commuting time or crucial sleep time when only one partner is available. • Ask for hours or shifts that work for both of you. If one of you has a day job and the other has a night job, this will be a little easier than if both of you work shifts. In the first case, you will have more opportunities to share the caring responsibilities. If both of you work shifts, however, you will both need to ask your employers to accommodate different time arrangements. Whoever has the most flexibility in timing arrangements will be the one who has to make arrangements around the other partner's work timetable. Always let your employer know that your needs are temporary, until the baby is older and you can find other, suitable arrangements. • Ask for help. Be open and forthright about your needs with others. Tell people that you feel you can trust to help out why both of you need to keep working and how, for a short time, you would really appreciate minor help here and there. The more people you seek help from, the more likely you will gather a little pool of helpers who can pitch in for you when needed. • Accept that both of you need to make room for uninterrupted sleep. You will be more tired than you have ever felt before juggling work and a baby. All the same, you must ensure that you both get a minimum amount of uninterrupted sleep to reduce the likelihood of making mistakes at work. The partner who is working shift work is already undertaking a difficult task, as the body is being asked to cope with staying awake at unusual hours. Accidents happen very easily to over-tired people. However, with a new baby, both of you are effectively working shift work, whether you like it or not! So it is very important to plan uninterrupted sleep as a key part of your schedule. • Maintain a positive outlook. A new baby becomes less demanding over time and the options for daycare will open up to free up your schedules. Until then, however, you must support one another and reassure each other that caring for your baby is the most important priority. Openly acknowledge that sacrifices must be made for a short period of time. It may be hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel but there are millions of parents who can assure you that you will make it. • Keep in touch. If there are problems, both of you should have speed dial lines of communication to one another. Again, alert your employer that there may be minor emergencies during which you will need to either leave work temporarily or earlier than usual, or even during which you may need to absent yourself from work. Always reassure your employer that you will make up for lost time and ask the employer for any suggestions they have (meaning, don't assume that your employer will be happy about having to make such allowances). • Thank each other. Both of you have a special gift in each other and in the baby. Don't forget to let each other know how much love you still have for each other and how loved your child is.