Any advice for working from home while having a newborn?

I recently did exactly this, so here's my experience. Your circumstances might be different so I will frame this as my experience rather than specific advice for you. For some context, we had no family close by for help, but we both had 16 weeks of full-pay parental leave. We both took the first month off, then I worked until my wife ran out of leave, then I took the rest of my leave when she returned to work.

I went to sleep at about 9pm to give myself the best possible chance of getting 8 hours of (interrupted) sleep, and was usually woken about 3-4 times per night when the baby woke for a feed. We had a carrier (BabyBjorn or similar) and I would have the baby sleep on my chest while at my standing desk, at least once per day to give my wife a break. Outside of work hours, I did as much of the housework as possible - cooking, laundry, shopping, etc. Just remember that no matter how exhausting it is for you, it's much more exhausting for your wife, especially if she's breastfeeding.

And finally, similar to other comments, just try to soak up every moment of it as much as you can, because it will be over before you know it. If you are the sort of person who typically goes above and beyond at work, dial it back a bit, do what you need to get by, and focus on your family.

As a parent, two pieces of advice.

All babies are different. Yours my sleep a lot or not at all. May be sick or well or bubbly or colicky. No plan ever survives first contact with a baby.

Also, it goes faster than you think. When you're in it, it seems like it will go on forever, but those first six months are just a flash in the lifetime of that human, and your lifetime as well. You may not miss it, but that time in your life will be gone so much faster than you can imagine.

Do not count on being able to work effectively, especially the first few weeks.

Not that you'll be useless, but you'll have higher priorities than work, and when you do have time to address the lower priority stuff you'll be tired and distracted.

Consider this period more "limited availability" than "working" time. You're not completely absent from work contexts.

My advice would be to schedule which of you has night duty and the logistics around that (prepping bottles, etc.) since getting sleep is key to being able to do anything effectively during the day. Even if you both wake up, knowing you can ignore the baby since you aren't "on call" is a blessing.

You'll not be able to work effectively since interruptions from a newborn typically cannot wait and are very random. I'd look into day care of some kind, possibly half-days to have solid chunks of time to get work done. Or if you and your partner both work from home then same advice as above with "on call" but arranging schedules for focus time or meetings.

Hi, there! The best 2 advices I can give you is, first, accept that work productivity may decrease and prioritize tasks accordingly. And second, establish a routine and stick to it as much as possible. This can help create a sense of normalcy and structure in an otherwise chaotic environment.

I highly recommend the following article, it talks about how to transition from on-site to remote work: https://www.ratherlabs.com/post/transitioning-from-on-site-t...

Good luck!

If you really, really need to work, you need help from a grandmother or maybe even hire a full time nanny. Otherwise you will be quite busy for a few months- but try to enjoy since every month is so different from the other one.

(Also just order food/whatever for a few months too.)