How I have been working full time with an infant
Part-time nanny, helper, IFC... we've tried them all
I’m writing this on a Saturday morning after I woke up at 730am because I engaged the aircon service and a part-time cleaner to both come at 8am. My mother-in-law is here (she stays over every weekend) and Ls is also around. For the entire morning, we could clean up the house and shift things around to change up the configuration of our 3-room rental flat, so that Enya can have a better sense of her own space.
This is what the 2 rooms look like now. Prior to the shifting this morning, Enya just slept on the same bed as us every day as the cot was in the other room. But this girl is getting big, and we decided that its time for her to sleep on her own bed.
Actually when our BTO arrives (supposedly by this month but no news yet), it is also a 3-room flat. So I guess we can pretty much expect most of the configuration to be the same. However, I am excited to see how we can spice things up with a little renovation. Perhaps I’ll do a new home tour after it is ready.
Ok, back to the main topic today. At this hectic point in my life I guess it’ll be nice to take a break and record it down so I can look back and tell myself, if I could do it now, I can get through whatever I’m facing.
For the past 16 months, we’ve pretty much tried all sorts of help we could find. For the first 6 months, we took care of Enya alone with help of in-laws over the weekends. I worked fully from home and I was in a startup then, so I could manage my own hours. Ls of course worked in LTA and then went full time in church, but that is a story for another day. Enya was also a relatively easy child (in my opinion), so I could work while taking care of her.
Then, the moment she could turn over and pull herself up, and the moment we needed to start weaning her off milk to solids, I knew I needed help. Cooking is not my preference nor forte, so we sourced for a part-time nanny on one of those Facebook groups. It’s a hit and miss for this one. We hired someone who was pretty good, but as there is no contract, she left after 3 weeks.
Then, we decided to hire a proper helper. She was good, since she used to work for my family. It was 6 months of bliss as I could continue to work from home, play with Enya as and when I wanted to take a break from work, and enjoy homecooked food and a clean house. Most importantly, she treated Enya as her own child and loved her. She cried like crazy when she left after 6 months, and I cried too even though her early departure (for personal reasons) disrupted our lives.
Plan B - infant care. As Enya is so active and you must keep an eye on her perpetually. So without a helper, it was impossible for me to work from home and take care of her by myself. We did not want to hire another helper anymore as it is usually not possible to get a helper on such short notice. With one month to spare before she left, we blasted out emails to all the infant cares in our area.
As you know, government infant cares are absolutely impossible to find with such short notice. Thankfully, one came back with a slot within the month - Maplebear. Except this school is far from our house - 30-45 minutes of public transport, depending on how fast the buses arrive (we have no car).
Nevertheless, we were grateful for a place that Enya could go to and she is there now until she graduates to Playgroup this coming July. Thankfully we already secured My First Skool for her Playgroup early this year, so we only need to spend around 3.5 months at Maplebear.
Maplebear is awesome, save for the distance and fees. Nevertheless, we are grateful for teachers that love her and she also looks forward to going to school everyday.
We do not intend to hire another helper until I give birth again, since we are already sending Enya to school. Of course, the house slowly disintegrated as we lagged on the chores… and that’s why it was my first time engaging a part-time cleaner today!
Thank God she’s pretty good, and I will likely continue to get her back once in two weeks or something.
Briefly, let me just record my typical week day with Enya (weekends are ok as my parents usually take her on a Saturday and my MIL takes her on a Sunday):
Wake up at 730-8am to prepare Enya for school
Ls sends her to school while I start to work
Work ends around 6pm
I head over to fetch her from school, journey to and fro takes around 1.5 hours
Before this, I would have already prepared some simple dinner at home so that I can feed her immediately when I return
If I don’t have time due to work, I just dabao and feed her the same food that I eat
After dinner, Enya bathes, plays for awhile and is asleep around 10pm
And then I take any other calls (church ministry), catch up on work or clear the household chores
Sleep around 12-1am
Yup, that is an accurate description of a typical day now.
As you can imagine, it is a pretty tiring routine. But her cheeky smile and throaty laughter makes everything so much easier.
And look at how cheeky she is, trying to be a bird and flapping her hands when I picked her from school! That day, I couldn’t stop laughing at her antics and expression in the lift!
I’m not sure how this routine will change when Enya starts going to Playgroup, but we shall see. Overall I am grateful for this life, being able to do what I love and to love what I do. I will write about my career journey at some point in the near future too, stay tuned!