How to blog with a baby

Phoebe turned 6 months old on Sunday. She’s at that sweet age where she can hold toys in her hand and bring them to her mouth to suck. She loves her solids and rusks and now sleeps in her own room. This week she’s only woken once during the night which means I’m getting more sleep but strangely I’m still feeling exhausted when I wake in the mornings. I’m not sure what is with that.

The last 6 months have gone fast and I’d be lying to you if I told you life is a breeze with three. I’ve been the most frazzled, overweight, tired and emotional than I have ever been.

But I’ve also been the most satisfied, content and grateful for the life I have as a mum to three beautiful souls.

Trying to fit blogging with a young family has been difficult. There have been times where I have cried because the busyness of being a mum stops me from getting to the computer. I enjoy this blogging gig and I’m always looking for ways to make my blog better or simply key out a few new posts to keep the momentum of my blog running.

But mothering comes first and my knock off hours in the last week have extended past 7:30pm – often as late as 9:30pm by which I am exhausted and instead of sitting at my computer typing a blog post, I head to bed to get some sleep before the midnight or early am feed.

Blogging has started to become a bit difficult in the last month or so because Phoebe is more awake and alert during the day. The only time I get to blog is at night and I need to know exactly what I’m going to write about or else I will sit and read other people’s blogs. And the next day I will be kicking myself for getting distracted.

Adding a third baby to our young family has added extra work and another notch of busyness which makes it hard for me to have any time to myself. When it comes to blogging, I have had to let my ideals go of trying to write consistently each week because no day is the same. I’d love to have a routine that I follow strictly to blog, but the moment I find myself in a nice routine, Phoebe will change hers which will kick my sequence out of kilter. I’ve learned that it’s best to take each day as it comes.

So how do you blog with a baby?

Here are my tips that I have followed in the last 6 months.

1. Try and have a few posts ready in the pipeline for after baby is born. Getting guest posts from other bloggers is another way to keep the blog running while you spend quality time with the new person in your life.
2. Don’t pressure yourself to blog if you don’t want to or quite simply can’t. When your baby sleeps, you may need to rest yourself or get chores done around the house.
3. When you do get pockets of time to yourself, use them wisely and pump out a post or two. Don’t scroll through social media because you will get distracted and your baby will cry for attention sooner than you think.
4. When feeding your baby, think of post ideas or what you want to write about on your blog.Try and consistently write at a time when all the kids are in bed. This may be at night or early in the morning. Early mornings don’t work for me because Phoebe likes to be up at 5am. Jacob usually takes Phoebe out so I can get an extra hour or so of sleep before getting up for the day.
5. Get your partner to help where possible so you can stay at the computer if the baby stirs and needs to be resettled to sleep. Phoebe has stirred right now and Jacob has settled her back to sleep.
6. If you’re desperate to write a post because you are inspired, put your baby in a carrier. Occasionally if I’ve had to reply to an email, I will have Phoebe sit on my lap or I put her in her walker and wheel the walker into my office area so she can see me as I type.

The last 6 months have shown that blogging with a baby can be done. It’s not easy but it is achievable. I’ve also learned in the moments when inspiration is lacking, I look to my baby and write about her and a post is formed quite quickly. Best of all readers love reading about babies.

How do you manage writing a blog with young children or a baby? If you don’t have a baby, what prevents you from spending time doing things you love?

I’m linking up with Essentially Jess for IBOT.