What I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Going Back to Work After Having a Baby — On a Farm

Going back to work after maternity leave is a transition that gets discussed in broad strokes like the emotional difficulty, the logistics of daycare, the identity shift. What does not get discussed enough is what it looks like when you are also managing animals at home and trying to figure out how all of it fits into a single day that starts before most people are awake.

I went back to work with a baby at four months old. Our barn was steps from the back door. The horses needed care morning and evening. The dogs needed structure. My daughter needed everything. And I needed to be on a conference call by nine.

Here is what I learned.

The morning order of operations has to be set in stone and never deviated from. Dogs out first. Baby fed and settled. Barn check while she is in the carrier or on the monitor (if my husband is home). Back inside, cleaned up, professional by nine. If anything disrupts that order the whole morning comes apart. It took me about three weeks to figure out the right sequence and another three weeks to stop second-guessing it.

Daycare prep the night before is not optional. Bottles washed and packed. Bag by the door. Outfit decided. Anything that requires a decision in the morning is a decision that will slow you down. I run through a mental checklist every night before I go to sleep. The items that live in our daycare bag rotate through my New Mom Life collection (affiliate link).

The pumping situation at the office requires infrastructure. I wrote a whole post about this because it deserves its own conversation. But the short version is: a dedicated space, a reliable pump with a backup battery option, good storage bags, and a soft cooler that actually keeps milk cold for a full workday. All of it in my New Mom Life collection.

The animals need a consistent evening routine just as much as the baby does. Coming home to three dogs who have been home all day and two horses who are ready for their evening feed is a lot of energy all at once. Having a set order — horses first, then dogs, then dinner, then bath and bed — means I am not making decisions when I am already depleted. It also means the animals know what to expect, which makes everyone calmer.

Give yourself more grace than you think you need. The first few months back are genuinely hard. The animals do not know you are tired. The baby does not know you are tired. The inbox does not know you are tired. You are the only one holding all of that. Be honest about it when you can. Ask for help when you can. And find the five minutes — even if it is just standing in the barn before anyone else is awake — that make the rest of it feel possible.

That is the whole guide. Not perfect. Just true.

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Browse my New Mom Life collection, Dog Mom Picks, Barn Staples, and my Chewy Storefront for everything referenced in this post.