Having a child on the way is one of the most exciting times in life. However, if you are already struggling to balance working from home with actually living in your home, you may be dreading adding an infant into the mix. However, there are some simple ways to keep you going every day as you juggle all the parts of your life. Follow these easy tips and you will not believe how much easier you will deal with working from home.

1. Make Time for Self-Care

Even if it is just a home spa day (or hour) in your bathroom, a little “me time” is often exactly what the doctor ordered for you to be refreshed and ready to take on the next set of challenges coming your way. The form of self-care you take may vary from person to person, but it should always leave you feeling cherished and like you are worth making a little extra effort for. Caring for yourself is important to everyone, but it can be especially important if you feel like you spend all day, every day, taking care of your family. Set aside time now and make it a ritual that you will continue later in life. It is important to look out for yourself, as well as the people around you.

2. Have a First Aid Kit

When you are expecting a child, your health should always be your main concern. Keep a first aid kit handy for small emergencies that may come up from time to time. Most importantly, keep an eye on the health and well-being of your little one too by setting up your doctor’s appointments around your schedule. Make sure you ask questions when your doctor uses a fetal doppler. This instrument will be able to detect your baby’s heartbeat and assure you that it is safe and secure.

3. Set a Schedule You Can Follow

In addition to having a set sleep schedule, you want to make sure you eat meals at a regular interval and that they are very nutritious, to offer both you and your unborn child the best in health. If you set in motion a non-flexible schedule before they are even here, you can find time to grow your business exponentially. That is just in time for all the extra bills you have not been looking forward to. It is important to note that the time your schedule allows for different tasks must be inflexible, not the order in which they are done. A lot of people find it helpful to map out the larger, more important tasks they have to do each day. By breaking them down into smaller actions, they are much easier to accomplish.

4. Have a Dedicated Work Space

Even before you have your child, you will want to have a separate area where you exclusively sit down to work. This will not only make it easier for you to separate work life from your personal life, but it will also instill in your child from a young age a sense of responsibility. You can adapt your workspace to change and be more comfortable as the shape of your body changes, but make it apparent that you have chosen a space in which to work and you do not want there to be any other activity in the space. Having a home office also means that you do not have to miss out on any major events or milestones in your child’s life. Creating this space can really strengthen your bonds.

5. Be as Flexible As You Can Be

A huge part of becoming a mom is having to deal with frequent changes to a schedule. It seems like once you hit a certain stride, everything needs a change. It is best to prepare for that now and train yourself to be flexible when it comes to your work. Remember, as long as you keep to a schedule, you can change just about any other aspect of your work life to suit your current needs and wants. Do you need time to bond with a child? Need to make birthing classes fit in with hat you must do for work? Keep the order of tasks flexible, but not the amount of time in which to do them. To put it simply, rearrange things to fit your lifestyle.