Anyone else in this postion?

[elle101]

Hey everyone, I'm new to the forum and just wanted to ask if there were any young mums out there who were pregnant and at uni, or have a child and are juggling uni and work. I don't consider mysef overly young for having a child, yet I get comments from people about being too young, yet others expect that it should be no different to being older. I kinda feel I'm stuck in the middle.
I'm doing my second year of a teaching degree have just turned 21 and would like to talk to anyone whose managing it, as I am very scared. There is a lot of pressure on me to finish from my family and friends yet I don't know if I'm up to it. I have also found uni's to be not very mum friendly, ours doen't even have a child care facility. It is freaking me out. I'm on holidays now thankfully but am going back part time next semester for two subjects, the baby is due one week after I start. I found being pregnant at uni so hard as I suffered from very bad morning sickness, exhaustion and live about 1.5 hours drive from there. Lecturers are not always sympathetic. I'm sorry if I sound like I'm whinging but I feel I have no where to vent these frustrations, plus the only women at my uni who are preggers are post grad and seem a lot older then me. Any one else in my position or a similar position? I'd love to hear from you! This seems like a very supportive forum.
:)
Elle (21)
Greg (25)
Tara (due July 30)

[Chickadee]

Hi Elle,
I can sympathise a bit. I work 3 days a week and take one course at Uni at a time to do a post-grad degree. I find that trying to juggle uni and family is much harder than work, because the uni schedule keeps changing! Last semester was great, I had 3 hours on a thurs afternoon. This semester I have a 1 hour seminar, followed by a 2 hour break, and then a 2 hour tutorial. At least its all the same day but so spread out that dd has to spend the entire day at daycare. Also, I'm not so focused on school as I was when I did my first degree pre-baby so find it hard to settle down and do the work in the evenings when I need to.

You might find some profs more open to being flexible if you talk to them. For the morning sickness could they have just thought you were hung over? It's worth at least trying to talk to them if you do find yourself having problems. Like if bub or you is sick, most will give extensions on assignments if there is a good reason.

As for the childcare at uni - most of them fill up quickly with the kids of professors, uni employees and other students who are studying full time. I've never been able to get dd in there and can't be bothered with the waiting list - by the time her name comes up my class schedule will be changed anyways. When it comes time for it, a childcare closer to your home or your partners workplace might be more convienient so you can juggle who drops bub off and picks them up.

[elle101]

hey martha, thanks for your reply. I knew it could be achieved but hadn't talked to anyone who was doing it, so it was good hearing your experiences. You are so right, its the changing timetable that makes childcare so hard. My partner works 6 days a week so he cant really do it. I'm glad to hear your coping well with it, it gives me some confidence. Yeah, I was partying hard in first year so my lecturers could have easily thought I was hungover, like last year. Thats over now thank god, its more the next semester I'm worried about. New borns+lack of sleep make it hard to do assignments. The thing with uni is that while it goes under 20 hours a week, you always have some essay or assignment to complete. When did you book in for childcare? did you find it virtually impossible because you didn't know your timetables until a couple of weeks before the semester? I'll be going full time again next year so will def need child care.
Your little girl looks gorgeous :)

[Chickadee]

Hi again Elle!
I've only just started uni again last semester! My dd had been going to daycare for nearly a year while I worked part time, so we just added the extra half day with no problem. Luckily my carer had the space on that day. I've heard a lot of mums who because of waiting lists have to start their bub in daycare when a place becomes available, even if it's before they really need the place. Once they're in a centre they get first priority for alternate days.

Draft timetables for courses should be available a couple months before classes start, especially for Trimester 2, 3 or Semester 2, whichever system you're on. Even if they're not posted, if you know the prof then they usually have an idea of when classes will be. I had to email my prof for the next semester as the published timetable only had the lecture listed & not the tutorial times. He quite happily told me the tut times. That was last week, so a good 4 weeks before classes start.

I find one subject more than enough for me to cope with. I'm trying to remember back when dd was first born - I don't think I could have handled 2 subjects then. On some days sure, but probably I wouldn't have kept up. How hard would it be for you to drop one subject if you found you needed to? When are the cut off times etc? I'm not saying you can't do it, some mums blow me away with how much they can do! But just playing devils advocate.