A day in the life of baby foster carers John and Clare

Clare and John have been fostering since 2014, focussing mainly on caring for babies. Being a foster carer is Clare's main role and along with fostering, John is a corporation tax accountant. They are parents to 18-year-old daughter Emily, who is studying for her A-levels and family pets, Frenchies Violet and Dave. Over the last decade, the family has welcomed 9 children into their home in their role, including supporting transitions to adoption. The family are caring for a 6-week-old baby.

                                                                                     Get a fostering information pack

My morning as a foster carer

Baby determines what time I start my day, at the minute he lets me sleep until about 7.15am. When I get up my husband and daughter have left for school. I prepare the baby's bottle, then change his nappy, give him a quick wash and get him dressed.

Once baby is dressed I do the most important job of any day and make myself a cup of coffee, which I drink while his bottle cools down and he has some play time under the baby gym. After baby has had his bottle, I'll do a couple of household jobs like putting washing on or emptying the dishwasher. While he has a nap I get myself dressed and ready for the day. Today my friend picked us up and we went to a local soft play centre with her little boy. 

My afternoon looked like this...

Baby had family time this afternoon so, after I had written in his contact notebook letting his parents know how he'd been since they last saw him. I include things like his new weight and when he was last fed. I took him for his visit. I always like to take the babies along to family time because it's important to me to build a relationship with birth families.

It's nice for them to be able to ask me any questions they might have about their child or tell me if there's anything they would like me to do for them, for example any special clothes they might have. While the baby was having his family time, I dashed home to have a catch-up Teams call with my Supervising Social Worker.

I've been thinking about doing something different or adding to my foster care role - there's quite a lot of varied roles you can get involved in. And we've been exploring the possibility of me becoming a hub carer for Northumberland's next Mockingbird family.

I had time for a quick run round with the vacuum cleaner then headed back to pick him up. Again a quick chat with his parents, so they could tell me how he'd been while he was with them. Then it's back home again and time for baby's bottle and some cuddles. I've had a surprise call from our recruitment officer to ask if I can help out at a community outreach event next month. I love talking to people about fostering, the different types of fostering and answering their questions.  

My evening looked like this...

While baby was chilling after his feed I washed and sterilised his bottles then prepared the tea for the rest of us. After tea it's bathtime for the baby and once he's clean and fresh, time for his 8pm bottle. After he's fed and winded I put him up to bed about 9pm. But my day doesn't end there.

When he's in bed and asleep I generally have a quick shower then catch up on my home and fostering paperwork and spend time with my husband and daughter.

Tonight I'm looking through photos of a foster family day out, where we got to meet up with some of the team and lots of other fostered children and families - days like these are great for the children and carers alike. I go to bed about 10.30 after sorting baby's night time feed out ready for him waking up at 4am.

Some of the foster carer tasks I did today are:

• Checking my fostering emails
• Signing up for my Emergency First Aid training refresh course
• Completing my weekly recording sheet for the baby
• Catching up with my fellow baby foster carers

Some things my foster child(ren) and I did today was:

• Went to soft play
• Had lovely cuddles
• Looked at the trees blowing in the breeze

• Readingbook "Guess how much I love you" - this is a book we share with his birth Mam to help us all to talk with him to help his development and bonding.

The best part of my day was:The best part of my day was...

• Mam telling me how much she appreciates how much I do for her baby. Things like that mean so much to me and I was very touched.

Something I found tough today was: 

• There's been lots of to-ing and fro-ing.

Since becoming a foster carer, the biggest way my days have changed is:

They are full! I never have time to be bored between caring for a 6-week-old baby, my fostering meetings, admin and training, looking after my own family, running a house, seeing my friends and family and I do try to fit in some self care.

I mostly find that as a foster carer

My days have a general routine with a few changes/surprises.

My number one tip as a foster carer is:

Be flexible! Especially in the first few weeks until things settle down. Right now, baby's family time is supervised by his social worker so the time of his 3 family time sessions each week can change. This can impact on my planning, but we're part of a bigger family around the children - it's not just us on our own.

                                                      Read a life in the day of long-term foster carers Lesley and Stephen