Staci Webb’s daily schedule has changed dramatically since she returned to school this fall.

Jocelyn Waller (SCS ’12) has faced similar challenges.

“You don’t just have the free time to meet someone for coffee at 2 or begin pre-gaming at 6,” she said.

Both Webb (COL ’12) and Waller share a common bond — they are student mothers.

“I have not had a full night’s sleep since I was pregnant,” Webb said. “I have learned to function on just about no sleep.”

For Webb, putting her son Connor to bed at 8 p.m., studying until 2 a.m. and waking up with her son in the morning at 5 a.m. have become part of her new daily routine.

Webb had to give up her commitments to The Hoya and Jumpstart, a literacy tutoring program. She now volunteers for a domestic violence safe house and hotline, however.

“My life is nothing but Connor and studying,” she joked.

For student mother Donnae Thomas (COL ’13), the four-hour commute every weekday — two trips, one hour each way — to transport her 4-year-old son Kelvin to day care in Northeast D.C. where her family lives, consistently drains time from her busy day.

As she makes her way through her Georgetown experience, she has the added responsibility of a child along with the typical courseload of a student. Her trips to day-care are only one part of her daily complications.

This spring, Thomas and others have taken the initial steps to fill a campus void that they feel quite personally: the disparity between the needs they have as student mothers and the resources the university is able to provide.

Waller and Thomas are hoping to develop an organization and child care fund for student parents at Georgetown. The group could be organized through the Student Activities Commission as early as fall 2011, although its current tally of three-person membership could be problematic. According to the Center for Student Programs website, it takes 12 interested undergraduates and three officers to start a club.

The student organization would serve as a support group for student mothers and a centralized location for resources. According to them, many of these resources on campus are currently underpublicized and underutilized.

“It’s hard with the lack of communication and lack of information. It’s hard to figure out where to go,” Thomas said.

Waller cited the 15th annual Feminists for Life Pregnancy Resource Forum on March 23 as her impetus for the planning of the organization. She had not met any other student mothers at Georgetown or even been aware of the opportunities through Health Education Services prior to the event.

The forum allowed members of the Georgetown community to share their experiences with student mothers through panels featuring university administrators and students. In past years, the forum helped spark the creation of a full-time Pregnancy Services Counselor position at Health Education Services and a volunteer baby-sitting service provided by Georgetown University Right to Life.

“I think helping me get connected has been a great resource. For a while, you think you’re the only person doing it,” Waller said.

Waller, who transferred to Georgetown from the University of North Carolina after becoming pregnant, had difficulty connecting with other Georgetown students because of the additional time constraints placed on her by her full-time job at a doctor’s office and classes from 6 p.m to 10 p.m three nights a week. Particularly tough was dropping her commitments to her sorority, the College Republicans and the army ROTC program at UNC.

Having a child has forever changed her undergraduate experience.

“That sense of freedom is completely gone,” she said.

Thomas argued that the university should work to boost campus awareness of the resources available for student parents as early as the undergraduate financial aid applications and incoming student informational packets. She says she fears that admitted student parents may be wary of what appears to be a lack of resources.

“It’s impossible to do it by yourself,” she said. “[There] will be somebody who will point the way.”

Student parents are often unaware that HES offers pregnancy testing, serves as an academic liaison and refers students to further resources including financial aid, campus ministry, off-campus counseling, medical care and housing. With the help of HES, some student mothers are currently living in Village A and a university townhouse. The department has also been successful in obtaining special desks for students late in their pregnancies and a greater allowance of excused absences for student mothers.

It was through HES that Webb was directed to pregnancy counseling in Adams Morgan and to her dean, Tad Howard, who helped her orchestrate a leave of absence between her sophomore and junior years. While she has not encountered many problems upon returning to school, Webb said HES’s resources allowed her to continue her studies here.

“I would not be able to be here without all the support at Georgetown,” she said.

HES Director Carol Day explained that her department works to address the individually expressed needs of student mothers. She too hopes to increase marketing of the university’s resources in order to demonstrate that being a student mother at Georgetown is feasible.

“We are happy to support [student motherhood] as a Catholic university that wants to support everybody in their individual circumstances,” Day said. “If you’re presented with something as daunting as being pregnant as an undergraduate, there are good reasons to consider all your options.”

Thomas and Waller also want to increase the feasibility of student motherhood at Georgetown through university-sponsored grants for student parents to be directed toward childcare. For both women, it is their most formidable problem. They ultimately hope to establish reserved slots for student parents at Hoya Kids Learning Center, a university-run childcare facility.

Thomas, who had her son while in high school, put Kelvin on the waiting list at Hoya Kids her freshman year but removed his name when the wait seemed futile and the tuition too expensive. This year, her son won the lottery for Hyde-Addison Elementary School on O Street and will be attending in the fall.

The elementary school application process restricted how involved Thomas could be on campus this past year. Although she was previously outreach coordinator for GU Sisters for Christ, she had to leave the commitment because she felt she over-booked her time.

Waller pays $1,600 a month for a nanny for her 2-year-old daughter Teagyn. She did not know about the possibility of childcare through Hoya Kids, which would have allowed her to live on campus and cut expenses.

The waiting list for the Hoya Kids is impossible to define, according to Director Jane Banister, but it can range between 4 months and 3 years. Tuition is around $1,000 a month, but it can vary with the child’s age. Upon acceptance to the center, scholarships for 40 percent of the tuition are available for parents with annual household incomes below $100,000.

Waller suggested that the university create an on-campus playroom in which student parents could oversee their children while being productive.

“Having that time to go to class and to study is the biggest resource you could give to a single parent,” she said.

Webb, who is not currently involved in the development of the student organization or fund, agreed that time constraints and child care are her most pressing problems.

“It’s really hectic in general because everything has to be planned around whether or not I can get a baby sitter,” she said. “Without a roommate, I can’t even leave the house at night. It’s a lot more planning involved.”

Webb’s son is watched by the nanny of a recent Georgetown graduate, who was also a student mother. She occasionally uses the free baby-sitting provided by the members of Right to Life. However, the volunteers’ schedules are not always compatible with those of student mothers.

While the average Georgetown undergraduate may be met with an unlimited number of academic and extracurricular opportunities, the picture is different for student mothers.

“The resources are here for students in general,” Thomas said. “It’s time conflicting.”