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Babies: 3 - 6 Months
Question for Working Mommies...
Ladies,
Can you please describe your evening routines? Not just bedtime, but your whole evening? DH and I are having a hard time balancing between spending quality time with LO, making and cleaning up dinner, bedtime routine, preparing bottles for daycare, packing our lunches, etc. I would also love to be able to throw in some exercise in the evenings. I would love to hear how you all do it all!
Thank you!
PS- Mornings are getting much easier for us, because we try to do so much in the evenings, but I would be willing to do some of the evening chores in the am.
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Re: Question for Working Mommies...
Well my hubby gets home around 3:30 and I get home at 5.45pm.
5:45pm feed him solids
5:55-6:30 we play in his room
6:30 Bath time and getting dressed for bed
6:45 I feed him his bottle in the dark in his room and we rock a bit after he is done
7:00pm bed time
While I bathe him and put him down, my husband prepares dinner. We have dinner at 7:30 together and then relax and watch tv or hangout. I love our us time, and I need it since I head to work at 5.30am. I love our weekends b/c I spend every moment with my son.
** We have also started to jog together when the weather permits when I get home. We take the jogging stroller and run as a family which has been fun.
*** in terms of cleaning, I do a little here and there but mostly our laundry and cleaning gets done by the nanny.
5 pm - I pick up DS
5:15 pm - get home. Either put DS in his crib for a bit to see if he wants to nap or put him on playmant/jumperoo. While DS is occupied, I do a little dinner prep.
5:30 pm - if DS falls asleep, I continue prepping dinner. If not, I play with him for a bit and then feed him some oatmeal.
5:45 - 6:30 - playtime with DS. If DH is home, then one of us may work on dinner/picking up/gardening. Usually we involve DS in whatever we're doing.
6:30 - DH & I bathe DS and get him ready for bed.
6:45 - I nurse DS & he's in bed by 7pm
7:00 - final dinner prep. Usually by 7:30 or 8 we're eating dinner.
8:30 - clean up kitchen then it's free time the rest of the night. We're usually in bed by 10
I'll say we do have a weekly housekeeper, so we only need to try to keep up with laundry & generaly tidying.
I get home from work at around 5:30 and play with DS for about 1/2 an hour. I put him in his highchair (in the kitchen with me) a little after 6 and start dinner, make lunches and bottles. He watches me and I'll talk to him/sing to him. If he gets bored then I will move him to his jumper or something else while I finish up.
DH gets home at around 7 so we eat dinner (DS sits with us while we eat). After we are done eating we play with DS until 8 and then one of us feeds him and puts him to bed - luckily DS puts himself to sleep so bedtime routine is only about 15 minutes for us. The other one of us cleans up from dinner.
Once we are all cleaned up and DS is asleep we will watch tv or go online whatever we want to do until we go to bed around 10.
5PM - leave work
5:15PM - pick up kids from daycare
5:30PM - take dog out and change for gym
6:00PM - go to gym (DH gets home)
7:00PM - leave gym (DH starts dinner)
7:15PM - feed DS solids
7:30PM - bathe DS
7:45PM - eat dinner
8:00PM - feed DS last bottle and put him to bed
8:15PM - clean up kitchen/prep bottles for daycare
9:00PM - DH or I gives DD a shower and she gets ready for bed
9:30PM - kids are in bed sleeping. I shower while DH relaxes
10:00PM - bedtime for me
I get off work at 4:30. DH picks up DD at the babysitter and is home by 5:30. I try and get whatever cleaning, cooking that i can get done before they get home. If I dont get the cleaning done..oh well..I do whatever else is needed on the weekends. My house is alwways clean, but may not be tidy..i dont care. I do what I can with a 4 month old and a 2 year old. If I dont finish dinner, then I finish it and DH watches DD or DH finishes dinner and i watch DD. Regardless, we are all in the same room and I always talk to DD and stuff. She goes to sleep at 7:30 every night. I do the dishes and clean up whatever is left from dinner when she goes to sleep. So basically from the second she comes home, i am spending time with her. It may not be 100% playing with her, but i do spend time with her and the rest of my family. Once both girls are down-(they both go down at 7:30), and after dinner and dishes are cleaned up, I do whatever i need to do for the next day. Once that is done, I usually have about 2 hours before i got to bed. I lay on my butt and do nothing, but that is when you can fit excercise in if you want. And I say that I do all this, but my DH helps clean up and stuff too. That is key. HTH. Good luck.
Oh, I forgot to mention that we have cleaners come every 2 weeks and we have weekly lawn service. Our weekends are reserved for family time and a little bit of laundry.
Thanks Ladies. I got some AWESOME ideas and just emailed entire post to DH at work.
PS- Simply reading through all of your responses, makes me proud to be in the company of such busy working mommies! You are all Super Women (and incredibly organized, I might add
)
haha well I RARELY cook and don't even know what the word "exercise" means but...
330 - pick up Sabrina from daycare and sit in traffic for an hour or more
445-6 - if she's awake, this is my time with her to play, talk, laugh, sing, etc which is why I rarely cook because I absolutely refuse to give up this time with her as it's my only time with her.
6-645 - if it's bath night she gets a bath, if not then she'll sit in the high chair while I make her last bottle for the night (and if I can, squeeze in making a sandwich and/or cleaning some bottles) and prep her solid food for the night. I try to hold her off as close to 7 as possible to eat
645-7 - bedtime routine: diaper change, wearable blanket, book(s), Seahorse, noise machine, nighty night.
7-9 - eat, talk to DH, watch TV, try to stay awake, clean and prep bottles for DC
9 - I'm usually fast asleep
click the pic (blog)
I get home at 4 and DH gets home at 4:30
As soon as I get home I empty out my pump bag and put pump parts in the dishwasher
4-5:30 play with DS
5:30-6:00 or 6:15 DS takes a little cap nap during this time usually otherwise DH will hold him and we will chat while I make supper.
6:00- 6:30. eat supper.- we put DS in the highchair and give him some toys otherwise I'll hold him on my lap while I eat.
6:30-7:00 Daddy gives bath time. during this time. I clean out the diaper bag, get the milk ready for tomorrow and get my pump bag ready again.
7:15 - 7:30 Daddy gets DS in pjs, swaddles and reads to him.
7:45 I nurse him to sleep.
8:00 I clean up dinner stuff and reload the dishwasher. Do anyother last minute chores and usually throw in a load of laundry.
then TV and sleep for DH and I!
We both get home around 5:45.
5:45 - Get changed out of work clothes.
5:50 - I feed Gwen while DH feeds the dog and starts dinner.
6:00 - We eat, I'm normally still nursing. Talk about our days.
6:30ish - Hang out and play with babe. Maybe go for a walk.
7:00 - I do the bedtime routine, while DH does dishes and, if we haven't walked already, walks the dog.
Bedtime routine is: bath, then diaper and PJs. Read two small books, turn on nightlight and heartbeat sound, BF and sing to Gwen. She is normally asleep between 8 and 8:30.
8:30 - Relax and watch a show. Hang out together.
10:00 - Pack lunches, as needed. Gather anything else that needed for the next day. Head upstairs to get ready for bed.
10:30 - In bed, lights out.
As for prepping bottles... I pump straight into bottles, so they are already "prepped". But DH packs them into the lunch bag with icepack while I'm feeding Gwenivere in the mornings. He'll also handle whatever I pump in the morning, either packing it up with the other bottles or freezing it, as needed.
Maybe I don't have a heightened sense of smell, but I've never smelled any vagina on my pants. -- TSD
Bloggity Blog - You know you want to...
Ladies, thank you for the phenomenal advice! I just emailed the entire post to DH at work.
FWIW~ Just wanted to mention that reading through all your posts, makes me proud to be in the company of such organized, and hard working mommies!
I second that, and a nice shoutout to our husbands who help us!
Sorry for the double-post! I didn't think the first one went through.
Sorry!
Absolutely!
(DH works from home)
4:45 pm - I get home
5:00/5:30 pm - we eat dinner
5:45 - After dinner, we take a walk with our dog and Charlie
5:45-6:45 - Play/hang out with Charlie
6:45 - Bath
7:00 - Lotion, Jammies, Feed
Charlie is usually down by 7:30 pm. I then go downstairs and hang out with DH. I typically pump at 8:30 pm. After pumping, I get bottles ready for the next morning and do laundry if I need to. In bed by 9:30/10:00 pm. I make my lunch in the morning.
4:40 - Arrive home, my husband works from home and daycare is 5 blocks away so most days we walk over together.
5-5:30 - sometimes we take an extended walk if Annie will fall asleep in her stroller, otherwise she usually naps at this time. Sometimes I nap with her up in our bed
If I'm not napping with her, I then prepare bottles for the next day, freeze any excess milk, wash bottles/pump parts.
somewhere between 5:30 and 6, Annie wakes up and I feed her. My husband usually makes dinner while I'm feeding her.
6-7:30, eat dinner outside or on the porch, chill out, play with Annie, sometimes we hang out with the neighbors and their 8 month old too.
7:30 - feed Annie, when I'm done with that my husband takes her and swaddles her, reads Goodnight Moon and she's usually asleep by 8:15 or so.
8:15-9:30 - wash dishes, hang out with husband, maybe watch TV or just chill out, and I go to bed at like 9:30-10. My husband sometimes stays up and does more work at this time.
We are pretty lax about cleaning, so we don't do much of that - we kind of just cram that in right before we know someone is coming over
My husband can usually do laundry during the day since he's at home so that's nice, but even if we have to do it at night it doesn't take long.
Evenings are so short! I, by no means, do it all. But, we get enough done in the evening that we survive to the following day.
5:30-5:45: DS and I arrive at home
6: DS's dinner (bottle & we're working on learning to eat rice cereal), clean up (real bath every other day), pjs, play, bedtime story, etc; meanwhile DH arrives at home sometime around 6:30
7: DS goes to bed, and H and I start putting our dinner together (usually already at least partially prepared). Then we eat.
8: Clean kitchen, do any other chores that really need to be done (laundry, paying bills...but anything that can wait is put off to the weekend), fix lunch for tomorrow, and set up the coffee pot.
9: I shower, get ready for bed, then have some time with DH until we fall asleep around 10:15.
I get off at 5 and DH gets off anywhere between 5:30 and 6:30 most nights.
5:00 - pick DS up from work
5:15-6:15 go for a walk if the weather is decent - if the weather is bad we play on the floor
6:20 feed DS solids
7:00 feed DS last bottle of the day
7:30 bathe DS and dress him for bed
8:00 or whenever he's ready put DS to bed
After DS goes to bed, I clean up the kitchen from supper and do a few things around the house before sitting down to watch tv with DH for a little while.
*All times are approximate and in between these activites we play on the floor with him usually.
BFP #2: 11/16/11: M/C at 7 weeks
BFP #3: 03/24/12: C/P 03/28/12
BFP #4: 04/26/12: please be our baby
These are all approximate times, but the flow is generally like this:
430pm: I pick up LO from daycare and head home (10 minutes)
4:45pm: At home, I bring LO into my bedroom with me while I change out of my work clothes and then we play on the bed a little, change diaper if necessary.
5:00pm: I feed LO, both a stage 1 food and top it off with a bottle
5:15pm - 5:45pm: I snuggle and cuddle and play with LO
5:45 - 6pm: I put LO on her playmat and I go to start dinner prep
6 - 630PM: I either move LO to the exersaucer or put her in her highchair in the kitchen so she can 'prepare' dinner with me. She likes to watch me in the kitchen, so it's kind of quality time.
6:30pm: interact with LO ... she's usually getting sleepy at this point6:30pm - 7:30pm: LO usually naps. DH comes home between 630 - 7pm.
7:30pm: DH and I are usually finished with dinner, LO wakes up
7:30pm - 8:30: DH interacts with LO ... I do whatever ... dishes/chores/sometimes nothing
8:30pm - 9:30pm: I prepare LO for bed ... change clothes/diaper, bathe if it's bath day, last bottle and snuggle.
9;30pm: LO is sleeping ... mommy & daddy are not far behind.
And usually some time in the middle of all this I find time to pee.
We have a cleaning lady that comes 2x per week so weekends are all baby and DH! (And laundry)
I'm fortunate to just see patients in the morning, so I'm home by 3 pm. I get as much ready for the next day as I can, right when I get home. I repack the diaper bag, get my work bag ready, and pull mine and the kid's clothes out (I have a hanging organizer in their closet labeled with the days of the week, so I get all of their clothes ready on Sunday). I also get all of my clothes for the week ironed and set aside on Sunday.
The kids get lunch at daycare, so I nurse DS and then pump once everything is put away. Most days I get lucky and all 3 will take a nap around 4 pm. I use this time to catch up on emails, the Bump, pay bills, etc. The kids get a snack when they wake up, while DS plays in his jumperoo and I make dinner. Since DH and I are both residents, our schedules vary, but we usually eat dinner around 6:30 pm. The baby gets his last meal while DH gets the big kids in the bath, and then he joins them in the tub. Big kids go to bed and then DS is nursed and put down in his crib by 8 pm.
Once he goes to bed, I get everyone's vitamins out on the counter, DH's breakfast plate set-up and program the coffee maker. I even put the dog treats by the front door, to save myself a step in the morning. DH and I get a good 2 hours of time together before bed. I'm up by 5 am and make sure that the beds are all made and house is tidy, so I don't have to deal with it when I come home.