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What is your evening routine like?
I feel like I'm finally getting a good routine down, but I'm always trying to find ways to streamline things and make life easier. What is your general evening weekday schedule? Any tips for making things easier?
We have a crazy crunch time every weekday from 5:30-6:30 pm when I get home with M from work/daycare and before DH gets home. During that time I try to nurse M (this only takes 5 minutes), unpack our bags, wash his bottles and food containers from school, put away my pumped milk, take the dog out, start making dinner, and get some of our stuff ready for the next day. And if I can get some "quality time" with M, that's also good. I try to do all of this while keeping LO happy, which isn't always easy. He wants me to interact with him, which is fine and totally understandable because he's been away from me all day, but it makes it hard to get anything else done (i.e. putting him in the pack n play doesn't work too well). He also tries to crawl around and harass our poor dog. This is the hour of the day when I kind of lose my mind a little bit. Any tips or is this just life with kids?
We have a crazy crunch time every weekday from 5:30-6:30 pm when I get home with M from work/daycare and before DH gets home. During that time I try to nurse M (this only takes 5 minutes), unpack our bags, wash his bottles and food containers from school, put away my pumped milk, take the dog out, start making dinner, and get some of our stuff ready for the next day. And if I can get some "quality time" with M, that's also good. I try to do all of this while keeping LO happy, which isn't always easy. He wants me to interact with him, which is fine and totally understandable because he's been away from me all day, but it makes it hard to get anything else done (i.e. putting him in the pack n play doesn't work too well). He also tries to crawl around and harass our poor dog. This is the hour of the day when I kind of lose my mind a little bit. Any tips or is this just life with kids?
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Re: What is your evening routine like?
Most days, I pick the babies up at daycare at 5pm. DH meets me at home at 5:10pm, and we take the babies out and put them in the living room. DH and I get changed, and then we play with the babies until 5:30pm. We then feed them dinner (purees now, I know this will change when we're on table foods) until 5:45pm, and then play with them some more until 6:15pm.
Then, we start our bedtime routine, which is PJs, swaddle (sleep sack now), bottle, 3 books, and then bed. They are in bed and asleep by 6:45pm or so. Some nights we throw bathtime in there. During all that, I don't try to get anything else done except get the babies' PJs and clothes for the next day ready. All other meal prep, cleaning, etc. is done after the babies go to bed. I try to be 100% focused on having time with the babies since they're only awake a short time after we get home.
Yes, evenings can be really hectic. My schedule is pretty much similar to yours except that I save the bottle washing, packing for the next day, etc. until after LO has gone to bed. When I get home, I try to focus on getting dinner ready and spending time with LO. Then, after she goes to bed, I turn some music (I used to have glass of wine), and then I wash the dishes, get stuff ready for the next day, etc. I find that if I'm trying to do too many things at once right when we get home, then I really start to feel frazzeled and I can't concentrate. So, saving some things until after she goes to bed when I can focus seems to help me do it faster and make me not feel so crazy.
ETA: Can you PM me and tell me your old screen name? I still haven't figured it out for some reason
YGPM!
It seems like some of this stuff you could do after M goes to bed, and save yourself a little sanity. Can you wash his bottles and get his food ready later?
For us, we generally get home between 5:30-6:00 (depending on whether or not I've gone to the gym. We unpack J's bags and feed him dinner. Then do a bath if it's bath night, and let him run around (or his new favorite activity, jumping on the bed . . .). Around 6:15-6:30ish, we get him ready for bed - nighttime diaper, sleep sack, etc. - and then do bottle and books. He's usually in bed around 6:45 and asleep by 7:30 (ugh).
From 8:00-10:00 is our time - that's when we make our own dinner, get J's food and other stuff ready for daycare, put all of his cups/bowls etc in the dishwasher, catch up on TV and internet, sometimes DH goes running. I try to mostly focus on J for that hour or so before he goes to bed, since I know we'll have time to do everything else once he's in his crib.
TTC #2: BFP 12/17/11, m/c 1/7/12 and D&C 1/12/12
baby blog/cooking blog
This is our M-W-F routine (DH brings C home a bit later on Tu and I get more time to cook all by myself. Th - I take pilates after work and get home right before C's bedtime):
5:30: I get home with C. Get him settled with a little snack and toys so that I can whip up dinner. I keep it simple on those nights so that I can sit down and play with him in between stirring or whatever. It can be hard, though.
6:00: Dinner's ready. DH is usually home by now and we all sit down to eat and chat.
6:30: Finishing up dinner, playtime with C
7:15ish: One of us does bedtime while the other cleans the kitchen
7:30: C's in bed.
7:30-8: any additional packing/unpacking, prep for the next day
Here's our routine
We both arrive home between 5:45 and 6:00. I make dinner and we eat by 6:30, DH plays with DD during that time (DS is usually sleeping). After dinner, I nurse DS and then we all play together till 7:45, (7:30 on bath nights), then I get DD ready for bed and read 3 books and say prayers. By then it's 8/8:15 so I clean up from dinner and wash all the daycare items, nurse DS at 9 and then put him to bed. DH and I have from 9:30-10:30 to be together and I go to bed at 11.
Thanks!
I put off until after T's bedtime anything that doesn't have to be done immediately - in your case, that would mean putting off unpacking your bags (except for your pumped milk), washing bottles and food containers and getting ready for the next day. Even if you don't put it off until after LO goes to bed, waiting until your DH gets home would make life a lot easier so that one of you could be with him while the other is doing chores.
I am much saner when I spend the first hour T is home just playing with her, feeding her a last snack (she has dinner at daycare), and getting her settled in for the night. Since she doesn't eat dinner with us, we do most cooking & eating (or ordering delivery), cleaning up and getting ready for the next day after her bedtime. It leaves less relaxation time for the adults, but gives us more quality time with T.
DH gets home w/ DD around 4-4:15, some days he'll take her to the playground. I get home w/ DS around 4:30. we eat dinner from 5-6. DH usually does the kids' dishes and pump parts at this time, too. Bath is at 6, 1st DS, then DD, bedtime is at 7pm. I start nursing at 7, so DS doesn't fall asleep til about 7:30.
Can your DH do the dishes?
I clean all of his stuff from daycare, make his bottles, and make all of his food. For some reason DH is adamantly opposed to doing those tasks. He does help out with lots of other things though, like cleaning up after dinner and giving M his bath.
I'm not sure I see much room for improvement in what you do - sounds pretty much like what we do. The difference for us is the girls now entertain each other during that mad rush when we all walk in the door after preschool/metro/daycare pick up and we're unpacking daycare bags and making dinner. And with the warmer weather we send the girls out on the deck so they're not underfoot while we cook. DS jumps in his Jumparoo.
We try hard to eat as a family, and accomplish that probably 5 nights a week, the other nights we just get slammed and DH and I eat after the kids go to bed (those are usually take-out nights for us!).