2nd Trimester
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2nd Time Moms- Evening schedule?
I am wondering what your evening schedule was/is (for when the baby is a bit older). I am wondering how to fit in dinner, dishes, bathtime, nursing, stories, teeth, etc. Did you put the kids to bed first, and then do dinner? Did you have an early dinner as a family? I know this is WAY off, but I am just trying to figure out how to make it all work out!
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Re: 2nd Time Moms- Evening schedule?
I am not yet a 2nd time mom - although since I am about to me, have thought about it a lot too!
With our first LO we followed the Baby Wise schedule of eat, activity and then sleep every 3 hours...so we would do that around the clock at 3, 6, 9 and 12. As our LO got older, we dropped off feedings at night, etc. Since my LO is 13 months now, we still follow this schedule for eating/napping times. He still eats at 6am, has a snack at 9am, eats lunch at 12pm, snack at 3pm and then dinner at 6pm.
With that being said, we plan to use the Baby Wise schedule again with our second LO. I am hoping that while our DS is in his high chair eating at 3, 6, 9 and 12, I can be nursing our new LO at the same time.
In the evening, if they both eat at 6pm, Baby Wise would say that they should both have some activity time after dinner (until 7), and then while new baby is napping (while he's a newborn), we will continue our normal night time routine with DS - bath, teeth, bed. And then, theoretically, new LO would be ready to eat again by 9pm.
I'm curious to see what other moms' schedules are!
If I can remember right, the first few months it was impossible for me to cook because DS was miserable in the evening. He would scream if I put him in his bouncy seat or swing, and you can't cook while wearing a baby. I think I had to wait until DH got home to help with DS to cook. I didn't start bathing him at night until he was around 6-7months.
Its funny because now he still gets grumpy when I'm cooking, and he's 2.
I totally get the baby's schedule, but when do YOU cook and eat? After everyone has gone to bed? Everyone eats at 6pm (which seems REALLY early to us)? Etc... We usually eat dinner around 7:30, which seems like it would land right in the middle of bedtime!
I don't understand the question...
why wouldn't you eat with your kid?
ETA: do you mean like a newborn? or a child?
~after 34 cycles we finally got our 2nd little bundle of joy~
My IF blog
DD2 was on 'eat, activity, sleep' schedule too (I guess the Babywise schedule although I never read that book) and we just went on with our merry lives - ha! But, she'd keep her schedule and we'd keep ours and when the 2 conflicted, I'd sit down and nurse her and then go back to the table with her, or sit her in her swing while giving DD1 a bath, etc.
We tried to keep our routine with DD1 as much as possible. It would be interrupted for a few minutes here and there for either DH or I, but one would always keep to routine while the other tended baby. Once baby was taken care of, we'd go back to our routine.
I think it helped DD2 realize what our routine was early on and she got used to sitting at the dinner table with the rest of the family and being in the bathroom at bathtime, etc. As soon as she was old enough to join in on each activity, she was ready and willing and it was never forced.
We eat as a family around 6pm, give or take 30 minutes. Since I cook (pretty simple meals, I'm no gourmet cook) DH does dishes while I do baths and teeth around 7 pm. My kids are 3 and 4 now but the goal is stories and lights out around 8. We'll do our best to work the new baby into our routine. When I nursed it came after stories and right before bed. Now there's no nursing but the stories are longer. You'll figure out whatever works best for your family.
When DS was about 8-18 months old, he went to bed at 6:30pm. Any later and he would wake up multiple times a night and be up for the day at 5, instead of 6. DS and I would eat an early dinner at about 5:30, which consisted of leftovers from the night before. DH didn't come home until 6:30 or later, so I would do dinner, bath, bedtime routine on my own. Once DS was in bed, I cooked dinner for DH and I and we ate together. Dishes were done during the day.
After 18 months, DS's sleep went nutso... but in the end, his bedtime was around 7:30-8:30. So I cooked dinner for 6:30 (or whenever DH was coming home) and we would all eat together and do bedtime routine together.
When this LO arrives,we'll try and keep to the same routine with DS and whatever timetable this LO will be on for the first year, we'll just roll with. If I'm home alone with both kids and the baby needs to get to bed before DH gets home, I have no problems plopping DS in front of the tv, while I feed her and put her to bed. I don't think we'll be eating dinner together as a family again for at least a year or more because I care more about this LO having good sleep habits during the time than eating together when she won't even remember. Once she can go to bed later, then we'll all eat together (probably at a very similar time to what we do now).
I mean newborn-toddlerhoodish. We didn't have "family dinners" nightly until we were in school. Feeding a child dinner at 7:30 means bedtime at 8:30 or 9:00, which seems late to me for a little one... But eating dinner at 6:00 (especially since my husband won't be home yet) seems really early for grown-ups- and it would mean that my husband would be eating alone.
I think I am overthinking this! I guess it just seems like a lot of stuff needs to happen between 6:00 and 8:00, and I am not sure how to fit it all in.
It depends on the kid and the family. In the beginning we just ate whenever we could... things were crazy and we were lucky to throw together a sandwich and soup. Keep in mind that before they are eating solids it really isn't a big deal to eat as a family.
As he got older and ate more foods we did TRY to eat with him as much as possible but even now that he is 2+ it doesn't happen for every meal.
We also are just weird and run later than most families. My husband works late and we are both night owls who are regularly up till midnight. Most other parents think we are insane. But my son gets up at about 8am and is in bed at about 8:30 PM. We eat arounf 7-7:30ish most nights, as a family. Sometimes we are tired and dinner isn't ready till later so my husband or I will sit with him while he eats dinner and the other will cook. No biggie... as long as everyone eats we're cool. So our schedule IS later than most but given how late my husband gets home from work it works for us... otherwise he would barely get any time with our son.
So: (and again, this is our young toddler schedule but it's been this way for a while)
5ish - up from nap
5-6:30 - play, activities, reading, park, whatever.
6:30ish - DH gets home and takes over the play while I cook
7-7:30ish - dinner
7:30 - 8ish - bath/shower time
8 - 8:30ish - milk, books, teeth, and bed
I live off of my crock pot! I can throw everything in whenever I have a chance in the morning - breakfast, nap, or if my son is willing to play by himself. I turn on the crock pot and then dinner is ready when my DH gets home from work. Sometimes if I have extra time in the afternoon I bake something (muffins, bread sticks, quick breads) to go with it. There is an EXCELLENT crock pot blog called "A Year of Slow cooking." You can find it here: https://crockpot365.blogspot.com. She's got a ton of recipes that are reviewed for flavor. One of my favorite recipes is a lasagna that takes about 8 minutes to throw together. (No joke!) It turns out sooooo good. It's a family favorite.
I think things will probably change once baby gets here. We do family dinners with our toddler, but it's harder to keep a baby at the table. I think either DH or I might just wear baby to the table, or put them in a bouncy chair. Our routine is fairly flexible. DH gets home and plays with our son while I set the table and serve out portions (including cooling off my son's food). After dinner what we do depends on how late it is and how tired our son is. If he's still wide awake, we might give him a bath or play for a little while, then he goes to bed. If he's really tired, it's straight to bed. Our son goes to sleep anywhere between 7 and 9:15 (on a late night). He does just fine with that amount of flexibility.