10.19.2015

our daily routine with two

Hello! Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! The blog was a bit quiet last week, as all three of us  girls were feeling under the weather. Thankfully, everyone is healthy again and life with two has begun falling into a really nice routine. For anyone who has two, you know that coordinating naps and finding a balance between caring for both little ones can be a challenge but we're 5 weeks in and I'm so thankful things have gotten much easier as we've established a day to day routine and I've gotten into the groove of two!


I thought I would share what our routine is during the week and would love to hear how you set up your day with two or more too!

The girls both go to bed around 8-8:30pm. 

Dustin has a bedtime routine with Olivia which includes brushing teeth, getting in jammies & reading books, then I sneak in to kiss her goodnight and "stargaze" together. She has a turtle that projects stars all over her ceiling and every night after Dustin leaves, I go in to lay with her -- she puts her arm around me and points out all the stars. Melt my heart. 

Penelope has a pretty basic routine of eat / wake / sleep during the day and then eat / sleep at night. We loosely followed Babywise with Olivia and had a lot of success so we are doing the same thing with Penelope. I'm not one to strictly schedule my kids but the biggest thing I took away from the Babywise method is the importance of giving your baby "wake time" after each feeding (during the day), instead of just putting them down right away or letting them drift off to sleep while eating. Wake time during the day encourages better sleep at night. (During the night you obviously don't give them that 20-30 minutes of wake time after a feeding, you just put them back down).

If she went down around 8pm, Penelope is usually up between 10pm and midnight for her first night feeding, then again around 3/4am and her final feeding between 7 and 8am. She is averaging 4-5 hour stretches of sleep consistently, which helps me to feel like I'm finally getting more rest too!

Penelope usually takes a morning nap after her 7/8am feeding, and this is the time I am really able to focus on one-on-one time with Olivia. Olivia wakes between 8:30 and 9am. We get up, eat breakfast together and hang out, reading books, playing games or her new favorite activity -- doing puzzles.

Once Poppy wakes, I feed her and then it's bath time for the girls, around 11am. Olivia loves helping giving Penelope a bath by rinsing her feet or helping me shampoo her hair. P loves being in the tub, so I let her soak as long as she wants and Olivia and I sometimes sit and play on the bathroom floor while she does. After bath time, we try to get out of the house for a few hours. Even though its sometimes a lot of work to get us all ready, I notice my days are so much better when I've gotten out of the house!

On Tuesday mornings, I have my women's bible study at church and Olivia loves being in the nursery there. Thursday mornings is preschool for Olivia and then every other Friday is MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers), which I always look forward to because it gives me time with other moms with children similar in age to mine and it's faith-based. It's an international organization and there are usually many groups throughout each city, so if you've never heard of it and want to get connected with other Moms, I would highly recommend it! My mom attended MOPS for years when I was younger and encouraged me to get involved and I'm so glad I did!

After our morning activities, we come home, around 12:30/1pm for lunch. While Olivia eats, I feed Penelope and then it's nap time for both of the girls. Penelope typically goes down first while V is finishing lunch and then I spend some time reading books with V in bed and put her down around 2pm. A perfect day is when both of the girls nap at the same time, but sometimes after I get Olivia tucked in, Penelope is still awake and wants to hang. Although I'm usually tired and ready for a break, it's also really special for me to have one on one time with her while her big sister snoozes. 


Olivia wakes around 5pm and by then, Dustin is home from work. He gets home around 3:30 each day. I feed Penelope after her nap while V has a snack and then we try to do something as a family. Sometimes it's out of the house, like taking Olivia to an indoor water park or the playground or just taking a walk around the neighborhood but sometimes it's just doing something fun at home, like an afternoon movie with popcorn, playing in the backyard or, Olivia's favorite, reading stacks and stacks of books in bed with Daddy. I try to give Olivia my undivided attention in the morning while Poppy naps and then Dustin does the same in the evening. Olivia is so patient all day with me as I take care of her baby sister, so the evenings are really a time to reward her for her good behavior with something extra fun. Last Thursday we went furniture shopping to pick out our dining room chairs and can't wait to share what we chose! Olivia had to try them all out of course! 


Dinner is between 6 and 7pm, Dustin usually cooks while I feed Penelope and Olivia plays with special toys that keep her occupied. After dinner, we tag team it to tackle bedtime! 

Life is certainly busier with two but so much more fun. It feels like our missing piece -- sweet Penelope -- is finally with us and our family feels much more complete. I can't believe she's almost 6 weeks old and that time is going by so fast! Her Sip & See is this weekend so we're finishing up some fun projects around the house this week and I'm getting extra excited to have all our friends and family in one place to celebrate our baby girl.

Happy Monday! XO

2 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing! I'm due with my second in another month or so and have been spending a lot of time wondering what life with two is going to look like. Nice to see that some sort of routine is still a possibility :)

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  2. a bath at 11, out of the house then back home by 1230/1? YOURE AMAZING.
    and i am super jealous of how early your hubby comes home! soak that up!

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