Thursday, September 29, 2011

Routine

It only took about two months, but I'm proud to say that we are finally back into a routine around here! I think the hardest thing about having a new baby is having to establish a routine, which takes time due to newborns random feeding and sleeping schedules. Having two children made it that much more important to me to establish a routine early because I didn't want to mess up Lila's already established routine. Therefore, I used Lila's routine as the goal, and meshed Alli's routine in with hers.

I know that schedules and demands of children are constantly changing, but it has been so nice these past few weeks having them both synched to the same schedule and routine. Alli will wake up for her last feeding around 7am, so I either go back to bed or wake up and get ready for whatever we are doing that day depending on the time that we need to be there (sometimes, the girls even let me sleep until after 9am!).  Alli will fall back asleep for the time when I'm getting Lila ready (which is so nice!!), so that I only have to concentrate on one child at that busy time of the day. Once we're ready, I wake Alli up, change her diaper and clothes, and plop her in her car seat where she takes her morning nap because we are usually out running some sort of errands or taking Lila to a playdate.

Alli is usually still napping when it's time to feed Lila lunch, which again, makes it much easier to feed Lila since she fights me to eat here lately. Once Lila's done, I'll feed Alli (I still feel like I'm always feeding someone!!).  The girls have a couple hours where they are both awake at the same time, and sometimes Lila will play with her sister on the floor, but most of the time Lila plays and reads in her playroom while baby will kick in her pack-in-play, have tummy time, hang out in her bouncer, or I'll hold her while we watch Lila play.

After that, it's nap time for BOTH girls!! This is our new accomplishment!! Alli's afternoon naps used to be all over the place and only about 30-45 minutes long when I was laying her down in her crib. She used to HATE being swaddled, but doesn't mind it so much anymore, so I tried swaddling her and putting her in the swing just to see how long I could get. Well,  I had to wake her up after 3.5 hours because it was 6 o'clock. The same thing happened the next day also, so that is what I do now if I need her to take a long nap. I don't want her to only get used to napping in her swing, so I have been switching off, but it's so nice for both girls to take such long naps so that I can actually get dinner made or laundry done!

The absolute BEST part about our routine though is the fact that BOTH girls are out for the night no later than 8:30! We put Lila in her bed between 7:30 and 8, and Alli can't hardly keep her eyes open past 8:30.  When Lila was Alli's age, her bedtimes were still all over the place, and most of the time were as late as 11pm. I'm so thankful that Alli is such a good baby and a great sleeper!!

As a mom, I'm still having to constantly adjust to everyone's (including my own, which is hard for me to do sometimes!) schedules, but I'm really liking where we are right now! :)

What's a blog post without some pictures too...here ya go!

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