Schedules

I haven't had time to write an 8-month post. I've been so super-busy, and haven't had help with the babies recently, which is a curse and a blessing together. They're so wonderful and funny and sweet and adorable and exhausting and busy and cranky and so on. I thought I'd write a bit about our daily schedule, as much as we have one.

6:30 am - babies get up, give or take 15 minutes. Turtle used to always get up first, but this week Tadpole has been up first. Whoever gets up first has a little extra cuddle time with Mama. When they are both up, they get their diapers changed and they eat anywhere from 3 to 6 ounces.

6:45-8 am - play time. They have tons of toys, and now they like to walk around holding onto our fingers. They also like their leapfrog musical table, although I am still coveting a play table I saw at a friend's house, which was older and less electronic. A recent favorite game was emptying the sock basket one pair at a time. We read board books (they're gradually getting better and being patient with reading), do a simple wood puzzle (well, they UNdo it), and play with their giant basket of toys.

8am - Papi gets up! We all go in and climb on the bed and wake him up. The babies get over-excited and it's not the most relaxing wake up for Papi. We play and chat in bed for 15 minutes, then move back out to the living room while Papi gets dressed.

8:30 - breakfast. We give the kids baby yogurt every morning - more of a habit than anything else.

9-9:15 - go down for a nap. This lasts from 20 minutes to over an hour, depending on how lucky I am. I use white noise machines since our house is under construction and there is often pounding, drilling, sawing, etc. going on. Poor little guys. I usually have to let Turtle cry it out, as no amount of rocking will get him to sleep. Tadpole needs to be rocked to sleep because she won't go to sleep on her own.

10ish - Both babies are usually up. I change their diapers and get them dressed for the day. This is the fluid part of the day. Sometimes we have plans, such as a mom's group or playdate. When it's nice, we might go for a walk. Or we run errands. Or get ready to go out for lunch. Or Grandma arrives to spend the day. Or we go to Papi's office for pizza on Fridays. Getting ready to get out of the house often takes until 11.

The babies usually nap once or twice starting around 1pm, depending on if we're out and about, or stuck at home. Sometimes I have to put them in their carseats and rock them to sleep because they won't fall asleep in their cribs. Nap time is still a major struggle at our house. The afternoon times are completely random, and they don't always nap together. When I'm at home, I try to synchronize things. Then when they're awake, we play, practice walking around the house, go for walks, or run errands.

The routine resumes again around 6pm.

6-6:20pm - Papi arrives from work, and the babies get really excited. It's very sweet. The one major drawback of staying home all day with them is that they never get THAT excited to see me.

6:30pm - baby dinner time. We eat a variety of things, either a homemade vegetable puree, or if I haven't had time to make something, we eat jarred baby food. Sometimes we mix it up with some fruit or fruit yogurt for dessert. Turtle is on a bit of a strike right now and will only eat sweet foods. I'm attempting to mix other veggies with sweet potato just to get him to eat.

6:45pm - watch music videos on you..tube. Yes, seriously. We watch a combination of Italian songs with animated videos, the Lion Sleeps Tonight video with the hippo (know what I'm talking about?), some Sesame Street music videos (our favorites are Feist and Jason Mraz), and the Gummy Bear techno song.

7ish pm - if it's a bath night, we usually start baths at this point. If it's not a bath night, we watch a few more videos

7:20pm - start getting ready for bed. Put on night-time diapers, a butt-load (literally) of diaper cream, pajamas, and sleep sacks. Babies get fluoride drops for their teeth.

7:30 pm - we take the babies to their rooms, feed them, and put them in bed. On good nights, they go right to sleep. On ok nights, they cry for less than 10 minutes and fall asleep. On the occasional bad night, they cry and cry, and we try to feed them, soothe them, whatever. They of course always eventually fall asleep, but those bad nights are rough.

They do sometimes sleep through until 6:30, but Tadpole usually wakes up once between 4 and 5:30, and either of them occasionally wake up once anytime between 10 and 3. I could do a whole post on sleep ... maybe I will. Because it's rough, even when it gets better.

And that is my life right now. It's not very exciting, but I'm happy!