A lot of you have asked for our schedule…what our sleep schedule looks like, and just our day to day. So, I’m going to write it out for you guys! It’s nothing fancy, and probably kind of boring. We don’t do much right now, and a lot of the times the kids are just playing with each other if we aren’t eating or going somewhere.
So, I’ll start with our day to day schedule:
7-7:30 Wake up and start breakfast
7:30-8/8:30 Breakfast + devotional (right now we’re reading from one called Little Girls Bible Storybook for Mothers and Daughters)
8:30 Get ready for the day (potty, get dressed, brush teeth, do hair, etc). A lot of days, we’ve also been staying in jammies, but everyone at least has to go potty if nothing else!
9 Chores then free play. The girls help me unload the dishwasher, and then have to go make their bed + tidy their room. After those couple of chores, they usually all go upstairs in the playroom and play while I do morning chores (laundry, vacuuming the breakfast crumbs, etc). I usually get ready during this time too. Normally there will be a squabble or two to break up during all of this, so it’s not always easy!
10/10:30 Snack time (or 2nd/3rd breakfast)
11 More play time…either outside or back upstairs if they were having a lot of fun with what they were doing. Usually Winnie (my 20 month old) is downstairs with me and Thatcher while the big girls play by themselves. And I try to fit in a short workout if I didn’t go on a run in the early morning before Kevin starts working.
11:30/12:30 Lunch time
12:30/1 Nap time and quiet time (this is where I also try to sneak in a little work for IG or the blog)
3 Quiet time is over, so if the girls had a peaceful quiet time, they can watch 1 or 2 TV shows a couple times a week
4 Everyone is up from nap, so there’s more play or a light snack if I haven’t started dinner
5/5:30 Dinner and family time
6/6:30 Everyone starts getting ready for bed
7/7:30 Bedtime
So, this is the general outline of how our day goes. We also have little things we do every week like go to the chiropractor or the odd dance class they’ve done this summer. Sometimes we use the morning time to get out of the house to go to a friend’s , the park, or the store to just get out! That’s also the easiest time to get the baby out of the house right now. We’re also lucky to have my parents close by, so sometimes they’ll take the two older girls to the pool during quiet time some days.
Our quiet time looks like this now:
-Separate quiet times in different rooms for 30 minutes to an hour
-Together quiet time for an hour or two if they had a peaceful separate quiet time
-And then, if everything went well, they can watch 1 or 2 TV shows a couple times a week.
We’ve learned to LOVE incentives in this house!
As we progress towards the school year, I imagine we’ll do our schoolwork after breakfast or the first playtime. We’ll have to see how it works out! I may have to do some stuff with Hallen during quiet if it’s just too busy with everyone around.
Now, on to the sleep schedule for Thatcher. This has just recently changed, because he’s going through some major sleep issues now, which is common around 3-4 months since his brain development is changing. I’ve learned to embrace it this time around. He went from taking four solid naps a day that were anywhere from 1-3 hours to four naps that were 30-45 minutes! And he was Mr. Crankypants from not sleeping. So I’ve learned that I can nurse him back to sleep during the nap as he learns to sleep through his sleep cycles. I know it won’t last forever!
So here is his 3-4 month schedule. I’m not as strict about it as I was with my first two, because I simply can’t be. I have older kids who don’t want to be tied down to a baby’s nap schedule. So, some days, he’ll get 30 minute naps on the go. It’s not perfect, but it works. And other days, the schedule looks totally off, but it’s so easy to maneuver the times once you lay the foundational routine, which for us is eat, play, sleep. Like today, it’s 3pm, and he’s still napping. I’m totally okay with that, because our morning was off with the girls’ dance classes, so he didn’t get normal length naps. Whenever he gets up, I’ll just do the same routine. He’ll nurse, then play, then sleep. I know his awake time is about 90 minutes right now, and he’s great with that!
7 Wakeup and nurse, then play (usually all on his Lovevery mat, and once he starts getting bored, he’ll go into the bouncer or usually Hallen will start holding him)
8:30 Nap
10 Nurse then play
11:30 Nap
1 Nurse then play
2:30 Nap
4 Nurse then play
5:30 Catnap
6 Nurse then play
7/8 Bedtime
10/11 Dreamfeed
Thatcher is still waking at night once or twice to feed, but he’ll go right back to sleep. We’re cosleeping right now, and I’m not sure when I’ll move him to his own room, because I love sleeping next to him so much. It’s comforting to both me and him.
Also, no day is EVER a perfect schedule, so I don’t want you to read this post and think our day is just honky dory and everyone is playing so nicely in their allotted time for play and sleep and quiet time. It’s definitely not like that! It’s just the general outline we do our day by. So many days, it’s still a struggle! Trust me. Kids are kids, and are learning to use their voice and voicing LOUDLY their desires. So, we balance it out. A quiet time is a must, but some days, I’ll go on a walk with the girls instead, because I know they’re craving it…time without babies around or a little sister knocking their creations over.
Even with a general outline, we still hit lots of bumps during the day, because everyone is learning their how to control their big emotions…so we may all be losing it during quiet time instead of it being quiet! You get the idea…we’re normal. We like a schedule, but none of us are perfect.
I’ve also gotten questions about how to do independent play throughout the day. Now, I’ll preface this by saying some days are easier than others. Some days, my kids just want to be around me all the time.
But what I’ve learned from over the past year is that I need to have independent play with them at first to show them how they can do things themselves. For instance, magnet tiles…I’ll help them build a fence or house or castle, but let their imaginations go after I plant the seed of something to build. After you do that for a while with different types of open ended toys, they learn! This usually means our play room is a disaster at the end of the day, because they use all the blocks, tiles, baskets, etc to build some sort of structure for their dolls. We’re learning how to clean with happy and cheerful hearts now haha!
If you have any questions about either schedule, just drop a comment 🙂
Kristina
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