6:00 (or sometimes earlier) - Finn or Patrick usually wake up - sometimes at the same time. Calan will wake up around 6 or 6:30 am as well. I get all 3 boys downstairs (or put Calan with Daddy in bed to watch a show on Sprout). Feed Finn and Patrick their bottles (8 oz) and give Calan his sippy with milk. If he's downstairs with us he watches a show while I feed them.
7:00 or 7:30 - breakfast for Mama and Calan. Usually oatmeal and egg whites for us both! He sometimes requests a muffin, so I'll give him a Vitatop, which is basically just a 100 calorie muffin top, instead of oatmeal. He gets applesauce too sometimes. Patrick and Finn sit in their seats at the table and drool over our food. Today, I fed them some rice cereal, since they had eaten at about 5:30 am and they were acting hungry again.
7:30 - Niki (our nanny) arrives and Daddy leaves for work. He usually doesn't get up until 7:15, which is fine b/c mornings are not his thing and we like to be cheery in the AM :) I go upstairs to start my work day around 8.
8 - 9 Usually P or F go for a nap about now...maybe at the same time but not always. If it's Tuesday or Thursday, Calan goes to Heart and Hands play based pre-school. If it's Monday or Wednesday, we have a helper come for Niki. This summer it has been Nathalie, our 13 year old neighbor. Niki's sister, Shelby, who is expecting a baby in December will help us when Nathalie goes back to school in 2 weeks.
The remainder of the morning is spent playing outside with Calan or taking a walk to the park. Usually with the double stroller and Niki will wear P or F in the carrier. The boys eat 8 oz every 3 hours and have rice cereal in the morning and at dinner...but they don't really eat that much of it yet...still trying to get the hang of eating! Finn sooo wants to be big and eat regular food, but the poor guy just gets frustrated that it's not going down fast enough!
11:30 - noon - lunch for Calan and then his nap. He is still in his crib, so if I'm working from home (Monday or Friday usually), then I'll take him up to his room and read him a story and lay him down w/his monkey. He uses a pacifier ONLY at naps and bedtime, and it's been that way since he was 1. He doesn't associate it with the day time, so I don't know if we'll take that away soon. If I'm not here, Niki or Nathalie put him down. He sleeps about 2.5 hours these days!
P and F have been napping in short spurts lately...about 4 45 minute naps/day....wish they'd combine 2 of them for a 1.5 hour nap each time! They are rocked to sleep. They are no longer swaddled (F-never really liked it, so we quit at around 3 months, P-really liked it and we quit around 4.5 months).
3:30 - 4 If I'm out of the house seeing clients, I usually get back around this time and if Calan's at school I pick him up between 3:30 and 4. I let Niki go around 4. I really enjoy my time w/all 3, but it's WORK trying to get them all pacified enough so I can make dinner/do stuff around the house. We sometimes go on a walk around this time.
5:00 - 7:00 The witching hour. This is when all 3 have needs that must be fulfilled at the same time! So we have to have 2 people here at the WH! We feed all 3 (and us) around 5:30 or 6. Then we bathe P & F every other night, Calan every night b/c he gets DIRTY with all the playing he does. If it's bath night for all 3, we go upstairs around 6:30 to start the process of bathing them. If it's just Calan, we usually wait until after P & F go to bed (around 6:30 or 7) and then bathe him in our tub.
7:00 - 7:30 Calan gets bathed and then we watch Kipper (a short, british cartoon) for about 10 minutes. He tells us when he's tired by getting off our bed and walking to his room. :) To put the little guys to bed, we hold them while we watch Calan's show until they look tired and then we take one of them to rock them for about 2 or 3 minutes (on a good day) to put them down. Then we do the same thing with the other one. Calan picks out a story in his room and I sing him a song and put him in his bed. He usually talks himself to sleep or plays around for a few minutes and then nods off by 7:45 ish.
Then, after they're all in bed, I finish up the chores and FINALLY sit for a minute, before I go to bed around 9! All that work makes me tired! :)
