Laundry - We have A LOT of laundry. We make about 1.25 loads a day of clothes & baby stuff daily. Every other Tuesday our cleaner changes all the bedsheets (yay!) which adds another few loads. With laundry, I start a load every morning, first thing. At some point in the day I get it out to the drier, and at some point I get it back in the house. A successful day ends with a clean load of laundry in a basket in the baby room, ready to be put away during morning kid time or first nap. Some days I need to do two loads, which I plan when Andy is home or when I think I can start the first load at 6am. A wash here takes 2 hours, the drier takes 2 hours, and it takes me 1-2 hours to get my 15 minutes of time to transfer between the two as our drier is in the garage and the washer is in the kitchen. It;s 9am and the second load is in, the first load is in the drier, and with any luck I may get both loads put away today (but I am fine with a pile of clean laundry in the house if not put away)
Sleep - Time tracking is helping me alleviate my sleep panic. Right now I go to bed just after we put the babies to bed, between 7:30 and 8:00. Babies seem to be moving towards one feed a night (maybe?? It's only happened the last two nights though, so this may be way premature) which is between 2 and 3 am. Sometimes they are up more, sometimes not. Even with some nights of babies up a few times, I seem to be averaging 9 hours of sleep a night (again, a very small sample size! Monday to Thursday!) If this is the case, I have no argument against getting up a bit earlier to try and wake before the babies. Normally sleep comes first for me, and I never want to sacrifice needed sleep for exercise or me time, but 9 hours is more than I need. 7.5 to 8 hours average is fine. If this trend continues I'll be getting up before babies routinely soon. Fingers crossed!
Planning - I will probably never be able to use an Ashley Shelley planner again because it will remind me of baby times, but I'm enjoying writing down a small structure to my day. The babies reliably nap for 40 minutes at a time (sometimes/rarely more) so if I have planned to do something in that time I can get it done right away. If I put them down for a nap and then try to figure out what to do then I've already missed my chance.
Here's a recent planner page:
Movement - I've done 6 exercise classes in February so far! My classes are postnatal recovery, core and pelvic floor focused, and 15-25 minutes long (online) and I am loving moving again. I also attended reformer pilates class again. Yay excercise!
House - At night the standard is dishwasher run, lights off, doors locked, table wiped down. It's the minimum viable effort for keeping the house functioning. Someday I will sweep, someday we will hoover, someday the counters will be clear every night again. Today is not that day.
Are you routines working for you right now? Have you started any new routines recently?
Wow, I am impressed by these routines.. seriously. They sound similar to my pace with 2 children!
ReplyDeleteSomehow I still get by doing just 3 loads of laundry a week, but I know that will change when baby#3 arrives. I am also doing my Momma Strong (an online program) consistently and it has amazing benefits (for me at least) in terms of feeling strong.
I am also showering in the morning which has been great. My kids are old enough to play together safely while I do this and it's been a game changer. I have awful bed head and I feel like I've been to the spa every morning.
You are doing such a great job! That sounds like real structure and real, doable accomplishments daily. So happy you have been able to find some time to exercise -- I know exercise always makes me feel so much better about life, so I'm glad (and impressed) you are able to fit it in.
ReplyDeleteSweeping and hoovering are overrated.