Do you have a schedule? Not a rigid schedule but a plan for every day? Things have been really messed up time wise for some time now and I think it's caused some stress. Now that Alex is older (2 1/2 months) I'm thinking we need a daily plan. Only I haven't figured it out yet.

Do you have a schedule? And what is it?

I usually do. I sit with my dayplanner the night before and list out everything I have to do. I'm a list person, so I tend to have little list all over. It drives Dh crazy.

There are certain days where I stay home, certain days for specific errands,etc...

What about a general schedule?
You know, wake up at XX time? lunch at XX naps.. outside play ? that kind of "schedule". I can't think of what to call it right now..

We have a schedule. Aiden gets up - but that can vary greatly. He eats breakfast. Then, we do whatever errands or tasks. He eats about 11AM. Takes a nap at 1PM, eats at 4:30PM and goes to bed roughly 7:30PM. It's been adjusted since he was younger.... but I know that come 1PM if he is not in his bed, I am in for some serious crank-time.

We have a general schedule, but I didn't sit down and make it up, it just happened this way.

On most days Jackson gets up between 6:30 and 7:30...he gets up has some milk and watches 1/2 hour of TV (so I can have my coffee and wake up fully). After that he has breakfast and we get dressed.

I try and leave the house by 9:00 no matter what. Some days we have planned activities (Kindermusik, playgroups etc.), some days I do errands at that time, and if we have nothing else do do we go for a walk and to the parkor the beach or something. I find that both of us do better to be out and on with our day by about 9:00.

Around 12:30 we have lunch (either out or at home), then after lunch he goes down for his nap. He naps from about 1-4.

After his nap then we either go outside to play for an hour or so, or stay in and play if it is yucky out.

I usually start dinner around 5:30, and Jackson gets to watch another 1/2 or or so of TV at this time, otherwise he wouldn't leave me alone in the kitchen.

Scott gets home between 6-6:30. We eat dinner, the usually go for a walk after dinner around 7:00 (in the summer at least).

We get home around 8, Jackson has a bath then bed around 8:30.

Our routine sort of developed on its own based on Gavin's naps. Right now, it's something like this (the times listed are general):

6:00-6:30am ~~~ Wake up (I try to delay this is much as the boys will allow ;))

6:30 or so ~~~ Jackson's breakfast, Gavin's bottle (yes, he's still drinking them until we finish up the formula :blush1: )

7:30ish ~~~ Gavin's breakfast

We play in our jammies until Gavin takes his morning nap around 9:30 (Jackson and I play while Gav naps, and I also get some chores/cleaning done and eat my breakfast)

11:00ish ~~~ Gavin wakes up, I shower, we get dressed and run errands or go to the park or whatever

12:30-1:00 ~~~ Lunch

1:30-2:00 ~~~ Naptime!! :woo: :lol: I worked it so that both boys take their afternoon nap at the same time (so worth the effort! :aok: ) and I will do a few things around the house, surf around on OUAL, just have my "me" time

3:30-4:00 ~~~ Boys wake up, and we play. Right now, it's really hot outside so we mostly play in the house or we'll run to a store where it's cool and just kind of window shop. Brendon usually gets home sometime after 4:30 or so, depending on how busy he is

5:30-6:00ish ~~~ Dinner

6:30 ~~~ Bath time (every other night), play time

7:00 ~~~ Bedtime for Gavin

7:45 ~~~ Bedtime for Jackson

8:00 - 10:00 ~~~ Adult time! :aok:

Once Gavin drops his morning nap, we'll be able to go out and do more stuff in the morning, which will be nice. :)

We have a routine that has evolved.

6:00 DH wake up/shower/go to work
6:30 I wake up/shower
7:00 Addison wakes up
7:30 Brady wake up/Addison and Brady eat breakfast
8:00 Aubrey wakes up and eats breakfast/I make lists of what we need to do that day or coming up/clean up kitchen/start laundry/kids watch tv-play-get dressed
9:30ish Get out the door
10-12ish Activity/errands
12:30ish Lunch
1:00 Brady/Aubrey naps
3:00 Kids up/play outside/play inside/read books
5:00 Make dinner
6:00 Eat dinner
7:00 Baths
8:00 Bed

I almost always do errands or doing all out "going out" things in the morning. We rarely go out in the afternoon after naptime (unless we have something to do in the evening).

I like to have one day a week where we're home all day. It happens about half the time.

For a while when Brady was younger, he'd take a morning nap around 9:00-11:00 so we'd go out after that and lunch was a bit later. Now that I see what Nichole wrote, our day was just like hers. ;)


Cami

General schedule:

7-8am We get up, have breakfast, hang around.
9am I shower/get dressed, Caroline gets dressed.
Morning - errands, storytime at the library on Tuesday, playing with friends
Noon - lunch
2pm - nap
4-6pm - time outside, playing, bikeriding, etc.
Start preparing dinner at 6pm when DH gets home.
Bedtime at 9pm

School starts next week, so it will be like this:
M/W/F Preschool 9:15-11:15am
T/Th gym class at YMCA 9:30-10am

With only one child, we had more of a routine than a schedule. With two, I had to do more planning. Now dh is in school full time and I'm working more. Dh asked I put together a schedule for us b/c we weren't getting things done that we really wanted to. So I worked very hard on one and listing out everything we do and want to do during the week and each day. Does dh follow it? NO! Oh well!

It still helped me to list everything out and put it down somewhere. Now I have time allotted for chores, meal preparation, exercise (what we were both REALLY missing out on), etc. and even if I don't do it at that exact time, I know it was planned and can work it in at another time. Or if we decide to meet someone at the park, I can just put off what was on the schedule. I'm really glad I did it! He has finals next week and a new schedule after that, so I'll do it again with his new quarter's schedule.

I think the more kids you have (Esp. if you are interested in homeschooling), the more you need to have some sort of schedule. I only have two and can't stay sane on some days!

Our schedule is a little different b/c I have a school age child, so everything revolves around taking her and picking her up from school.

Kids wake up anywhere between 6am-7.30am (most days I have to wake Emily up at 7.30!) and have breakfast
7.30-8.30am everyone gets dressed (I shower) Once Emily is ready for school they can watch tv until it's time to go
8.45am take her to school
9am -12pm not strict routine. We play, run errands, watch tv, do housework. Whatever we need to do
12pm Lunch
1pm Sam naps and Harry and I play
3pm pick up Emily from school
3.30-5pm play/watch tv after snack
5pm bath
5.30pm cook dinner
6.30pm eat dinner
8pm bed

This is helping me. I guess the problem is we don't really go out! And now that I have 2 kids I'm not at all sure how to do it.
Maybe I'm waiting too late to put Wiggie down for his afternoon nap? He won't nap until like 4pm!!! We don't wake up until like 8-9 tho.. Still, it's late, isn't it? I think I'm feeling overwhelmed with the 2 kids by myself...
I'm going to figure this out, yet! :lol:

Michele-You can do it! My hubby was in Iraq for a year,deployed for 18 months and I had three kids. Somedays you need a routine, and other days,I think, that it's ok not to have a routine. It may give you a bit more sanity if you sat down and wrote out a brief daily schedule. It will help you stay focused on what you need to do and keep your mind at peace.

I'm glad to hear you did it with 3 kids!!! I'm so proud of you! I hope he's home now. And thanks for the advice and encouragement! :nod:

I just feel out of kilter lately. I guess because the baby's so not on a schedule yet! But I think he's on his way!

My hubby is home..thank the good Lord above! Hey, if you need anything let me know. I've been there honey.:justahug:

Thanks. He was in Afghanistan before for a bit but I only had the one baby. They'd also extended the deployment, so it was later on when I found out he was staying longer. I think knowing from the beginning it's a year is harder in my mind. If that makes sense.
Still, I know time passes... you know? I just miss him. He's my best friend.
Anyway, it was nice of you to post and I'm glad your man is home!

Umm I like to have a good nap schedual at least, so both are napping around the same time, then I can at least sew or clean.

No rigid schedule here. I breastfeed on cue and try not to be too busy and try not to be too bored either.
We have somewhat of a routine though, which flows around my needs and my son's.
Wake up, play, eat breakfast, play, bathe, play, maybe do some errands or go to a dr. appt. or visit a friend, eat lunch, play, daddy comes home, play, cook dinner, play, get ready for bed, and time alone for mom while baby and dad sleep.
Play is loosely defined as anything my son or I want to do for fun, reading books, surfing the web, going for walks, etc. He's 1. It is much harder to have a routine with a really young baby as their needs are unpredictable and you are still getting to know what the baby likes to do and when.
I also joined the MOMs club so sometimes I have things on my calendar but not set in stone with a schedule.

We don't have a set schedule because I only have Sarah, but I do try to work things around her patterns.

She's up for the day around 7 am (although this morning it was 6 am)
Breakfast when she's up, I usually just breastfeed her, although sometimes I try and see if she'll eat cereal
Play time
First nap around 8:30 am
Solid meal when she's up, usually around 10 am (cereal and fruit)
Play time
Next nap around 11:30-12:00
Breastfeed when she's up around 1:00ish
Play time
Solid meal around 3 (cereal and veggie, sometimes I'll do meat instead)
Nap when she's done eating (around 3:30)
Play time when she's up from her nap, breastfeed somewhere in between, usually around 5:30-6:00
Start bedtime routine with bath around 6:30-7:00
Breastfeed if she's hungry, read stories, and then she goes in her crib

This, of course, is just a rough estimate. Since I only have one child, I follow her cues. She's tired? Then she goes down for a nap. She's hungry? She eats. :dunno:

Tuesdays, we go to the movies at 11. She usually naps in my arms during the movie. Wednesdays, she spends the morning with my mother while I go to ballet. My mom follows her routines, although she is currently refusing a bottle and usually gets two solid meals in a row from my mom. Thursdays, we hit story time at the library in the morning, and the pool at the gym for family swim time in the afternoon.

We are pretty flexible but try to just stay on a bit of a routine

6am - 8am (depending on the neighbor's darn sprinkler :rolleyes: ) Alyssa wakes up
7:30am Tylor wakes up They both eat breakfast
8:05 am - Tylor out the door for the bus / DH wakes up
9:00am - DH leaves for work
9:05 Alyssa and I get baths/shower and get dressed
9-11:30am - Run errands, go to school (Alyssa Tue and Thur)
11:45 Am - Lunch, TV time
12:30-4pm - Nap time
3:45 - Tylor home from school
4pm - 6pm Play outside while I make dinner
Home work time also for Tylor if he has any
6pm dinner
After dinner we will sometimes go on a walk or play in the back yard or play a game or something
7:30 baths/showers
8pm BED TIME..This had backed up since school started. We were putting them down at 8:30 but with school they are both ready at 8 so I have no problem with that!!!

Jayne

This, of course, is just a rough estimate. Since I only have one child, I follow her cues. She's tired? Then she goes down for a nap. She's hungry? She eats. :dunno:

.

Ahh, I remember the days of only one child when your day could revolve around them and their needs! Bliss!! :lol:

I need to keep track of what they "want" to do better so I can guide them into it working better for me.
My 2 1/2 year old likes to take late naps...