Philosophical Monday: Routines and Other Little Things
So when I was trying to figure out a schedule that would allow me to spend time with Betty, write, run Fierce and Nerdy, and if possible, spend some time with my husband when he came home at night, I didn’t find very many resources. They all seemed designed for complete stay-at-home moms or work-away-from-home moms. And the few part-time schedules that I did find, assumed that your partner worked a regular nine to five.
So here’s what I’ve managed to cobble together after 6 months of write-at-home motherhood. And I’m sure it’ll change when Betty decides that she no longer wants to take a nap every 2 to 3 hours. Maybe this will help other newish moms who are looking to get back to their writing. Also, if you don’t have anyone to help you with the baby during the day, I’d suggest just writing whenever your baby is napping. To make the most of your time, identify something you want to work on every morning, and stick to just that. I used to be the queen of multi-tasking, but now I’ve found out the hard way that if I try to multi-task during nap time, then I don’t get anything done, which only leads to lots of frustration.
7am – 11am: CH takes care of Betty, while I exercise, eat breakfast, shower, promote FaN, and answer emails. Betty usually naps from 9 -11am. I’d read a lot of schedules that suggested handing off the baby when your partner got home from work, so that you can take care of other stuff, but obviously that wouldn’t work for me, so I pushed that up to the morning time, which is good, b/c it’s the only quality time many days that CH gets with Betty.
11am – 2pm: Betty gets up and I feed her, play with her, and take her for a walk to either the grocery store, the post office or the library. It’s a nice way to get exercise, show Betty the world outside our house, and listen to audiobooks.
2pm-5pm: MIL takes care of Betty and I write. Betty usually takes a nap from 2pm to 4pm.
5pm – 8pm: I feed Betty dinner, play with her, eat my own dinner, then give her a bath before putting her to bed.
8pm -9pm: I work on the next day’s issue of FaN.
9pm-11pm: I spend time with CH — usually in front of the television, but I think we have a date night coming up soon…
So there you have it. That’s what I do all day. The bohemian in me is surprised that I’ve been able to stick to a schedule — even one as flexible as this. But an interesting thing happened while trying to create a routine for Betty to get her on a consistent eating and napping schedule, I discovered that I responded well to having a routine myself. And now we’re both thriving. Go figure.
But I know we have a lot of creative moms that read this blog. What’s your routine? Let us know in the comments!
The babies don't have a routine yet, and until we got full time childcare last week my schedule was completely unpredictable and out of control. Typical day right now, only typical as of a few days ago:
midnight-4 a.m.: sleep, DH is on duty until about 1 a.m. then babies usually sleep; when one or both don't sleep, I'm on duty from 1-4
4-9 a.m.: baby duty, pump a couple of times while reading blogs, eat, do the bottles and other dishes from that shift and from the prior evening that we were too tired to do
9 a.m.-noon: babysitter cares for babies while I sleep
noon-4 p.m.: work, pump a couple of times, run errands, eat — anything that needs to get done has to occur during this block or it probably won't happen
4 p.m.-9 p.m.: babies and pumping, hopefully eat something — my son is usually awake and fussy for most of that time, so not much else gets done
9 p.m.-midnight: hang out with DH a bit, usually doing joint child care; at some point during that block I pass out and he has sole child care duty
I'm busy all day but somehow almost nothing gets done. I guess caring for two babies counts as something, but even when I think I'm making progress on other stuff, my To Do list never seems to get any shorter.
The babies don't have a routine yet, and until we got full time childcare last week my schedule was completely unpredictable and out of control. Typical day right now, only typical as of a few days ago:
midnight-4 a.m.: sleep, DH is on duty until about 1 a.m. then babies usually sleep; when one or both don't sleep, I'm on duty from 1-4
4-9 a.m.: baby duty, pump a couple of times while reading blogs, eat, do the bottles and other dishes from that shift and from the prior evening that we were too tired to do
9 a.m.-noon: babysitter cares for babies while I sleep
noon-4 p.m.: work, pump a couple of times, run errands, eat — anything that needs to get done has to occur during this block or it probably won't happen
4 p.m.-9 p.m.: babies and pumping, hopefully eat something — my son is usually awake and fussy for most of that time, so not much else gets done
9 p.m.-midnight: hang out with DH a bit, usually doing joint child care; at some point during that block I pass out and he has sole child care duty
I'm busy all day but somehow almost nothing gets done. I guess caring for two babies counts as something, but even when I think I'm making progress on other stuff, my To Do list never seems to get any shorter.
The babies don't have a routine yet, and until we got full time childcare last week my schedule was completely unpredictable and out of control. Typical day right now, only typical as of a few days ago:
midnight-4 a.m.: sleep, DH is on duty until about 1 a.m. then babies usually sleep; when one or both don't sleep, I'm on duty from 1-4
4-9 a.m.: baby duty, pump a couple of times while reading blogs, eat, do the bottles and other dishes from that shift and from the prior evening that we were too tired to do
9 a.m.-noon: babysitter cares for babies while I sleep
noon-4 p.m.: work, pump a couple of times, run errands, eat — anything that needs to get done has to occur during this block or it probably won't happen
4 p.m.-9 p.m.: babies and pumping, hopefully eat something — my son is usually awake and fussy for most of that time, so not much else gets done
9 p.m.-midnight: hang out with DH a bit, usually doing joint child care; at some point during that block I pass out and he has sole child care duty
I'm busy all day but somehow almost nothing gets done. I guess caring for two babies counts as something, but even when I think I'm making progress on other stuff, my To Do list never seems to get any shorter.