A Day in the Life (of a stay-at-home mom of three kids ages 19 months and under)

The kids and I are settling into a sort of routine now that Aaron has been back at work for a couple weeks. It's starting to feel more "normal" to have three kids and to take care of them during the day without Aaron. This is what a typical day looks like for us...

6:00 AM--Aaron leaves for work. I sleepily say goodbye to him and go back to sleep.

6:45--My alarm goes off.

6:45-7:30--I feed Abel.

7:30--I get Israel up.

7:30-7:45--I feed Israel breakfast while keeping Abel awake.

7:45--I eat my breakfast while continuing to keep Abel awake and entertaining Israel.

8:10--I swaddle Abel and put him down for a nap.

8:15--I send Israel into Ivy's room to get her up. (She laughs so hard when he comes crawling into her room in the morning!)

8:15-8:40--Ivy eats her breakfast. Israel and I sit with her and keep her company.

8:40-9:45--During this hour, the older two kids and I usually go outside and play. (Or if we go on a walk, I use my wrap and take Abel along.)

9:45--I feed Israel a bottle and lay him down for his morning nap.

9:55--I give Ivy a snack in her highchair. I pull her chair into the doorway of the room where I will be feeding Abel.

10:00--I get Abel up from his nap. 

10:00-10:45--I feed Abel. I usually talk to Ivy or read to her while she is eating her snack and I am feeding Abel.

10:45--I lay Ivy down for a morning "nap." Sometimes she sleeps and sometimes she doesn't, but she definitely benefits from some quiet time in her crib each morning.

10:45-11:15--I keep Abel awake by talking to him, playing with him, etc. Sometimes I give him a bath during this time.

11:15--I lay Abel down for a nap.

11:15-11:30-- I have FIFTEEN whole minutes of all three kids sleeping :) I usually unload and reload the dishwasher and finally get a few minutes of peace in the bathroom to get out of my pajamas and get ready for the day. (Finally...after 11:00!)

11:30--I get Israel up from his nap.

11:30-11:45--I feed Israel his lunch.

11:45-12:00--I play with Israel and/or get lunch ready for Ivy and me.

12:00--We get Ivy up from her nap.

12:00-12:30--Ivy and I eat lunch and Israel practices eating some table food with us.

12:30-12:45--I clean up lunch and then play with the older two kids for a little while.

12:45--I get Abel up from his nap.

12:45-1:30--I feed Abel. Ivy does blanket time and Israel does pack 'n' play time in the same room where I am feeding Abel.

1:30-2:00--All four of us usually go outside. Abel sits in the shade and the other two kids and I play with toys or get out their kiddie pool.

2:00--I feed Israel a bottle and then put him down for his afternoon nap.

2:15--Ivy goes down for her afternoon nap.

2:20--Abel goes down for a nap.

2:20-2:45--I usually check email, maybe do dishes or throw a load of laundry in, etc.

2:45-3:45--I almost always take a nap for an hour. It is heavenly.

3:45--I get Abel up from his nap.

3:45-4:30--I feed Abel. This is normally when I read the Bible (it's so much easier to concentrate when the older two kids are sleeping!)

4:30--I get Israel up from his nap.

4:30-4:45--I feed Israel his supper and keep Abel awake.

4:45-5:00--I play with Israel and continue to keep Abel awake.

5:00--I get Ivy up from her nap.

5:10--I put Abel down for a nap.

5:15--AARON COMES HOME :)

5:15-5:45--We eat supper. Israel practices with some table food again.

5:45-7:15--We normally all go outside for the evening. We usually take a walk and sometimes go to the park.

7:15-8:00--I feed Abel and Aaron plays with the other two. Sometimes they take a bath.

8:00--We get the older two kids ready for bed.

8:15--The older two kids go to bed.

8:15-9:00--We have some time to spend with just Abel. (This is definitely his fussiest time of the day, though.)

9:00--Abel goes to bed.

9:00-10:00--Aaron and I finally spend some time together. I also take a shower sometime during this hour, pack Aaron's lunch, and sometimes work on a blog post. I also get Israel's food and bottles ready for the next day.

10:00-10:45--I feed Abel.

10:45--Abel goes back to bed.

11:00--We go to bed.

2:30 or 3:00 AM (approximately)--Abel wakes up.

3:00-3:45 (approximately)-- I feed Abel.

Wow...just typing that out made me tired. :) So that's what a day looks like for me. Some days are different if we have people over or if we go to my parents' house to swim or something like that. But overall, that's a day in my life currently. And even though I feel like I am permanently tired, I wouldn't trade my life for anything.

Sidenote: It might also be noteworthy that in that 24 hour period of time, I spent over 6 hours feeding children (most of those were hours nursing Abel), and I changed 21 diapers. Yes. 21.