![\"\"](\"http:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/img_2552.jpg\" "\\"A")
<\/p>\nI keep noticing that I’m really pleased with life these days. It could just be the lovely weather we have been having here in Chicago lately, but I think it has more to do with the flexible routine our family has fallen into. Plus getting some more sleep. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
p{color:gray}. Photo: Anything but routine, this is a special occasion: Rosie’s first-ever feeding from a bottle. Papa does the honors on April 10.<\/p>\n
Things felt a little sketchy there for the first few weeks of Rosie’s life. But thanks to the “encouragement of many of you”:\/news\/2008\/harder-the-second-time\/, we’ve figuring out nursing lying down and have been getting a lot more rest at night, which makes the rest of the day much more manageable. Lucy seems totally used to having Rosie around now and continues to enjoy “holding her”:\/news\/2008\/kisses-just-hungry\/ any time we’ll allow it. I’ve even been able to cook a few meals! It helps that now I know what the shape of our day looks like:<\/p>\n
*6:30 Papa wakes up with Lucy.* Isn’t he just the best husband? Mama and Rosie get to sleep in a bit.<\/p>\n
*7:15 Mama and Rosie wake up.* At this point, our morning routine consists of some combination of pumping (I’m trying to build up a stash), eating breakfast, nursing, and showering. Often Lucy will get to watch a few “They Might Be Giants videos”:http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/B000V5YOZ6\/octothorppres-20 while all of these things get done.<\/p>\n
*9:00 Mama nurses Rosie.* During Rosie’s second breakfast, Mama and Lucy watch selections from “_Mary Poppins_”:http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/B0002VEPRQ\/octothorppres-20 together. Or we might nurse in the “Fun Room”:\/news\/2008\/she-needs-a-cordless\/ while Lucy plays with her “train set”:\/news\/2008\/red-engine.<\/p>\n
*10:00 An outing.* Rosie is happily full on milk, so we take the opportunity to get some grocery shopping done or go to the park. Rosie usually snoozes away in the “Baby Bj\u00c3\u00b6rn”:\/news\/2007\/fashion-fur\/.<\/p>\n
*11:30 Home again.* Depending on the hunger level of the infant, we’ll engage in some combination of lunch preparation, nursing, and household chores. <\/p>\n
*12:15 Lunch.* Papa emerges from the basement office to eat with us.<\/p>\n
*1:15 Lucy’s nap.* Papa reads three books to Lucy and puts her down for her nap. Mama and Rosie cozy up for more nursing and snoozing (on Rosie’s part) and some reading, computer work, or napping (on Mama’s part). <\/p>\n
*3:00 Lucy wakes up.* Rosie often will sleep for awhile longer while Lucy and Mama get a snack, play, and perhaps work on some chores.<\/p>\n
*3:45 Rosie wakes up.* Mama nurses Rosie while she and Lucy watch another video together. Mama is starting to memorize entire scenes from this classic film.<\/p>\n
*4:30 Possible afternoon walk.* Sometimes we have enough time here to go to the park, sometimes we don’t even have time for a walk. Dinner preparation has to happen in here, too — still working on smoothing out snags in this time slot.<\/p>\n
*5:45 Supper.* Papa joins us for another family meal.<\/p>\n
*6:15 Bath and bed for Lucy.* Papa takes care of Lucy’s bedtime routine while Mama tidies up the kitchen and nurses the baby.<\/p>\n
*7:00 Lucy in bed.* Mama nurses the baby on and off for the rest of the evening. Jon and Ann squeeze in work-time, reading, movies, and some ice cream sundaes during these hours.<\/p>\n
*10:00 Everyone to bed!* Night night!<\/p>\n
Of course, it doesn’t always go quite like this. It gets awkward sometimes to nurse Rosie during meals, and I never knew I could bathe Lucy with Rosie in the Baby Bj\u00c3\u00b6rn (which happened once when Jon was out of town). We are watching rather more video entertainment than I’d like, but I’m just glad we have some kind of structure to our day. Everyone seems to end up fed, clothed, somewhat rested, and well-loved. <\/p>\n
The part that isn’t readily apparent from this sketch of our routine is the incredible amount of planning that goes into each outing. I’m still getting used to the long list of questions that need to be considered before we exit the door: <\/p>\n
* has Lucy had a diaper change?
\n* has Rosie had a diaper change?
\n* do I need to pee?
\n* did I pack a snack for Lucy?
\n* do I need a snack of my own?
\n* has Rosie been fed?
\n* do we have extra diapers and wipes for each girl?
\n* do I have some kind of baby carrier with me?
\n* is everyone adequately dressed for the weather?
\n* does Lucy have her shoes on?
\n* do I have the grocery list?
\n* do I need to return anything to the store where we are going?
\n* do I need to bring any coupons with me?
\n* do I need to bring cloth shopping bags with me?
\n* can I spare ten seconds to put lipgloss on for my big outing of the day?<\/p>\n
It takes some brain power to juggle all of these details, but I can tell I’m starting to get the hang of it. Jon went for a day-trip to Madison yesterday, and unlike “the last time”:\/news\/2008\/boydling-watch-april-4-2008\/ he took the trip, caring for the girls by myself felt like a healthy challenge, not a complete disaster.<\/p>\n
I’m glad to be enjoying these days more. With two adorable girls, I want to soak up every minute of it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I keep noticing that I’m really pleased with life these days. It could just be the lovely weather we have been having here in Chicago lately, but I think it has more to do with the flexible routine our family has fallen into. Plus getting some more sleep.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kids"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1796\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}