Routines. For those new frustrated parents or parents of 2 or more!

With 2 boys, I DEFINITELY have my morning routine and bed routine. Pretty much down pat too.

I'd wondered before I had Justin if I was even going to have energy for 2 boys. SO....I prayed for it! And you know what? I got it! God WAS and is STILL good!! And faithful!

I tried to nurse both my boys. But it didn't work out. With Joshua, he was VERY impatient for food. With Justin, he was too sleepy to eat!! Even the nurse in the hospital got upset because she couldn't HELP me HELP HIM nurse! She tried everything. It's not like he'd nurse for 10 minutes, then go to sleep. He fell asleep in the first 10 seconds. AND wouldn't wake up! The nurse had to resort to flopping a cold washcloth on him, then she ended up stripping him down to his diaper, but it didn't work. I tried here at home, and me and him just couldn't get on the same "nursing" page.

I finally just went over to formula.

Anyway, I slid off my topic of morning routines. agh. This next part may be more interesting to mothers who are expecting soon or have already had their child and is frustrated not knowing how to get a routine going whether they have one or two! It's by no means perfect. And I'll probably change up a little once Justin is a few months older, but it's a major start!

Justin eats a couple times between midnight and 6am. Most of the time I keep a journal of when he eats (that way I don't forget the last time he's eaten) and normally its every 3 hours. I make sure I start getting the bottle ready when he starts cueing me but before he wakes up totally. When I do this he keeps his eyes closed, but drinks and goes back to sleep. If he wakes up totally, I'm in for a loonngg night. If he wakes up with his clothes wet, I give him part of his milk, change him, and then let him drink the rest. Its easier for him to go back to sleep. When he wakes up for his 3rd a.m. feeding which is around 6:30 or 7am, I feed him and then put him in his bouncy seat and take him with me to the bathroom where I can get my shower. (A shower helps get me going for the day!)

Many times I've already planned my clothes for the day. Not EVERY time, but alot of times. I dress in the bathroom, put on my makeup, then take him and change his diaper and clothes so he's ready for the day. Most of the time, Joshua wakes up early. If he does, I go ahead and dress him on our bed. Most of the time, I have both boys on the bed and they entertain each other. Now they are both ready for the day.

Somewhere in here I may grab an arm load of laundry and get it going or empty the dishwasher.

I take them both to the kitchen where Justin goes back in his bouncy seat or his exersaucer. I get Joshua's breakfast ready which could be oatmeal, or french toast, or pancakes. Stuff like that. If he's REALLY hungry, I give him a few cheerios to munch on until I finish his breakfast.

I pull his highchair in front of our french doors that goes out the back. He can watch the birds that come to the birdfeeder that "PaPa" gave him.

By this time, Justin is getting tired of playing and he wants to lie down. So I put him in his crib (previously Joshua's crib) and he sleeps. While Joshua eats, sometimes I eat with him. OR I'm finishing washing and preparing Justin's bottles for the day. If I'm doing THAT, I'm still talking to him.

So most of the time, we are all ready for the day by 8:30 or 9am.

Sometimes we get out in the mornings. Mornings TOTALLY work best for us to get out because they are fresh and in a better mood. By afternoon, they want their naps! AND I"m normally into washing and cooking (or in this 1 rare case, catching up on my blog!).

In between washing and cooking, Joshua might want to "dance." So I grab him up and we dance!! And also in between washing and cooking is teaching Josh his A-B-Cs and 1-2-3s. Sometimes we listen to music and sometimes he watches his airplanes/helicopters DVD. He learns about them. We also work on his colors and shapes. So yeah, we take time to have fun and learn! He's such a sponge!!

I start working on supper between 3:30-4:30pm. If Joshua has NOT had a nap, I make sure he's eating by 5pm. I learned this when he started falling asleep eating. And supper is NOT a good time to fall asleep since we start getting him ready for bed by 7:30 and 8:30pm. We do want him to fall asleep easy and NOT want to stay up all night.

But in a regular case, he eats with us by 5:30-6pm.

I get Justin changed into his sleeper before 7pm. He's ready for bed.

While I'm cleaning in the kitchen, most of the time, my hubby is playing with Joshua.

When 8pm gets here, I give Josh a bath, brush his teeth, put his pjs on and off to bed we go with about 5 books!

When we finish the books, we pray and I tell him I'll be back to check on him in a few minutes. We do "gishes and hogs" before I go. (Kisses and hugs, that is.) By the time I get back to him, he's asleep. If Justin needs feeding, my hubby does that while I'm putting Josh to bed. But most of the time, he doesn't need one until AFTER Josh goes to sleep.

I prepare all the bottles for the night, try to get the kitchen in some sort of good shape, fix my hubby's lunch for the next day, and THEN I sit down.

If I sit down anytime before this, that's TROUBLE! Because that means I fall asleep!

I plan to write about our transition from crib to big boy bed. But that's another post.

Also, for more "routine" information, go to flylady.net.