Our Daily Routine

Here is a little about a life in the day of the Felkers, family 0f 4. One of my favorite things to look back at in Hudson's baby book is the part where I described what our days were like. It's incredible how much change there is within the first year and how quickly you forgot those days. It can seem monotonous at the time (how many times am I going to put this baby to sleep??), but it does change almost without our realizing it.

Right now (now being the key word) this is what we're doing:

Athan usually wakes up twice in the night, around 1 and 5, to eat. It has become like clockwork. His morning wake up time varies, depending on how long it took him to fall back asleep after the second feeding. He sleeps until around 7-9 in the morning. I try to get up before he does to start getting ready. On a good day, Hudson will sleep until 7:30 and get in bed with us if someone is still in bed. Jay gets Hudson ready for the day and feeds him breakfast if he can(thank goodness for flexible hours and a small town without a long commute!!). After Jay goes to work, it's playtime and naptime for the boys. It seems as though I spend a good portion of my day trying to get Athan to sleep. He naps about 4 times a day. We've attempted a 3 hours schedule of eat/wake/sleep, but we've really just made our own version. More on that later. He eats for a total of 7 times a day. That is fairly standard.

While I'm working with Athan, Hudson is great at entertaining himself. His imaginiative spirit has continued to grow as I've been forced to spend less time with him recently. I love overhearing him talk and describe his play. He has gotten interested in the Cars movie/story, so he enjoys acting those scenes out with his cars. It's wonderful. He does have some of the actual characters, but mostly he just plays pretend with regular matchbox cars. I love it and really would rather he do that than have the real ones. As good as he is at playing by himself, Hudson still gets bored and wants my attention. We've increased our TV watching for that reason. I normally try to keep that to 1 hour a day, but it's a little more right now. I'm okay with that. Hudson also loves to play outside, but he really wants someone else to play with him. Sometimes he'll just put himself in his swing and wait for me to come out there to push him. That always looks so pitiful when he's waiting on me.

Back to Athan. He can stay awake for about 1 hour happily, and then he's ready to start working toward a nap. During his awake time, we walk around, lay on a blanket, run errands, or go on a walk. When it's time for a nap, it can take up to 1 hour for him to get to sleep. Can you see why Hudson gets bored?? We're working on that and have seen some recent improvements with Athan. Jay comes home for lunch when he can to help me juggle that time period of fixing lunch/cleaning up/going down for a nap for Hudson. It always seems that Athan needs to get to sleep during that time as well, so an extra hand is much appreciated. It also still allows me to make that time with Hudson enjoyable. The afternoons are slower as Athan usually takes a longer nap at some point, and Hudson rests as well. I try to get some quality time with whoever wakes up first. They're both usually happy then. Jay comes home a little after 5, and we just trade off boys for the evening as we cook, eat dinner, clean-up, play, bathe and then put them to bed. Hudson goes to bed around 8:30 and take forever to fall asleep!! Another point we're working on. Athan usually falls asleep around 9-10. This, of course, looks different on nights when we're out of the house.

I've had a lot of strong feelings about trying to put Athan on a schedule/routine since he was born. I really felt that would be best for us now that we have two children, but as I have gotten in to the reality of bringing home a unique baby with his own temperament and preferences, I have found myself becoming more upset trying to put him on a schedule instead of just enjoying this sweet, fleeting time. I've taken what knowledge I can from other "experts" and tried to incorporate what works into our family. I want to enjoy my children, and this is working for us right now.

One thing I did take from a baby wise mom "professional"...a daily cleaning task. I have enjoyed putting myself on a schedule and accomplishing one tangible thing each day other than just laundry. Jay said to me recently that he doesn't know how I can keep the house so clean. I told him I think that's part of what keeps me sane. I know that my job is to care for our boys, and that is the most important thing I do each day. Still, I enjoy seeing some fruits of my labor and that often comes in looking at a clean house. Strange, isn't it?? :)