Hey y’all!
So, life has been pretty cray around here! With Andres’ birth, a NICU stay, the holidays, and Mr. R going back to work, it feels like every day is a new adjustment to our new normal. But now, I think we are finally in a groove. It’s the 4 of us at home now, for at least 4 more weeks of my leave (I may end up taking a few more weeks, though!)
I’m not going to lie, for a while the thought of life with 3 under 4 made me want to hide in a closet and let them watch color videos all day. But really, it hasn’t been all that bad! I know it’s still early for Andrés and he is still in that sleepy, easy newborn phase. That being said, though, it’s kind of like life as usual a few breastfeeding sessions throughout the day. Andrés is SUCH a good baby (I am literally knocking on wood as I type this) and hardly ever cries unless I am bathing him or changing his diaper, so he’s not an issue. The older two are so obsessed with him that they want to be by my side all day as I feed or change him, and tummy time is everyone’s favorite time of day. They absolutely go nuts when he is awake and Anissa loves for us to tell him stories.
So far, we’ve gotten into a little routine already, but I’m sure it will change as we try to get out (#yeahright) and Baby Boy grows a little more/sleep patterns change. Right now, the NICU has him on a pretty good 3 hour schedule. In the NICU, he was eating at 6, 9, 12, 3, 6, 9, 12, etc. Their routine was wake, diaper change, feed, let him sleep till his next “care time”. We’ve stuck to that schedule, with more wake/”play time”. Plus, he has picked up cluster feeding, so these times may vary to ever 2- 2.5 hours instead of strictly 3. Here’s a rough overview of our days:
- 6 – 7 a.m.: Baby wakes for morning feed. Afterwards, I stay up to make breakfast/lunch/coffee/help Mr. R get out of the house.
- 8 a.m.: Wake up older two kiddos. If I don’t, they’ll sleep till 9:30 or 10 and then won’t nap (#killmenow)
- 9 a.m.: Baby care time: feed, change, play, nap
- 8 – 11 a.m.: Kids eating breakfast, playing, tummy time. During this time I’ll cook lunch or a cook-ahead breakfast, clean the house, catch up on anything on my to-do list.
- 11:30 a.m.: Lunch… usually leftovers or something easy.
- 12 p.m.: Baby care time, snack or dessert for kiddos more play time
- 1:30 – 4 p.m.: Older two go down for a nap (if I’m lucky!) During this time, more cleaning, laundry, blogging, “to-dos”
- 3 p.m.: Baby care time: feed, change, play, nap
- 5 p.m.: Mr. R gets home! WOO HOO!
- 5:30 – 6:30 p.m.: Dinner, dessert, hangout, baby care time
- 6:30 – 8 p.m.: Playtime, movie, hangout time with Papi!! The kids love this part of the day, of course! Papi is way more fun than Mami 😉
- 8:30 p.m.: Showers, pjs (my favorite part of the day!!)
- 9 p.m.: Get in bed, baby care time, watch a movie or show in our room
- 12 p.m.: Up with baby watching Parenthood while I nurse 😉
- 3 a.m.: Up with baby, watching Parenthood, adding a snack to the mix to stay awake
- 6 a.m.: Up with the baby, trying to catch a few last minutes of sleep while he nurses before it starts all over again!
So, as you can see, I’m running on not much sleep but a whooooole lot of love right now!! My little people have all done such an amazing job of adjusting, and of course, Mr. R has been the real MVP, cooking, working, and keeping me semi-sane, the hardest job of all! Life with 3 under 4 is crazy at times, but overall, really manageable and happy right now- talk to me again in 3 months, though! 😉
I’ll be sure to check in again soon!
XO,
Amanda
No Comments