Finding Balance: Wellness for the Everyday Struggle: Daily Grind

I'm not really sure why I'm typing this up. I feel like I should. So maybe it's helpful for me just to see it, or maybe it's helpful to someone else or read it. Or maybe I just get it out of my head and it stops asking to be written down.

They loved gyros, apparently

I wanted to just put a quick rundown of my basic routine with kids alone on my average weekday.

6:20 am, Jade wakes me up after probably getting me up 2-4 times the night before. Am tired. Nurse baby
6:30-6:45 Get dressed in clothes I laid out the night before, pee, have 5 min to chat with Eric while he chats with Jade too
6:45-7:30 ish. Go downstairs, get Jade into clean diaper, get my hair brushed. Get water. Try to have Jade entertain herself with toys while I spend a few minutes logging our night sleep, and take a couple to myself to stretch, grunt about tired. Touch base with on a mom forum or check Facebook notifications. Just waiting for Legan to get up
7:30-8 Legan is up. Fight with him for a diaper change, change Jade again, let dogs out, and try to get breakfast on table without stepping on anyone or Jade losing her crap
8-8:45 Eat real quick. Pick Jade's food up off floor a million times. Try to answer Legan's questions quickly and convince him to eat in less than an hour. Frequently, limited success. Then clean up both kiddos.
8:45-9, let them play for a smidge while I empty dishwasher, handwash the couple of things sitting from dinner, fill dishwasher, wipe down counter, table, and high chairs. Finish any coffee or Dr. Pepper of my own so I can brush my teeth. OR, if floors are critically dirty, make sure to vacuum in here.
9-9:25 Kid's teeth and hair get brushed, with only some help from them. Another round of diapers and frequently spraying out a Legan poop.
9:25-9:45 Shuffle Legan and dogs into basement to play. Get Jade nursed, lay her in bed for nap 1. Lasts 35 min - 2.5 hours, lol. Usually about 90 minutes.
9:45-10:15 ish If I have clean diapers or clothes to put away, or didn't get to dishwasher or dishes earlier, now's the time.
10:15-11:30 Legan time. Frequently this is when I start wash on a load of diapers. Very occasionally I have to fold a load real quick. If we're inside, play with him for a while in basement, let him play alone some too. If it's nice - GO OUTSIDE AND SCREW FOLDING DIAPERS. If basement floor is super gross, can sneak in vacuuming in basement while Jade naps.
11:30-12:30 Work on making lunch and inevitably Jade waking up in the middle of the process regardless of when I start it. Try to remember to change Legan, then get him seated and eating, change Jade, nurse her, throw her in high chair to pick at food while I scarf stuff down. Legan gets down first once I clean him. He gets 10-20 min to play while I clean up Jade and lunch remnants, plus make sure his room is set for nap-lay out naptime diaper, get white noise on, make sure his special blankie and froggy are in the room.
12:30-1:15 ish. Potentially change and spray out Jade poop. Get Legan changed again. Involves fighting and wrestling. Read 0-2 books depending on timing and amount of crazy that happens with diaper change. Jade joins us for book time. Then Jade and dogs go to basement to hang out while I nurse Legan and tuck him in. Should be out by 1:30, and sleep until 3:30/4. YAY. Get Jade's room set for nap (white noise and such) when I leave his room.
1:30 - 2 or 3. Play with Jade alone time. Right now we're practicing crawling or standing and holding onto stuff. If it's nice out, we can go outside for 30-60 min, or if I need to fold stuff by now, it's a great time. If her first nap was short though, she's usually down for nap 2 right after Legan goes down. That's a great day. If she woke up as lunch was finishing, then I play with her for a while, change her, try to get her entertained by herself so I can have some ALMOST kid-free time usually writing or just perusing Facebook or watching an episode of TV that she mostly ignores.
2:30-4 Typically pretty alone here because usually both kids are asleep together for an hour. On bad days, Jade wakes up right before Legan goes down, and then is going down as Legan is waking up. Those days are hard.
4-5/5:30 Weird time of day. Eric is probably getting home soon. If cooking needs to be done, I'm rushing to do it while Legan is being obnoxious. Jade is likely waking up in the midst and gets a quick diaper and boob and rides on my back. If it's not a cooking day, we try to all go on a walk/play outside in nice weather. If it's crappy out, and I don't need to cook, I hide while Eric plays with kiddos and dogs.

Here is where it gets really fun. Here's 2 different options depending upon naps. Sometimes kids are on different bed time schedules, in which case dinner is together and early, but 1 kid gets a long play time while the other kid and parent is starting bedtime. Generally Eric handles Legan (and I just have to nurse him at the end) and I handle Jade. I'm quicker at getting her cleaned up and dressed.

Schedule for bad bad bad nap day

5:30 Dinner. If we don't have time to feed parents now, so be it, Legan gets PB&J and we move on. When he's tired he takes like 30-45 minutes to eat almost nothing, but I have to try.
6:15-6:30 Brief playtime while dinner cleaned up and mom sets out pajamas, gets both rooms ready to receive kiddos, and picks out clothes for kiddos and mom for tomorrow
6:30 Start bedtime routine for 1 or both kiddos, whoever is going to bed early. Teeth brushing, diaper change, pajamas, books, hugs & kisses, then nursing and tucking in. It's the same for either kid, though we skip books if it's just Jade going down. She'll join in books if they're going down at the same time.
7:15 - tired kid or kids in bed. If one kid still up, it's basement playtime with Dad usually, but sometimes mom too.

Schedule for if naps were OK, so bedtime is roughly 8/8:15

Play until dinner
6:15 Dinner chaos!!!! Legan is usually in crazy mode by now. Jade is just kinda cranky in general. I try to nurse her before dinner, but sometimes it's too crazy in the house and she won't. Sometimes eating takes an hour because Legan is trying to talk and play.
6:45-7:30 Bath or play time. Depends on the day. Kiddos bath together. They love that. Or they play for a while with Dad or dogs. When nights start being warmish we'll try to alternate. Bath 1 day, play inside with Dad 1 day, family walk 1 day. Hair brushed after baths.
7:30 Start bedtime, teeth, diapers, pajamas, books. Best case, we do all those together, then I nurse Legan while dad gets a few extra minutes with Jade, and then I nurse Jade and both kids out by 8:15. If Jade gets too fussy, I instead nurse her during books and lay her down right before nursing him. Whomever can't hang goes down first. Hoping that once she's over a year and we can communicate a little better, and nursing is less her way of eating and more for supplemental nutrition and comfort that I can nurse them at the same time, and just have Daddy lay Jade down while I tuck in Legan....but we're not there yet.

After they are in bed, it's parent clean up time. Make sure dinner was totally cleaned up, fill up and start dishwasher, parent showers, diapers folded and get in a little adult time via video games, board games or TV from like 9-10. Then get ourselves ready for bed, climb in by 10:30/11p.

Jade wakes up for more feeds at either 11, 3, 5, OR 11, 1:30, 4, 5:30.

I get not nearly enough sleep, and start over.

Getting extra cleaning done happens during one of the solo kid play times. Errands mean waking Jade up after 45 minutes from her first nap (or making breakfast happen super fast and push her nap later). OR if she has a short second nap, run errands at 4 pm, and do leftovers for dinner.

I try to some me time during nap time. Sometimes I have to do appointment scheduling or wool care or extra cleaning duties there. But I try to take time to myself because I'm in danger of losing my mind if I don't.

And it is exhausting, but there are so many hugs and kisses and smiles. But hopefully one day, there will be less naps and so less structured chaos....I think?