Schedule

Someone asked me the other day about our schedule when the boys were just little babies, and I couldn't remember! Oh, how quickly we can forget the sleeplessness and the round-the-clock feeding/diapering/napping schedule. We did Babywise, and I tell everyone that will listen how great it is! Even though they were technically a month early, Ben & Jack were "sleeping through the night" (6-8 hours) by around 2 months, in major part because night nurse Kim sleep-trained them. After that, they were probably sleeping 10-12 hours at night by 4-5 months, with a dreamfeed. By 6-7 months we had dropped the dreamfeed and they were sleeping 12 hours straight. So that has definitely been nice! Where we had trouble was naps, since the boys were chronic 45-minute nappers; every nap all day would be 45 minutes to maybe an hour and a half when I got lucky, and even then it probably was only one baby, not both. The reason why 45 minute naps were so difficult, is because up until probably 7-8 months I was still training them to fall asleep on their own, so it could take up to 20 minutes to get both babies to fall asleep, which meant that within 25-30 minutes, the first baby to fall asleep would be awake again, and I only had that half hour to wash bottles, etc. Round-the-clock! Once they dropped down to 2 naps a day, around 10-11 months, naps improved and now we have a good 2 hour nap period in the afternoons! Life-changing.

On to our current schedule.
Wake - between 7-7:30; they wake with the sun and Ben usually wakes before Jack so I'll let him chatter until he wakes his brother up, or bring him to cuddle with us in the bed for a few minutes. Then I have to find a time to get my Jack cuddle-time in later :)
7:45 - breakfast; Jonathan feeds them bottles while I get their breakfast made and then he finishes feeding them. My plan is always to go for a run at this time, but sometimes I'll take a shower instead to get a head start on the day.
8:30 - go for a walk around the neighborhood, these days in our new wagon! Then we come home and play in the living room until 9ish, when we move to their room to read books before nap. Some days we take baths after the walk.
9:30-10: somewhere in this time I"ll put them down for a nap, which is usually about 45 minutes long. On the days when I'm good and have gone for a run, I'll shower during this nap period and get ready.
11:00 - Lunch
11:45 - Play in the living room. On Fridays we have Little Gym at this time. Next month we'll have our sign & sing class at this time on Thursdays. I usually try to do an outing after lunch when we can (mall, grocery store, park, etc) just to get us out of the house.
1:30-2 - somewhere in this time I'll put them down for their second (good) nap, which is usually around 2 hours (anywhere from 1.5-3 hours). During naps I do as much prep for dinner as I can (chopping veggies, browning meat, throwing things in slow cooker, setting out all ingredients, etc.)
3:45 -Afternoon snack / bottle & finger snacks
4:00 - Play in the living room, possibly play in the front yard if it's nice out. We work on motor skills (assisted walking, tumbling, crawling games, etc) during this time. On Thursdays we have our twin playgroup at this time!
5:00 - usually watch Baby Einstein while I get dinner ready
5:30-6 - Dinner somewhere in this time
6:30 - Play with dad when he gets home, Baths
7:15 - Bottle, pajamas, brush teeth
7:30 - 7:45 - read a book, sing Twinkle Twinkle, babies to bed :)
8:00 - wash bottles, clean up dinner, etc. Unfortunately I usually stay up until 11 or 12, though I'd like that time to be closer to 10. But it's the only time of day I know that I'm guaranteed a solid chunk of time to do whatever I want, and usually I'm trying to study baby recipe books and plan meals or working on baby books/the blog, or I'm just vegging on the couch with Jonathan watching television, which is fun too. 

They are really good at falling asleep on their own now. Praise the Lord! It's so nice to rock and cuddle them but it's also nice to know that I can put them down awake and close the door and know that they will (usually) fall asleep within a few minutes. On Wednesday we have Nanny Mercedes, so I can work on projects around the house or run errands. We have a good routine now, and I hope it sticks a while!