Leading the Double Life: schedule

Just Survive...

I get asked a lot, "How do you do it?" My answer is always the same: "Just survive..."

As you may (or may not) know, Hershey and I work together at the high school that I graduated from. Hershey teaches history and I teach English. Our workloads are not exactly light, with all of the writing that our kids do in the subject areas we teach, and we can't just put on a video and wing it all day. So we put a lot of energy daily into planning and grading. We work our butts off all day long at work, through our lunches, and preps, and duties. There is just no other way.

Jane and Emma are also in "school" again this year, at the same Early Learning Center that they were in last year. They are there 3 full days, and then one day they go to my mom's house and the other day they go to my mother-in-law's house. It's a great set up, because they get the mental stimulation of learning and socializing at school, and they get personal time to bond with their grandmas. Plus that lightens up our purses a little bit in terms of child care costs.

Our daily schedule during the school year right now goes like this:

5:35 Hershey and I wake up

(Emma has also been getting up with us or earlier lately, so we purchased the girls these Teach Me Time clocks, which we can set to turn green at a prescribed time. So far, they have been working out! We told them that Sunny Sally brought them and that she wants them to stay in bed until the light turns green.)

6:45-7:00 Out the door. On days that the girls go to school, we need to be out by 6:45. Grandma Squad days are 7:00. Either way, the moments leading up to our departure are always a whirlwind of screaming and tears and me wrestling the girls to get dressed and do their hair while Hershey drags 97 bags of crap out to the car.

7:45 Get to to work. Our work day goes from 7:45-3:30/4:00 depending on the day. When Hershey coaches basketball during the winter months, he usually doesn't get home until 8:00 p.m. No matter what, we usually don't get home until...

5:00 Arrive back at home. Unload the 97 bags of crap and put all of the dishes from the day into the dishwasher. Prep dinner. Jane and Emma either settle in on the couch with their Kindle Fires, or watch an episode or two of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Either way, they are decompressing and zoning out for about an hour, which they usually really need after their day on-the-go.

Side note about the Kindle Fire:

My mother-in-law bought these for our kids at Christmas, because they LOVED playing with everyone's cell phones and iPads. The Kindle Fire kids edition comes with a foam outer box, which is awesome because I promise you that my kids have dropped theirs down the stairs like 400 times at least and they still work great.

It also comes fully loaded with educational videos, books, and apps for them to choose from. The kids quickly learn how to navigate all of these options, and it gives them freedom and independence to choose what they want to watch or play with. Additionally, you can program the Kindle to spend a certain amount of time on each app (more time for books, less time for videos) and to turn on and off at specified times.

Also, in terms of security, the kids can't purchase ANYTHING without switching profiles on the Kindle, and in order to switch to a parent account they need to know and be able to type in the password. So far I have ZERO complaints about these little gems, as Emma has even started getting hers off of her charger when she gets up before the green light in the morning and then lays in bed watching Daniel Tiger or Blue's Clues and we can get a few extra zzz's. It's a win-win.

6:00-6:30 Eat dinner. We sit down to eat dinner together each and every night, except some Fridays when Hershey and I have HAD ENOUGH of the girls' screaming and throwing food around at dinner time, so we order in after they go to bed. On the nights that we decide NOT to eat with Jane and Emma, I set them up in front of the TV and they hang and watch a movie and eat together.

7:00-7:30 Bath Time. We've been using all kinds of calming bath additions lately, since Jane and Emma tend to be totally wound up at night. Their favorites are this Babyganics chamomile bubble bath and this Everyday Shea lavender bath. We then finish up with Babo Botanicals lavender lotion.

7:30-8:45 Bed time for Jane and Emma. By this point, their clock night light has come on and they know that it's night-night time. Depending on whether they took a nap or not, they go to bed any time in this hour time frame.

9:00 Hershey and I crash into bed. This doesn't leave Hershey and I much time for ourselves or each other, but we definitely make up for that on the weekend, taking the girls out on excursions and spending time together and with friends and family.

It's also worthwhile to note that:

1:00-3:00 Jane and Emma "nap" wherever they are. This means different things in different places. At home, they usually will lay down and nap until around 2:30, at school they have started laying down and napping for the full 2 hours, they sleep about an hour at my mom's house, and they take no nap for my mother-in-law, so they usually just sleep in the car ride from her house to our school (about 20 minutes). Their napping is totally erratic and inconsistent, so we've started adjusting their bedtimes according to what they did with their naps during the day.

I'm hoping that with summer coming and more outdoor time, Jane and Emma will settle into a better sleeping pattern and we will get some extra time to do the things we love, things that don't revolve around the girls. As much as we love our kids and want to spend time with them, doing things for ourselves is important, too, and while we struggle to find time during the school year to even BREATHE, the warmer months bring with them some time to slow down and spend time relaxing and rejuvenating.

So when someone says to me, "How are you doing it?" my answer will always be, "We are just surviving." Because most days, that's exactly how it feels.

I hope that you have a great Easter weekend! We are prepping to dye some eggs and put together an EPIC Easter egg hunt over here. Wish me luck that we don't end up covered in egg dye!

(Affiliate links are included in this post. If you like any of the items I've mentioned, please click on the links to purchase, as I will receive a small commission from the website, which will help with the upkeep of this blog. And if you have any questions, please leave them in the comments! Thank you for your time!)

10:03 AM
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Sum-Sum-Summer Time

baby

HAPPY SUMMER!!

Here in Jane-and-Emma-land (since that's what we call it due to the fact that it is THEIR world and Hershey and I are just livin in it, or surviving barely), our summer schedule has actually been pretty tame. Here's a peek at our day.

7:00-7:30 // Rise and Shine! The most adorable thing EVER is when I get one girl up, she runs full speed into the other's room when I open the door and sticks her hand through the bars of the crib to say good morning! It's so super sweet.

7:45 // Milk from a sippy. The girls WILL NOT drink plain milk, so Jane has chocolate milk and Emma has strawberry. The ped told me NOT to do that, but it's the only way they will drink any kind of milk, regular, almond, rice, or other...

8:00 // Breakfast with Mama (usually an omelette, waffle, pancakes, turkey bacon, chocolate chip muffin tops, Cheerios, fresh fruit, all of the above or some of the above, the rest of which goes to the animals out in our yard).

8:30 // Play time while Mama cleans up the kitchen and Jane and Emma help (and by "help" I mean open and close the dishwasher 273 times, grab for knives as Mama dives and swallows her heart, and walk around and around in circles, screaming and throwing every toy they own on the floor directly in Mama's path).

9:00 // Neighborhood walk! We take a 2 mile loop down to a beautiful lake across the way and back. We stop at the lake for a snack and some iced water, and then we start the STEEP climb back up all of the hills (6 total) to get home.

10:00 // KITCHEN SNACK TIME! We share some cool melon, cherry pie, fresh banana bread, etc. on the floor of the kitchen, while sipping on some iced water and climbing all over Mama. Then the girls run wild for about 2 minutes, wearing down their energy and getting ready for their nap.

10:30-12:30 // Nap time. Now, I don't know how other mommies have MOMMY time during nap time. When the girls go down for their nap, Hershey and I start scrambling to shower, water flowers, paint rooms, unpack a few remaining boxes, pay bills, and whatever other house work we have on the schedule for the day. Shit's cray.

12:45 // LUNCH. The girls have been eating everything that I put in front of them lately, which makes it easy to have lunchies every day. They have turkey dogs (with the skins peeled off), pb&j, tuna samiches, leftover chicken from the night before, veggie burgers, chicken nuggets, fish sticks. Basically whatever I pull out of the fridge. I still try to really balance each meal, with a starch, a dairy, a veggie and a fruit. Especially since they are not getting very much milk at allllll these days...

1:30-3:30 // Play time, errands with Mama and Daddy, and hopefully soon we will have some lake time! The lake is literally less than a mile away, and we finally joined and are excited to bring a lunch and some swimmies and jump in that lake. In the meantime, we have a swingset with these swings (which Grandma also bought for the shore house) and our friends gave the girls an amazing little slide/climbing wall that they love to climb all over, and we bought them a little blow up pool. Our backyard is HUGE, so we have been having fun outfitting it for the girls to have some fun in the sun.

DTS with Daddy

3:30-4:30 // Nap time again! This is when I unwind finally. I pick up the mess, and sit down with my husband, or start prepping dinner.

4:30 // Snack time and play time! Snacks range these days from cheese sticks, to Puffs, to Animal Crackers, to applesauce squeezers, to yogurt squeezers, anything that they can grab and go, because they are ALWAYS on the go.

5:30 // CRANKY TIME! As always, 5:30 is the girls' witching hour. It also happens to be when we start cooking, so it's a war every night to either pay attention to the girls or make dinner, or both. It's a balancing act, as Hershey is usually out by the grill and I am prepping in the kitchen, but they are so happy and so are we when we finally punt them into their high chairs and sit down to a family meal.

6:00 // Dinner YAYYYYY. No matter what I plunk in front of Jane and Emma, they gobble it up. They are eating everything that we eat now, so Hershey and I take turns cutting up food and shoveling food into our own pie holes. Then we have some fresh fruit or ice cream for dessert, and the girls march their little dirty heinies up the stairs to the bathroom for...

6:30 // BATH TIIIMEEE!!!! The girls splash and play in the tub, try to stand up 8365 times and give me a heart attack by diving for a toy and going under water as I try to wash their hair. They love bath time, but it has become a full contact sport for me. They then run around naked for about 34 seconds, because naked time was cut off when Jane shit on the rug and played in it during naked time a couple of weeks ago. Instead of naked time, we now have get-that-effing-diaper-on-your-butt-as-quickly-as-possible time.

After their bath, the girls play in their rooms, marching back and forth with their toys and their choopies as Hershey and I collapse onto the floor, and at 7:45 we read them a story and put them down to sleep. And they have been sleeping, pretty much through the night, every night.

We then take about 45 minutes to clean up after Hurricane EJ, and then run into the man cave to watch Orange is the New Black (which we finished) or any other movie or show we can find.

That's just a taste of what our summer has been like so far. We have also been totally breaking our schedule by going to parties, going DTS, having friends over, and shopping tirelessly for finishing touches for our home. I feel like the summer is already FLYING by, but I can honestly say that I am enjoying every second of being a SAHM. I wish I never had to go back to work!

Hope you are all enjoying the beautiful weather and lazy summer days! Although I don't blog as much now, I am continuing to update everyone on Twitter, Instagram, and on our Facebook fan page, so please be sure to follow us there! See you soon!

xoxo

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4:25 PM
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Chugga-Chugga-Chugga-Chugga Zzz ZZZZ...

go to sleep

Aaaaand we're back! The last two weeks have been extremely trying. Jane and Emma had begun sleeping through the night at about 6 months old. We have since gone backwards.

Here's Emma, wide awake while Janey is napping, enjoying a teether while Daddy eats his lunch.
Sherpa blanket found here.

First, Jane started saying "F YOU NAPS!" I would put her down for her morning nap, she would sleep for 20 minutes, and then be wide awake. I would do that with her about 6-7 times a day. Then, Emma picked up that same habit -- but on the off times. So I would put Jane down, and Emma would wake up. As soon as I put Emma down, Jane would wake up. My entire weekends consisted of picking up and putting down babies (and making baby food and doing laundry, of course).

Then, to add insult to injury, Emma decided it was time to sleep on her stomach, despite the fact that she hadn't quite mastered rolling back onto her back. And when I say ...hadn't quite mastered... I mean she would wake up and lay on her stomach, or on her arm, on her face, and whine for as long as it took until either Hershey or I would hustle in there to flip her over like a pancake. And then Jane started doing that, too. Again, on the off times. And that would start at about 11:45 every.single.night.

Since then, they have reduced their naps to 4-5 naps per day. But the nighttime shenanigans continue.

I remember when we first brought the ladies home from the NICU, they were on a STRICT schedule. Change diapers, give bottles, stare at toy for 15 minutes, sleep. Repeat every 3 hours. It was exhausting for me, but it worked for them. And that's what's most important!

Once I went back to work, other people took over the daily care of Jane and Emma. And although they love them to pieces and are so very good to them, the simple fact remains - they are not Mama. The girls started getting excited, staying awake, and their schedules were totally thrown off. Then I started them on solid foods, and forget it. What schedule? I tried to let Jane and Emma tell us when they were hungry and when they were tired, and tried to make sure that we were all doing the same thing, but, again, no one else is Mama, and, not for nothing, but Jane and Emma don't know what they want 98% of the time!

Although the girls are still waking several times during the night (and usually for good at 5:57 a.m., when our alarm clocks go off at 6:05 a.m. -- and you KNOW that the difference between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. is no joke), we have begun to try to get them back into a strict routine. Here is the daily routine we are trying to implement (based loosely around their natural rhythms):

6:30 Breakfast (fruit+oatmeal)
7:30 Bottle (5.5 oz)
9:00-10:00 Nap
10:30 Bottle (6 oz)
11:00-11:30ish Play time
11:30-12:00 Cat Nap
12:00 Lunch + Fruit (in fresh food feeder)
1:00 Play time
2:00 Bottle (6.5 oz)
2:30-3:30/4:00 Nap
5:15 Bottle (5 oz)
6:00 Frozen Mini Bagel *aka dinner roll* while Mama cooks dinner
6:30 Family dinner
6:45 Dessert (fruit in fresh food feeder)
7:00 Bath (if it's bath night, they bathe every other night in the winter months)
7:30 Bottle (7 oz)
8:00 Crib

So far, this is working OK. Yesterday, the girls did GREAT with their naps. They also woke up during the night less, woke up later this morning, and were not as cranky right before bed last night. Today, they were back to 4 naps (5, if you count the 25 minute nap they took at 4:00), and I'm afraid that they will be up at 4:30 a.m. like they were yesterday morning.

A friend of mine at work who has two daughters of her own once told me, "They have to sleep good, to sleep good." I am CRAZY about them getting their naps in because I have always found that the better they sleep during the day, the better they sleep at night, and the less unhappy they are during their awake times. I'm also convinced that they are going through a growth spurt right now, and that their bottom toofers are going to pop out at any moment now, and so they REALLY need their sleep. And so do we.

The hardest part is that Hershey and I are working full time during all of this. And not at desk jobs where we can zone out for a few minutes. We have to be thinking, on our feet, observing and questioning and engaging and entertaining TEENAGERS for 9 straight hours AFTER not sleeping half the night. We are literally dying. Literally. And I get that it's difficult to make babies do things like take naps, but THERE HAS TO BE A WAY! I need a minute to sit down, to veg out, to PEE for crying out loud!

HOW DO YOU DO IT? Please, share with me your knowledge, oh wise blog readers! If you can't get in to comment on the blog, please head over to my fan page and comment on the conversation we have started there. I would greatly appreciate any advice that you have to offer, and so would my sanity.

I wish that you all have a wonderful, relaxing, restful weekend. And please don't forget to vote!

xoxo

9:32 PM
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Is That for Pick Up or Delivery?

busy

Hershey and I are chronic offenders. If anything (and I mean ANYTHING) doesn't go our way in the course of our day, we order in.

It all started when I was pregnant. I lost my sense of taste, and everything made me nauseous. So I stopped wanting to cook. I distinctly remember one night early in my pregnancy when I was trying to cook a meal for us. I realized that nothing tasted right, and I put WAYYY too much garlic salt on my green beans. That was the breaking point. I stood in the kitchen, crying, holding my bamboo spatula, screaming, "I CAN'T EVEN COOOOOOOOK!!"

Now, if you know me at all, you know I love to cook. Cook, bake, you name it, I'm in the kitchen doing it. Therefore, this moment in my pregnancy was quite traumatic for me, and from that point on, we ordered in.

Fast forward to the birth of the little ladies. Since we spent 6 weeks running to and from the NICU, who had TIME to cook?! My mom, inlaws, and family members brought us tons and tons of food, and thank goodness for them! But whenever we didn't have food dropped off, we had it delivered. I mean, we are definitely putting some delivery guy's kid through college based on our delivery tips alone.

When I worked in Newark, I tried making us a weekly menu. I sat down on Sunday nights, and I typed up the menu for the week. Here's what it looked like:

Yes, I even had a fancy border and seasonal-themed watermark. I hung it on the fridge every week, and it WORKED.

I feel like the hardest part about cooking dinner every night when you have a super busy schedule is being creative -- coming up with something DIFFERENT to make to eat every night. And when you can't come up with something to make, you just come up with a menu - to Chicken 'N Rib Crib, Sopranos, Panchos Burritos...you get the point.

In the interest of saving - time, money, my waistline - I have decided to come up with a weekly menu once again. But I'm going to make it themed this year, in hopes that the routine will help (since we are now busier than EVER).

Here we go:

Meatless Mondays

Take Out Tuesdays (Can't give it up all together)

Wild Card Wednesdays (Spin the dinner spinner and take it where it lands)

Turkey Taco Thursdays

Fishy Fridays

Saucy Saturdays

Soupy Sundays

I'll post our weekly menu in the weekly round-up posts I'm planning to write, and I'll try to post at least one recipe a week on my recipes page. Wish us luck!

We are also trying out different foods every 3 days with the girls now. So far, they have had rice cereal, apples, sweet potatoes, and bananas. Tomorrow they try carrots. So far, nanas are their very VERY favorite food!

B-T-Dubs, we are currently #1 in the Twins/Multiples category on Top Mommy Blogs! Thank you all so much! Please keep clicking to show us some loooove!