Daily Routine With 3 Kids

2 questions I always get asked are;

#1 Are you done having kids?

And #2 How is it juggling 3?

First off, if you haven’t yet you should read my post from a couple years ago, Are You Done Having Kids? I think it is something important to read as to whether or not if someone has kids at all; including one or more after having them. It is not anyone’s business but their own. However I can confirm now that we are not having anymore children. At least not biologically, unless a force of nature takes precedent. My husband got his vasectomy back in May. If you want details on that one, maybe I can convince him to do a guest post (let me know).

As for the second question; how do we handle having 3 kids?

For the majority of the day I am by myself with the kids: usually from 4am until 4pm, sometimes later depending on when Chris gets done with his route. Now that Pickle is back in school, our routine is established and makes life a little easier. Though, if you read yesterday’s post Spinning In Circles, you would understand that easier doesn’t mean lazier. It just means, more predictable.

Up until last week Bug (4 months now!) was still waking up once a night to eat, usually between 1 and 3am. Fortunately for us during one of our recent trips to the second hand kids store, we finally found a zippered swaddle! Out of the past 7 days, Bug has slept at least 5 times through the night. So, I am going to go through the routine that we have been on now.

Between 530 and 630AM, Bug wakes up for first breakfast. Luckily for me, my husband prepares for this the night before and has a bottle ready to be warmed in our bathroom with the container of formula. *because who wants to go all the way downstairs to the kitchen as a partial zombie? -not me.* I feed Bug and change his diaper. I usually check my phone for emails and my morning message from Chris. If time allows, I will cuddle Bug and take a little nap or just lay there with my eyes closed until about 640am. Before getting the kids up, I get ready. I will get dressed and fix my hair. Depending on the weather, I will also change Bug’s clothes, too. I will grab any of the trash or dirty bottles and take those and Bug downstairs. I usually put Bug in the swing, sometimes he goes to sleep other times he will just hang out.

At 7AM, I start waking up Monkey (2.5 years) and Pickle (6 years). Usually I go and turn their lights on and they will squirm for a minute before waking up. When I notice that they are waking up I will tell them good morning and that we need to get ready for our day. They don’t usually need too much convincing to get up.

I take Monkey to the bathroom (potty training in full force), do her hair, and get her clothes changed for the day. Pickle gets himself dressed and then we all gather downstairs in the kitchen. Pickle decides if he wants to eat breakfast at school or at home. Today he decided to eat at school. While I made Monkey her breakfast, Pickle did his morning chores.

Monkey decided on a PBJ sandwich for breakfast, I wasn’t going to argue. After I get them their breakfasts, I will make my “coffee”.

As I drink my coffee, I also do the dishes. Usually that means unloading the dishwasher and then loading the few dishes that are in the sink and the kid’s dishes when they are done eating.

I also make sure to wash and sanitize all the baby bottles.

Around 745AM, I gather my keys and the diaper bag. I put Bug in his carseat, the dogs in the kennels, and get Monkey’s and my shoes on. Depending if Pickle is eating at school (we leave a little earlier if he does) we are usually out the door, loading into the van by 755AM. It is about a 3 to 4 minute drive to the school and we drop Pickle off. The parking lot can sometimes be hectic, but I am usually back home by 810AM.

When we get back to the house, I will take Monkey to the bathroom again and put Bug in the swing for a nap. Usually from 830AM until about 10AM I am doing “work”. Work as in making phone calls, budgeting, paying bills when needed, and all of those sort of things. Around 10AM Bug is awake for his second breakfast and Monkey will hit me up for a drink. After they are both satisfied, I will clean. If I don’t need to clean much or just don’t feel like it, then I spend time playing with the kids. Monkey is a big fan of dolls, barbies, little people/animals, baking, and coloring. However, days like today, there was more “business” that needed to be done, so I continued on with that until about noon. Then it is time for lunch.

After lunch, it is clean up and nap time. I don’t know about other 2 year olds, but none of mine have ever been particularly good at taking naps. So, while Bug naps, Monkey will watch Netflix or the tablet. It keeps her chill and allows me time to clean, because let’s face it, nothing ever gets finished and stays that way.

By time Bug wakes up again, he will want another bottle and then we start to get ready to go get Pickle from school. If I am lucky, Chris often times will be able to get off work in time to get Pickle from school. After he gets home, they have a small snack and then do the after school chores.

Around 445-5PM I will make dinner, unless I already had something cooking in the crockpot. We eat around 530PM and after that, one of us usually does the dishes again. Finally, if there is time, we relax before getting ready for bed at 8PM.

On Monday’s and Wednesday’s we take Pickle to Taekwondo. We leave around 515-530PM, class is at 6PM, and get home around 7PM. We do have plenty of appointments keeping us busy as well; behavioral therapy, well checks, dentist appointments, my doctor appointments for my back, and anything else that tends to come up.

Bed time for the kids is 830PM. Monkey and Bug are pretty much on schedule every night with that. Pickle is a work in progress, which is part of the behavior therapy we are doing. He has been getting better though, so that has been nice.

Chris will shower, get things ready for the next day, and is usually asleep pretty quick after the kids go to bed. Sometimes we watch a show together (I am rewatching New Girl, again). I usually will shower or take a bath depending on my pain and stress levels that night. Then I will dink around on the games on my phone (I have been playing Property Brothers and Disney Magical Kingdom lately) or Pinterest. I usually try to be going to sleep around midnight. Then we do it all again the next day!

What does your routine look like? Do you have a steady one or one that is constantly changing? Let me know in the comments!

💜Jenn