Thursday, April 17, 2008

A Day in the Life...



A while back someone asked what a “typical” day was like at our house. This is generally how the days go at our house. It is a little bit idealistic, since there always seems to be at least one baby who throws things off. I am hoping that one day in the near future they really will all take their morning and afternoon naps together at the same time!


6:00 am:


The babies start getting up. As soon as they get up, they get a bottle.






6:05 am:


Wake Riley up and start getting him ready for school

6:30 am:

Breakfast for the kids, make lunches, make sure backpacks are ready, etc.


6:50 am:


Family scripture study and family prayer


7:00 am:

Riley leaves for the bus stop, Jayson leaves for work

7:10 am:

Baby bath time! It usually takes about 40 minutes to bathe all the babies. We do it “assembly line” style.


7:50 am:

Playtime! The babies LOVE jumping.


8:30 – 9:00 am:


The babies go down for their morning nap. Our naptime routine is:
1) Change diaper
2) Read story in rocking chair
3) Wrap in blanket
4) Cuddle briefly
5) Lay in bed and say goodnight!

8:45 am:

Kaiya leaves for preschool

Around 9:30 – 10:00 am:

The babies wake up from their nap and get another bottle



10:00 am:

Play time again! We have two jumpers (they liked the jungle jumperoo so much we had to find another jumperoo on Craigslist) and they sometimes "compete" with each other to see who can get the highest. Ryder usually wins.



12:00 pm:

Solid Foods Lunch—usually a delectable combination of cereal, fruit and veggies

Around 12:30 – 1:30 pm:

The babies go down for their afternoon nap.

2:00 pm:

Kaiya comes home from preschool


Around 2:30 – 3:00 pm:

The babies wake up from their afternoon nap and get another bottle. Everything from how much the babies eat to what kind of diapers they have, which medications they take and how much they weigh is recorded on charts.


3:00 pm:

Play time again!

Rustin is so close to really being able to crawl. He gets on his hands and knees and rocks and lurches forward. Tonight he took about two "crawl steps" before falling on his face.

Despite the fact that Kyndall is the only one that can't quite sit up on her own, she is also really close to being able to crawl. Her favorite thing to do is get into a "push-up" position.

3:05 pm:

Riley comes home from school

3:10 pm:

Snack for the older kids

3:30 pm:

Start bugging Riley about his homework


4:30 pm:

Afternoon walk—this is my favorite part of the day! I get to get out of the house and usually all five babies are happy without me holding any of them!

5:15 pm:

Solid Foods Dinner for the babies. The menu is similar to lunch. Ryder, Rustin and Kaydence are all really good eaters. Kassidy and Kyndall do not like solid foods yet, but within the last week have made some great improvements. In the beginning, Kyndall couldn't even look at a spoon without breaking into tears.


5:45 pm:

Jayson gets home from work

6:00 pm:

Dinner for the rest of the family

6:45 pm:

Dancing time—it has become part of our nightly ritual to turn on fun music and dance for the babies. Riley and Kaiya love dancing and the babies love to watch. We were hooked on the soundtrack for “Hairspray” for a couple of months, but now we have broadened our selection to include other songs


7:00 pm:

Baby Bedtime Routine:

(lights are dimmed and soft classical music plays in the background)

1) Bottle
2) “Nakey” time
3) Change diaper
4) Lotion massage with the lavender lotion
5) Vicks Babyrub for the chest
6) Put on jammies
7) Wrap in blanket
8) Cuddle briefly
9) Lay in bed and say goodnight!

7:30 pm:

Put Riley and Kaiya to bed

8:00 pm:

We made it through another day! All the kids are asleep!!!! Time to clean up and get everything else done!



A little sidenote...

After months of chewing on everything in sight and producing drool by the gallon, we finally have a tooth! Kaydence is the first, and so far only, one of the bunch to get a tooth. We hope that the other babies will soon follow suit so we can feel justified in blaming every little fever and cranky afternoon on "teething".




PS

I apologize for not posting in a while. For the past month and a half we have had at least one baby sick at all times, so we have been operating mostly in "survival mode". On the plus side, I am becoming extremely proficient with saline drops and a bulb syringe!












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