I’m a little late in posting this, but I wanted to wait until life had returned to normal after the holidays. Because let’s be honest, there just wasn’t any routine in our lives over the holiday break, no matter how much we tried to stick to the schedule. But it’s over now, and we’re back on track and feeling a lot more sane, thank goodness.
The schedule at ten months is pretty similar to the one I posted at eight months; we haven’t dropped any feedings or naps yet. It’s looking like we will wait until they are a year old to make any big changes – we had discussed dropping a feeding, but at a recent visit, our pediatrician recommended that we keep it, as our boy is still very small for his age and needs the nutrition he gets from breastmilk.
7:30 AM: I peel myself out of the warm bed, put on a robe or a tank and yoga pants, and go into the nursery. (Once I didn’t put on a robe and went into the nursery naked – D stood in his crib with his mouth open and waiting as my breasts approached him. He’ll do great at keg parties.) I change D’s diaper first, then set him on the floor to play. I change Z’s diaper, then carry her over and sit down in the glider and call D over to me. I nurse them together in the glider. If it’s a bath day – Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday – they stay in their pajamas. If it’s not, after nursing I dress them.
8:00 AM: I carry them downstairs, and set them down to play with toys in the living room. I fill my water bottle, close any open baby gates, and go to the kitchen to empty the dishwasher while I keep an eye on them.
8:30 AM: Breakfast. Usually a toaster waffle, a snack pack of fruit from the pantry, and a handful of fresh blueberries for each baby, and a bowl of cereal for me.
9:00 AM: If it’s bath day, we go straight from breakfast to bath time. I fill the tub in our guest bathroom upstairs while the babies try to climb in fully clothed; while the water is warming I strip them of their PJs and get soap ready. Once the tub is full, in they both go, seated in a few inches of water (as full as it gets right now). I lather up each baby, then turn on the shower head to rinse them off and wash their hair. After everyone is rinsed and clean, I re-fill the tub and let them play in the water for a few more minutes. Then out to be dried and re-diapered, and off to the nursery for a nap. (On non-bath days, this time is just playtime in the living room.)
9:30 AM: Nap time. The babies get put in their cribs with a minimum of talking; I don’t try to force them to lie down, just sit them in the cribs and hand them a soft toy. They will play and babble for a little while but will be asleep within about fifteen minutes. In the meantime, I clean up from breakfast and then work on whatever is occupying my time – usually getting outgrown clothes ready to sell or working on other household projects.
11:00 AM: Second nurse of the day. Wakeup time from the first nap is really variable – some days they’re both awake at 10:30 and play in their cribs until I come get them, some days both sleep longer, some days one wakes up and the other sleeps. I generally deal with this now by nursing them one-on-one at 11; if one baby is still sleeping, I quietly change and nurse the other and then do the same for the first when they wake up. If both are awake, I change whoever seems less hungry and let them play on the floor of the nursery while I nurse the other. Once in a while they demand tandem feeding, which is also fine. After they’ve nursed, we go back downstairs to the living room for playtime.
12:00 PM: Lunch time. Usually leftovers from the night before; if there aren’t any, it’s lunch meat and cheese and various fruits and veggies from the fridge. If we need to go out, say, to the grocery store, I’ll often go right after the 11 AM nurse and stretch lunch until 1 – I can pick something up for them to eat at the salad bar and put them directly into their high chairs to eat it when we get home. If we’re going somewhere that isn’t the grocery or a fast trip, we usually head out right after lunch. Otherwise, after lunch it’s play time for babies while I clean up from lunch.
1:30 PM: Nap time. Same routine as before – into the cribs sitting up with a toy, asleep very quickly.
3:00 PM: Another nursing session, the same as the 11 AM one – individual nursing or tandem depending on situation, upstairs in the nursery. Then back downstairs to the living room for more play time.
5:00 PM: Start cooking dinner.
6:00 PM: Dinner time. We eat at the table every night now; the high chairs are side by side at the end of the table and we sit on opposite sides of the corners next to them. The babies eat so much that I have to cook as though I am feeding at least three real people; I’m still adjusting. The notion of what they are going to cost us in food alone when they are teenagers is terrifying.
6:30 PM: Play time with Daddy in the living room while I clean up from dinner and load the dishwasher. And sometimes go hide in the bathroom for ten minutes for a break, depending on what kind of day it’s been.
7:00 PM: Daddy changes diapers and puts them in their pajamas, then brings them over to me for the final nurse of the day. Tandem, on the living room couch with the big breastfeeding pillow, with as few distractions as we can manage (poor Daddy gets banished to the kitchen to go make his lunch for the next day so he doesn’t talk or make interesting noises). By the end, they’re both usually drowsy if not asleep. Daddy picks D up, then I hand him Z. He takes them upstairs and puts them in their cribs to sleep; they go to sleep pretty much immediately.
7:30 PM: He is back downstairs. We either go our separate ways – me to write at the dining room table, him to work in the office – or settle on to the couch to watch TV together.
10:00 PM: Bedtime for us. I no longer pump at night – in fact, I no longer pump at all unless I miss the bedtime feeding (for the occasional date night!). Even if I somehow wind up missing one of the two daytime feedings, I don’t actually pump to make up for it – we don’t need the freezer stash, and it’s such a rare occasion that it doesn’t impact my supply. The pump no longer sits out in plain view – it is actually put away virtually all of the time, which is an awesome feeling.