Tucker will be eight weeks old tomorrow and we’re slowly settling into a new morning routine with three kids. Granted we are nowhere near sleeping through the night anytime soon, but we’re getting into a slightly more predictable rhythm that just feels so far off those first couple weeks after having a baby. I always love reading blog posts or listening to podcasts about how other people manage their morning routines with kids, so I thought I would share ours and open up the question to all of you: what’s your morning routine these days?
OUR CURRENT MORNING ROUTINE WITH THREE KIDS
Right now our ideal morning starts at 6 a.m. when one of us will run out to Starbucks to pick up coffee (I know, I know, we should make it at home, but old habits die real hard around here) while the other gets started on toasting protein waffles with peanut butter and cutting up fruit for three-year-old Teddy and 18-month-old Peter (one of those rare crowd-pleasing “meals” that works for everyone in the family). It’s a toss-up whether Peter or Tucker will be awake first and it’s so much easier to run out for coffee and/or get breakfast started without any kids around, but we usually have at least one of them keeping us company for the Starbucks run or breakfast prep. 🙂 Once Tucker is giving us longer stretches of sleep at night, I’m eager to get in the habit of waking up even 15 or 30 minutes before our kids. It doesn’t happen often lately but when it does, I find myself in a much calmer headspace as I take on the rest of the day.
We get Teddy out of his room last (he’s now in a twin bed in what was previously our guest bedroom, but thankfully hasn’t tried getting out of bed without us coming to get him!) — we’ve realized our mornings are much smoother when his breakfast is already prepared by the time he’s downstairs so we don’t have to interrupt him from playing to get him to sit down and eat. And it’s worth noting I feel insanely fortunate that Will is working from home now as our mornings of getting Teddy to preschool by 9 a.m. would be 100 times more chaotic without both parents present! Major props to any of you solo parenting — I’ve done the morning routine with three boys a few times while Will has traveled for work and those days have me ready for bed by about 4 p.m. 😉
I’ll also share that I am not doing hair, makeup, or even putting on real clothes before jumping into mom mode these days — I’ll brush my teeth, maybe run a brush through my hair, and throw on my everyday leggings and save any real getting ready for after our nanny arrives to watch Peter (and Teddy on the days he doesn’t have school) and I can pop Tucker in the bouncy seat that all three of our kids have loved. Of course I’d love to be the mom in a cute outfit at drop-off every morning, but it honestly just hasn’t been a huge priority in this stage of life… maybe someday. 🙂
Would love to hear what your morning routine looks like these days and how it’s evolved (or stayed the same!) over the past couple years. Any new habits you’re hoping to introduce into your routine? Do tell!
*image from this post
