How do your morning routines go?

[singermom]

Our morning routine has gradually started going downhill, with everything taking longer and most of us (especially me) getting grumpier as the morning goes on. What is everyone else's like?

I'm usually up by 6:30 (on a good day), kids usually wake themselves up around 7:00 or so, dh is usually snoring away until later if I let him...after showering, nursing, getting dressed, breakfast, making lunch, packing the day care bag and packing the car, it's nearly 9:00 before I am even leaving the house! By the time I get to work, I feel like I have already worked a full shift. What is wrong with this picture?

I hate having to order my three year old around so much, my dh is helpful to a point, but also likes to sit and read the paper (he's been spoken to about this habit), and the baby is pretty much unaffected by all the commotion. Someone has to keep the train moving, though, and that usually ends up being me, standing there with my stopwatch or running around the kitchen like a madwoman.

This is basically just a vent--but if anyone has any advice, do share!

[Chelly2003]

MY DH leaves for work WAY early, and wakes me up on his way out - thats 5:30am. (If he didn't wake me I never would:LOL)

DS wakes at around 6:30am and I'm normally OUT the door by 7ish............... We figured out long ago that its easier to have DS half dressed BEFORE he goes to bed.... so he sleeps in the t-shirt he'll wear to school the next day. (How BAD is that!)

So its a pretty quick HOP to get his pants changed (he is 3 1/2 and sleeps with a pull up on) then he gets the first pair of sweat pants I find, a light jacket and we're OUT THE DOOR....

Dh makes hi sown lunch the night before, I don't have to take ANYTHING to day care other than DS and his blankie - I take clothes if his replacements are messed on the day before. (DH will put clean clothes in a bag next to my purse - I call it well trained)

I have to drive 10 minutes to DS daycare and 45 to work - so I'm normally there by 8am

Chelly

[teachma]

Like most WOH moms, we have a crazy morning routine, and I am actually relieved by the time I am at school to begin my day. (I am a public school teacher.) I wake up at 5, get to the gym by 5:20, and work out for 45 minutes. I am home again by 6:20, and it takes me about 20 mintes to shower, dress, and pack my lunch and a breakfast for me and ds. I wake up ds, 2.5 years old, at 6:45, I dress him and basically we dash out the door. When we get to my school (an 18 minute commute), we eat breakfast together in the teacher's lounge. Then ds plays in my classroom for about 1/2 hour while I do some preparation for my day. At 8:00, we get BACK in the car (my 4th time getting in the car already!) and I bring him to his home child care, which is a 5 minute drive from my school. By 8:15 I am back in my classroom, and I start teaching at 8:30. WHEW! I'm exhausted just thinking about it!

[buttercup]

Gosh I am so glad I do not have to take dd to daycare (we only did it for 6 weeks) anymore because I remember those hectic mornings. I am fortuneate that DH is a SAHD for now. My morning routine is pretty simple - I get up at 5-5:30, pump (I exclusively pump), shower, dress, play w/ dd for a few minutes and am out the door by 6:40. I usually take breakfast w/ me to work because I'd rather spend time w/ dd than actually eat

Jenni and Helon 6/29/02

[Starfire]

Well i am in the middle of changes ours once again! :

For 3 years i had ds on a rutine of waking at 7am and watching Clifford, and read between the lions? morning shows. he had to be dressed before the TV even came on. I would shower, and twice a week he would shower with me. (he likes evening baths better but he takes forever). then make breakfast and we ate together.

Well last year DP moved in, and brought a newer tv with. no fuzy lines, crisp images, but no Chanel 2 . So of course ds has no reason for waking up.

So what I am going to do is write up a list that needs to be done in the morning before school starts. And DP need to be incharge of the children. I had it down just fine till he had to have the newer tv that no one watches. The rule of the house has always been tv in the morning, as a thing for waking up and getting ready, and one movie a week. Now does that sound like we neeeded a newer tv?

[Marlena]

Ours is easy. I make lunch for myself and for dd the night before. Dh is usually out the door by 6:30am. I'm usually up by or before that time, and leave dd in bed to sleep longer while I shower and dress and eat breakfast. Dd wakes up between 7 and 7:30 (usually). I'll nurse her and then get her up and changed and dressed and we'll play for a bit before the nanny comes at 8:00 (dd doesn't like to eat for at least an hour (besides nursing) after she wakes up). I"ll leave after the nanny arrives (if I'm going to the university that day), or will start working in my home office then.

[CollegeMama]

Well, I see I'm the only one who does this...
I take my shower at night before bed. I'm never sure how DS will be in the mornings and most mornings he won't let me take a shower. DH works nights, so he's fast asleep.
I wake up at about 5:15 and nurse. DS hopefully will go back to sleep, but usually not. I take him into the bathroom with me, he sits in his bouncy seat while I get ready. I get a bottle of EBM ready for DH (cause he's lazy and likes to have that first bottle already made for him) and while that's warming up I get my lunch and breakfast together.
Then I take DS back to the bed, lay down with him (yes, I'm laying down in bed with my clothes and shoes on!) and put him back to sleep. Then I roll him over next to DH (wake DH up so he knows I'm leaving and he's alone with DS) and put up pillow barracades so DS doesn't roll of the mattress.
I find the shower in the evening to save me tons of time in the morning. I have naturally curly hair, so I just put it up in a braid while I sleep and when I get up I take it out and shake it out and it's curly!
I also would think about having your lunches ready the night before, so all you have to do is grab them out of the fridge.

Marcy

[hulamama]

We wake up about 5:20. Dh takes the dogs out, I sleep. (I just can't wake up these days). He comes back and I wake up and get dressed (I moved my showering to the night before to save time). I get dd's things ready and pack up lunches while dh showers and dresses. We only have dd and she sleeps thru most of this. On the rare occasion when she does wake up, she sometimes plays or reads and hangs out while I do this, or she wants to be held and I end up slinging her. Both dh and I leave together around 6:35. He usually takes her to daycare because he has a shorter commute. (When I take her I am almost always at least 15 minutes late to work).


I am looking to switch schools and I worry about the day when I have a later start time and when we have another child. It already takes us this long--imagine if I have to do this by myself with another baby! EEk. I try to make lunches before I go to bed--sometimes I am not successful at this. It still takes a long time to get everyone ready and to spend time with the dogs, etc. I just wish I could let dd sleep till she woke up on her own everyday--I hate rousing her when she wants to sleep. She usually wakes like a lion on those days.

[mammastar]

Our routine varies wildly, depending on when I have a class (I'm a student, but all too soon to be a WOHM) and how many kids we have, since sometimes we just have dd (18 mos), and sometimes we have her half-sisters too, who are 7 and 3 1/2.

When we do have all 3 and must drop them off at school and me at university, we've got it pretty streamlined. The golden rule is to do everything possible the night before, because kids are slowpokes, and the busier you are the easier it is to forget stuff! I make all lunches the night before (or dh joins me, or my older stepdaughter helps). Kids have baths then, too, and often dh and I shower before bed as well (although it does funny things to my hair : ). I usually put out their clothes for the morning, and lately I've always done a list of what needs to go out the door in the morning and stuck it on the selfsame door so I don't miss it. If anything needs packing that is not in use overnight (this excludes teddies!) I pack it. This extreme organization is not typical for me at all, but a few years of kids going back and forth to my husband's picky and unpleasant ex has got things running like clockwork!

In the morning, dh and I usually get up first, unless dd wakes up wanting some milk. We put on coffee and have coffee and toast in bed while the kids either continue to snooze or play together. Then we start hustling them a bit. We put breakfast on the table, they come in and eat, then get dressed. Somewhere in there we throw on clothes, I check the list, and we're off. Of course, this is how it's supposed to work, there are occasional disasters...

[singermom]

Gosh, I get tired just reading all this! But seriously, thanks for sharing--I am getting some good ideas. I know that the more I can get done the night before the better off I am, but I have a hard enough time thinking about the upcoming lunch and dinner at breakfast time that I don't know if I could do it any earlier! I do know that if I can expend the energy to have the kitchen reasonably clean before I come down in the morning, things go a lot better. There's nothing like having to wash the coffee carafe before you can make the coffee to get your day off to a bad start!

Anyway, here's to the week being nearly half over!

[whateverdidiwants]

The night before, I'll sterilize my pump and make up bottles for dd, get her bag ready, and take a shower.

I get up just before 6, feed the cats, putter around for a few minutes and then wake dh up. While he's in the shower I'll wake dd up (which can sometimes take a while, she's a really deep sleeper), change her diaper and play with her for a few minutes. While dh and I get dressed, dd will play on the floor in her room and then we all go downstairs to get shoes, jackets, etc on. We leave around 6:45 and both go to drop dd off at daycare. Then dh drops me off at the train station and he takes the car to work.

For us, it was very important that we both take dd to daycare so neither one of us ended up feeling like the bad guy every day.

[Indigomama]

Chelly....... I dress ds in his shirt for the next day too... When I don't it always seems the issue that makes us late out the door.

[maighdhlin]

Some mornings my routine just exhausts me, and I can barely manage to get out of bed to face it, but this is how it goes:

Wake up at 6:00 and nurse DD for about 1/2 hour.

Shower, get dressed and pump while putting on makeup and drying hair (I'm getting really good at doing all of that one handed).

Yell upstairs at around 7:00 to make sure DH is up and has gotten DD up.

From 7:00 to 8:00 Run around getting bottles together to send to DC. (I would do this the night before, except most mornings I am pumping that last bit to send with DD...) Nurse DD one more time if she wants it. Play with DD for 10 or 15 minutes. Chase dogs around, feed them, load the car with pump, bottles for DC, outfits and blankets etc for DC, come back in for DD, put her in her snowsuit and carseat, and then dash out the driveway.

I have about a 20 minute drive. It seems to take me 15 minutes to get in and out of DC, so I don't usually make it to work until 8:45.

Makes me tired just thinking about it.

One thing that does save me is that a couple days a week DH will get the pump cleaned and stocked with fresh bottles as well as pull DD's bottles and milk together while I'm finishing getting her ready. I also try to lay out COMPLETE outfits - shoes, stockings, underwear, jewelry - for the work week on Sunday night. I also fill up my gas tank whether it needs it or not on Sunday nights.

I would do more at night, but most nights by the time I get home, feed DD (and myself - luckily DH cooks and cleans up dinner) have bath time if necessary, read DD a few books, nurse, get her to bed and then pump, I'm ready to drop dead. DH has found me asleep in the chair with the pump still running. How do you all manage to get so much done at night?


M

[Chelly2003]

Originally posted by Indigomama
Chelly....... I dress ds in his shirt for the next day too... When I don't it always seems the issue that makes us late out the door.

Thank goodness, I thought I was the only one, but come morning time, he is NEVER happy with ANY shirt, so if he has it on already - there is no fussing! and everybody

Chelly

[GrenouilleVert]

I get up at 5 am
I get dressed in my gym clothes
I take my meds and put away the dishes
I check my email while eating breakfast
At 5:45 I usually head to the gym, or sometimes take a walk (while my almost 14 yr old watches my sleeping 3 yr old and 6 yr old and gets himself ready for school).
At 6:45 I am home and in the shower
7:00 I get dressed while encouraging my younger two to get dressed
7:15 out the door (the younger two eat breakfast at latchkey/preschool so we don't have that step).

The key to making my mornings work is to do a lot at night. Things like laying out clothes, packing lunches, getting backpacks together, finding shoes, etc.