Routine

Before number two we had a fairly good routine - it all revolved around number one.  Our daughter started day care about eight months before our second daughter was born - she went three times a week and really enjoyed it.  On home days we would fill in the time with library/park/zoo trips and on creche days we would come home and ease into dinner time/bath time/bed time.

After my caesaraen my husband wasn't able to take much time off work.   So my eldest daughter was bumped up to full time creche.  She didn't mind, and frankly, she was having a better time there than being at home.

It was so hard.  I would go back to sleep after the morning feed and my husband took our daughter to creche.  In the afternoon pick up would be whenever the baby had been fed.   One afternoon I fell asleep and woke up 15mins before the creche closed - I called my husband in a panic and he was able to go and pick her up.  I felt awful. 

It took much longer to recover from the operation than I thought. It probably took at least three months before I could push the baby in the pram without having to stop for a rest. I had visions of walking both girls down to creche in the pram - by the time that I was up to do this my eldest daughter was outgrowing the pram.

It took ages to get back into a routine.  It probably took until the baby was about eight months old, and had dropped her late afternoon sleep before it started coming together again.  It can still fall to bits, but not as often as it used to.

I confess that my eldest daughter had a McDonald's Happy Meal about once a week for about five months.  Some days it was just easier to get her dinner through a drive through on the way home rather than pull something together.  I learnt that I needed to have a meal prepared prior to the creche pick up or else dinner wouldn't come together.

Bathtime was horrid.  I didn't think that it was safe to bathe both babies together until the baby was sitting well.  My oldest daughter is very gentle and considerate, but still a four year old who finds it hard to sit still.  The longest that they went without a bath was five days.  (I should perhaps explain that my husband rarely gets home until after bedtime).  We learnt to quickly shower them in the morning while sneaking in a shower for ourselves!

Now the girls have dinner at the same time, can share a bath and their bedtimes are nearly identical.  It is starting to get easier - thirteen months along!!!