One woman's perspective of (twin) parenting (and other thoughts about things)
As time passes, I find myself talking to people who don’t understand what I mean by baby admin. I think this is because it’s one of those words that you develop within your family bubble that makes perfect sense to you but very little sense to others. I also think that twins come with Much More Of It than singletons, and nobody else in my nearby circle has ovaries with a twisted sense of humour.
So to try and explain (and also as a note to self about how much admin there was at this point, in the vague hope that it’ll be much reduced later on), here’s what a normal day looks like for me at the moment.
NB I am going to try and do another couple of these for earlier on (although they will be from memory/our schedule tracking app) - if I manage to do that, I’ll link back here.
6.00am: First squeaks from the Smols on the monitor wake me up
6.30-45am: Squeaks intensify, so I get up, throw on some kind of leggings/top/slipper sock combo and go and say hello to the Smols
6.45am: Get Smols up, clean nappies on, dressed into clean clothes (this takes around 20-30 minutes - I’ve no idea how, it just does)
7.15am: My husband makes up the first milk feed of the day, which I then feed the Smols in the armchair in the nursery whilst he showers.
7.30am: Everybody downstairs, get Smols into highchairs and put weaning bibs on (a tricky task at the best of times let alone when half asleep), clean high chair tables, clean Smol hands (again, this takes ages. Everything takes ages.)
7.45am: Breakfast for everybody, including the dog
8.30am: Breakfast clean up (takes ages - there’s a theme here)
9.00am: Move the Smols into their play area, change nappies at some point, depending (to put it politely) on how ‘productive’ breakfast has been
9.10am: Whilst Smols play (and hopefully not throw up any of their breakfast), dry and fill the formula powder pots (AMAZING things that let you pre-measure formula powder so that you’re not doing it every feed)
9.30am: Put Smols down for first nap. At which point I then do the main bulk of baby admin for the day. Essentially it’s non stop for an hour or so, starting upstairs: clear up the stuff from their bath the day before, then empty, rinse and refill their reusable nappy wipe boxes, empty the Milton (sterilising bucket), wipe down the bathroom surfaces, refill the Milton, wipe down the formula prep machine, do a bit of ‘upstairs washing up’ (prep machine tray, Milton tongs). Then downstairs to sort through the clean milk bottles in the dishwasher, do post-breakfast washing up and put on the morning baby laundry wash (a small load, but a daily one). Then back upstairs to put the clean bottles in the Milton and set out the formula pots for the day.
10.30am: If the admin has gone well and the Smols are still soundly asleep, I will try and sneak in 15 minutes of yoga at this point…
10.45am: If I’ve managed to do yoga (or there’s looking to be no way I’ll manage it later), I’ll put some ‘proper’ clothes on at this point, wash my face, brush my teeth et c.
11.00am: At some point, the Smols will wake up from their nap and then I’ll prepare their second milk feed before getting them up, then everybody downstairs.
11.15am: Milk feed followed almost inevitably by nappy change x2
12.00pm: Everybody has lunch, which is basically a repeat of breakfast but with more hastily cut salad vegetables.
1.00pm: Lunch clean up
1.20pm: Move the Smols to their play area, have a little sit down whilst they occupy themselves (read: catching up with Non Baby Life Admin)
2.00pm: (or basically whenever they start getting grumpy) Put smols down for second nap. At which point I put on the second baby laundry wash of the day (normally very tiny, but again daily, because it includes weaning bibs et c) followed by whatever non-baby laundry is on the agenda (it will probably not surprise you by this point to learn that I have a weekly laundry rota)
2.15pm: This is My Time. I’m not currently studying anything, so this tends to be when I write stuff for the blog and/or write in my daily “sentence a day” journal. More often than not, there is some admin left over from the morning (due to a short nap or whatever) that also needs doing. If I’ve not managed to yoga earlier and I don’t have anything else that needs doing, I will yoga at this point.
3.30pm: (again, pretty approximate) Smols wake up, at which point we have milk feed #3, which is basically a repeat of milk feed #2, with nappy changes afterwards et c
4.00pm: play time for Smols, sitting down/admin time for Mummy (often hanging laundry out because - joyfully - they no longer need me to be an active participant in play and they are happy and safe in their play area)
5.00pm: recent addition: third weaning meal. We can’t say ‘tea time’ because then the dog gets over excited an hour early. As with other meals, this basically takes an hour from start to finish including clean up.
6.00pm: Aaaand we’re on the home straight with bath time (after the dog has been fed, natch)
6.30pm: Get Smols dry, moisturised, into sleeping clothes and sleeping bags
6.45pm: I read them a story whilst my husband makes up their final milk feed of the day
7.00pm: Milk feed followed by 20 minutes being upright (they are still a bit prone to spit ups), during which the Smols either fall asleep (my preferred variant of pre-bed Smols) or are very very wriggly
7.40pm: Down for the night, generally without a fight, although not always…
7.45pm: From here on in, in no particular order, I then need to do my ‘evening admin’, which includes washing any blankets from the play area that were thrown up on during the day, washing up the formula pots, loading the feed bottles into the dishwasher et c. In an ideal world, this will take exactly the same amount of time as it takes my husband to walk the dog, cook our tea and pour me a glass of wine.
10.30pm: Generally my cut off for being in bed. I’d like it to be earlier, because apparently 7 hours of sleep isn’t cutting it, despite that basically being A Dream Situation for many parents…
Rinse and repeat.
Sometimes we make it out of the house…