Our Daily Routine
It’s high time for another daily routine post! 🙂 The last time I shared a full daily routine was last April, when Sophie was 6 months old! I had been aching for some semblance of predictability – I find comfort in schedules – and I’m happy to say we settled into a great daily rhythm for a long time. However, one of the major components of raising littles is change, and change has certainly happened!
Solveig is just about 15 months old now and our days look a lot different from when I shared our routine before. Within the past couple weeks, we’ve started to transition her to one nap a day, since she is old enough to, and was showing all the signs of not wanting the solid 2-nap schedule. It’s a learning curve but she’s settling in well and isn’t as tired, actually! In addition to the naptime change, Sophie no longer nurses, so our days don’t revolve around that anymore. 🙂
RELATED READING: Our Nursing Story
Of course, I feel I should add a disclaimer here: Routines do frequently adjust, and we are often tweaking our strategies. Today I’m sharing with you what our schedule currently looks like – not that it always has looked like this, or always will – but it’s a snapshot of our current season, frozen in time. This is our life right now, in all its messy, glorious beauty.
Our Daily Routine:
** I’ll link some items in today’s post that we use on a daily basis, in case you’re curious! If you use the link to purchase, I would make a tiny commission. Thank you for supporting Just Bee!
7:20 am
I’m up for the day. Bjorn typically gets up around 6:30 am, gets ready, and leaves for work around 7:15 every morning. While it’d be ideal for the three of us to all enjoy breakfast together, that’s not realistic right now, haha. Maybe someday. 😉
I get up with my alarm around 7:20 am, wash my face, and get ready (makeup/get dressed) before Sophie stirs. It’s a huge game-changer to get ready before Sophie wakes up. I kept hearing other moms at MOPS recommending getting up before the kids do, and I finally tried it.
8:00 am
Sophie wakes up! (Before it gets to be much past 8 am, I go in and get her up for the day.) However, every few days, Sophie does get up right when I do. That’s fine. I scoop her up and we begin our day together in Mama and Daddy’s room as I finish getting ready.
When Sophie wakes up, she’s typically so happy to see me! I get her out of her sleepsack, change her diaper, get her in an outfit for the day, and then we start moving towards breakfast. (We sing a cute little “Good morning God” song every morning as we open the drapes. She loves it and can now sing “God…” in her sweet voice.)
^^ A relatively simple but typical lunch for her lately ^^
8:15 am
Breakfast time. I pop Sophie into her high chair and give her her 360 sippy cup
** Some Thursdays, we have MOPS or other MOPS-related events, and since it’s a 45 minute drive, we leave around 8 am. I also plan on starting to take Sophie to library storytime some weeks, and even signing up for an early childhood class with her. So, we’ll start infusing more consistent or planned outings throughout the week. 🙂
9:00 – 10:30 am
We like to take our time with breakfast. By 9 am, we’re usually cleaned up and ready to play! This is a relatively new time slot for us to have, because as I mentioned above, we’ve transitioned to one nap a day. She no longer goes down for a 10 am nap. So, we fill this time with snuggles (boy, has she been snuggly lately), reading books, and general tidying projects. I’ve been extra motivated these days to maintain a tidy home, since I’ve learned over time that it really benefits my mental health! I love having little organizing projects to do, too.
RELATED READING: Sophie’s Favorite Books at 14 Months
While we usually spend a lot of time downstairs in the living room area, if there’s a project to do like folding laundry or tidying the guest room, Sophie and I will play with her toys and work on those household tasks upstairs! (We have a great baby gate
This time of day is also a new opportunity for us to go on outings or run little errands, since Sophie no longer is sleeping at this time. So, sometimes we’ll head to the grocery store (or often the post office) instead of the usual early afternoon time we used to run errands.
10:30 am – 11:30 am
Around 10:30, I start thinking about lunch! Sophie eats a bigger lunch than breakfast, so I make sure it’s varied and substantial.
We typically eat lunch at 11 or 11:30 am, with one eye on the clock to determine naptime! It’s usually bits and pieces of what I’m eating for lunch, which is leftovers from the night before! For example, this week I made Lazy Girl Lasagna, so Sophie ate that with sides like banana, cottage cheese, a baby food puree, black beans, etc. Sophie recently started eating off of a toddler plate
11:30 am or 12:00 pm
Naptime. We clean up after lunch and head upstairs. I change Sophie’s diaper, close her drapes, and turn on her sound machine. Then I change her into a long-sleeved onesie and put her in her sleepsack (I’ve found that a long-sleeved shirt and no pants works best for her under her sleepsack). I do really love rocking Sophie – sometimes to sleep, sometimes till she’s just a little more sleepy. Then I lay her down in her crib and make sure she has her WubbaNub giraffe
While Sophie is napping, I like to do any dishes left in the sink from lunch, pick up any explosion of toys in the living room 🙂 switch out the laundry, do my BSF lesson, and so on. I used to run for my computer right away (to blog/edit photos/work on things) when Sophie napped but with all of my health/emotional stuff going on in November, I realized that that’s not healthy for me. Now, even though I’ll still hop on the computer sometimes, I’m trying to focus more on household tasks or other ways to be productive.
2:00 pm
Sophie wakes up. (Sometimes she wakes around 1:30 pm, but lately she’s been sleeping more like 2 hours – yay!) I head into her room, change her diaper, get her back in her play clothes, and we usually snuggle for a while, reading books, looking outside at birds, or playing together with her stuffed animals.
When we eventually head back downstairs around 2:30 or even 3:00, it’s snack time for both of us. 🙂 Sophie will usually have a graham cracker, some cottage cheese, cubes of cheese, or Cheerios, and I’ll give her a sippy cup of whole milk as well.
Then it’s downstairs playtime for a while, with my cozy Spotify playlist going in the background. This time of day is also a great time to run any errands if we need to get out of the house!
4:30 pm
Often Bjorn is home around this time during the winter months. (He’s quite busy with a lot of commitments so I can’t guarantee it’s that time every day, depending on if he has a city council meeting, library meeting, if he’s working with his dad, farming, cross country practice, etc. But the winter months tend to be quieter since he doesn’t have cross country practice after school, and often goes running instead, so Sophie and I get ready to greet Daddy around this time!) Sophie LOVES her daddy so much! They have such fun together. Her favorite thing to do is wait till I see his car pull up and I say, “Daddy’s home, Sophie! He’s going to come in the door!” and then she’ll stand in the middle of the room and be ready to say “HIIII!” when Bjorn steps through the door!
Bjorn will change and wash his hands, and then he and Sophie play together while I either start or continue supper.
** Some days, Sophie is tired enough around 4:00 or 4:30 that we give her the opportunity to have a 30 minute nap. But she doesn’t tend to want to fall asleep at this time so it usually ends up being a 20 minute quiet time in her crib. 🙂
I sometimes get distracted and play with the two of them on and off during this time. Usually the record player is playing, and some book reading and dancing is involved. 😉 I’ve been trying to choose more simple and easy meals lately, as much as I do love making more ambitious recipes. It’s just smarter for me in this season!
5:30 pm
Suppertime. Like I mentioned, Sophie has been eating more of our adult food lately, which in some ways makes mealtime even easier. If need be, we’ll supplement her meal with a small bowl of oatmeal or some black beans, cheese cubes, a puree, etc. She especially loves the mixed frozen vegetables! Bjorn usually takes over with feeding her at suppertime, which helps me remember to eat well myself and finish my meal! 🙂
We’re usually finished with supper around 6 or 6:15 pm. Bjorn and Sophie will “retire to the living room” 🙂 and hang out some more while I conquer the kitchen: piles of dishes, food thrown on the floor, leftovers put away, etc. I actually look forward to this time most days – it’s a little bit of “me time” while I can still hear all the giggles and cuteness happening in the other room. I like to pull up a show or watch a favorite YouTuber on my laptop as I do the dishes (we don’t have a dishwasher so this can take a little while). I LOVE having a clean kitchen, so I make sure it’s all wiped down and sparkly clean by the end of the night!
7:00 pm
Sophie’s bedtime. I no longer nurse her before bed, so it’s a little more flexible these days as to who puts her down. Sometimes she gets a quick bath before bed. We make sure her room feels cozy by turning on her little lamp. Otherwise, we basically follow the same routine that we use for naps: fresh (overnight) diaper, sound machine on, put her in her sleepsack…and then we read a couple books before rocking her for bed. She’s often so tired by bedtime that she falls asleep in my arms while we’re praying together.
7:15 – 10:30 pm
This is our more open block of time for Bjorn and me to use as we please. (These are the days you just dream of back when you have a newborn, right?! It was hard to fathom a block of adult time back then.) I love how sticking with a structured schedule for Sophie allows us a little break…even though we miss her as soon as we put her to bed. 🙂 I do any quick final tidying up, and Bjorn may be working on something or relaxing, or helping with any final dishes left over. Then it’s generally a quiet, peaceful evening around here. Both Bjorn and I like making warm drinks in the evening and reading, doing things on our computers, sometimes watching a show together, or sitting and chatting.
I like to shower around 9 pm. Then I get ready for bed and do some yoga upstairs. By this time, Bjorn’s upstairs, too. We love reading in the evenings, so that’s usually part of our nightly routine as well. Sophie stays asleep most nights until 8:00 am the next morning! (Hooray!) Some nights she’ll be a bit more restless and will need some comforting, etc. during the night but she’s an awesome sleeper in general. I’m grateful for that, since I do love my sleep! 🙂
There you have it! That’s what a typical day in the life looks like for us around here. I think little ones thrive on routine so I’m happy to have a structured day with Sophie – and a daily rhythm comforts me, too! Eventually, I’ll structure things even more (like playing outside time, art & crafts, etc.) but this is what our winter months have been like!
I’d love to hear about your daily routine! Do you get up before your kids? What does your morning routine look like? How do you like to spend your evenings?