3 kids, 2 hands, 1 Super Mom.

All by myself.. don't wanna be.. all by myself.. anymore!! (feel free to hum along)

I've been extremely blessed/lucky so far as I've had only one half day on my own with all three kids since Owen was born. And, he's nearly 5 weeks old. Not too shabby, eh??!!
Call me a wimp, I don't care, but for some reason, I'm petrified of being in my house alone with them.

So, in the lead up to being left alone, I knew I needed a plan. I good plan. A plan I could follow.

I've always loved having a routine. Every few months, I tweak what we do, write up a new schedule, print it & post it. But, I've never been that great at following it. So, what I've learned over the years is that I do routines, not schedules. I need a basic flow to my day so I (and they) know what's coming and what to do next.

But, how do you create a routine with a newborn who can't "do as they're told" ?? How can I create a routine when he might want food every 2 hours, or every 3 hours??

And then, to make it more complicated, 2 days a week the girls go to preschool. So, that's 2 trips in the car, that may or may not coordinate with a nap. So, do I create our whole routine around those 2 days that I need to be in the car? Or do I just hope Owen learns to be flexible enough to sleep or be awake as needed in the car??

Finally, do I consider Marco's schedule into my new routine? His work schedule is different every day, so I create different routines based on what he's doing, or do I just do my own thing and expect him to stay out of my way??

with all these questions circulating in my head, and with a muddled, sleep deprived brain to begin with, I started to put down on paper my new routine.

So.. This is what I've come up with:
Home Days Routine

I decided to create it based on a 3 hour feeding for Owen. However, I tried to make it so that should he wake at 2.5 hours, I can do a swap with neighboring activities for the girls to make it work. For example, during one feed I have Morgan doing some quiet play near me. However, if he were to wake 1/2 hour earlier, Kelsey is doing quiet play near me.
I chose to make our home days work, and then just figure out the preschool days separately. It ends up that on Preschool days, Owen will need to have one full nap in his car seat. and he'll need to be transferred to his car seat 1/2 hour before his normal wake time for the pickup. Not sure if it'll work, but I'm hopeful.
I also chose not to consider Marco's schedule. Its too varied. Besides, we have tonnes of house renovations to do yet, so if Marco is at home, he should be doing those (insert whipping noise here), and not bothering me. So, he should just stay out of my way.. or help.

So, here's to hoping it all works out. In my favor.