I wanted to share with you all our updated daily routine of a stay at home mom, a three-year-old, and a seven-month-old. Naptimes and Snacktimes. Bandaids and Potty Breaks. And Plenty of snuggles and love. That’s what makes up our daily routine.
Take a peek at our real-life everyday daily routine
Day in and and day out our daily routine stays pretty much the same. Even more so with the current state of the world. We might have a little bit of variety if we have bigger plans like baking or a library trip but for the most part, what you will see below is what we do everyday.
Below I have our day documented as a more day in the life format things are not ALWAYS at these exact times or this exact order, but it is very similar to this.
I took notes of our day on a perfectly average Tuesday at home, we had no big goals or plans just a day in our life.
My Daily Routine always starts the same…Nursing session
5:45 FEED – Bean wakes for a nursing session. After she eats I put her back in the crib but I know she won’t go back to sleep as it’s too close to 6. Sometimes this session is closer to 4 and we all get a little more sleep. I can’t always predict this wake up yet. Today she lays there talking to herself for 10 or so until she gets bored and wants to get up.
6:05 – SLEEP Dad and Bean head downstairs to play. He is always the one that gets up with miss Bean and lets me catch another 30 mins or so before Bitty gets up. (He gets major brownie points for that, cause I greatly dislike getting up early)
6:45 WAKE UP – Bitty’s Nest turns off and she comes in to get me a la classic creepy toddler at the side of the bed. After a quick snuggle, I send her into the potty (whoot whoot we are fully potty trained baby!!!) Daddy brings Bean back upstairs so he can get to work.
Alright we are all at least semi awake – time to get the day going
7:10 MORNING TV Bitty likes to start the morning with one of her shows. 9 times out of 10 it’s Octonauts. Any other kids out there obsessed with this show?! I take the quiet semi alone time to start the coffee and clean up some dishes from last night. I even have a couple of moments to fix my hair this morning! And by fix I mean toss it in a messy bun and add a headband for something a little extra. lol
7:30 PLAYTIME – Bean is feeling a little needy this morning and wants to be closer to mama so she is out playing in the living room with her discovery basket while I get stuff ready for school and make coffee.
7:55 BREAKFAST – Octonauts is done and its breakfast time. Today we did bagels and fruit. Bean didn’t get to eat with us today, because she nursed too early in the morning. She is still early on in her Baby Led Weaning journey so we often skip at least one meal a day.
8:22 GET READY – Bitty declares its time to get dressed. So she picks out a dress, her preferred article of clothing, and then a dress-up dress to go over that. Today its Rapunzel. We don’t always get ready right now. Often its right after Bean goes down for a nap, but today she had a plan and I’m just along for the ride.
8:30 OUTSIDE – It’s a beautiful morning so Bitty decides she wants to go outside and swing. Until she steps in the grass and feels how cold the dew is. lol We change activities and she asks for some music to dance to. We also take this time to throw the ball for Hollie. After a few minutes, she decided that she still wanted to swing so we braved the wet grass and went to swing.
8:45 READING – In total honesty I got bored, so we came inside, my preferred tactic in this scenario is to ask if she wants to read a book with me. It usually works and today was no different.
8:55 NURSE #2 – I suddenly remember that Bean at before 6 and if I want to get a proper nap out of her we need to feed before she sleeps so we have a nursing session and what do you know she dozed off while she was eating…fingers crossed we can pull a proper nap still!
9:05 AM NAP – I rouse Bean just enough so that she knows that its nap time now. I put her in her sleep sack and settler her down in her crib as close to awake as I can manage.
A new addition to our daily routine is preschool
9:15 SCHOOL – Once Bean is down for nap its time for preschool! Bitty and I head to the kitchen where we keep her whiteboard and school supplies. We go over the calendar, her emotions, and the other basics. Today is Tuesday and I like to spend a little extra time working on numbers on Tuesdays. She did some number rod arranging, lining them up from smallest to largest and then some clip cards. She isnt quite ready for clip cards yet as she donst know any of the written numbers above three. I ended up walking her through this activity. After that I was done with our prepared lesson, BUT she wanted to do more so I quickly pulled out a 3 tracing sheet and some dot stickers for her to work some fine motor.
9:45 READING – I like to “end” our preschool time with a good snuggle and read of a couple of books that work with whatever theme we are using. Today it’s all about ocean animals. I say “end” but really we just transition to the less formal learning activity. Art, Sensory, Practical Life and such as still on books for the day.
10 :00 FREE PLAY – we had a fresh toy rotation yesterday so she is loving rediscovering her legos. She is just starting to build on her own, but often asks you to build things for her, and then she plays with it. As a firstborn and a toddler, Bitty often wants me to play with her and this is the time of day that I try really hard to be present with her as it’s about our only one-on-one time of the day. So besides my coffee, I keep all other distractions away and really focus on her for a few minutes.
10:15 SNACKTIME & TV – Snack was a little early today but she didn’t eat much breakfast so I was willing to be flexible. We are currently testing the waters with a mid-morning educational TV show. It allows me some time to get reset after school, get our next activity prepped. As well as get to the breakfast mess that I haven’t really had time to clean up yet. To fit with our numbers theme today’s show was Number Blocks on Netflix.
10:45 ART – Today was a good art day. Bitty hasn’t been feeling very arty lately but I managed to convince her to paint with me! We painted the layers of the ocean and talked about why the water gets darker as you go down and what kind of animals live where. Then of course we did some free painting after with our leftover blues.
To keep our daily routine in check I often have to pay attention to how long little lady sleeps.
11:15 WAKE UP – We went in to wake Bean from nap. I try not to let her sleep longer than 2 hours during the day and often she wakes on her own at 2 hours, but today she kept sleeping so we went to get her.
11:30 OUTSIDE – I wasnt sure what we could do to burn the last 30 mins before lunch and when I dont have any ideas Bitty’s idea is always go out side. So outside we went. We went for a quick walk in the wagon, just up and down the street.
Check this day down as a success, I accomplished a task outside of childcare!
11:45 YARD WORK – This is most definitely not in my normal daily routine BUT our walk was quicker than I though and when we got back to the house both girls were content to chill outside and entertain themselves to I checked a honey do off the list and trimed back our rose bushes while Bitty played outside and Bean chilled in the wagon.
Time to feed the chillens
12:00 LUNCHTIME – Today Bitty had lunch before me. We try and eat together but sometimes she starts first and I’ll join her as was the case today. I wanted to nurse bean so she could have some lunch as well but Bitty was hungry so she started without us. We had some left over Chinese food. Lunch is always my easy meal. I rarely cook anything beyond chicken nuggets or a corndog. Most often we had left overs or Toddler chartusire board. I.e. lunchmeat and cheese.
12:35 PLAYTIME – Bitty finished eating and cleaned up her dishes and went to play in the living room. More often than not she is the first one done so she is used to finding something to do for a few minutes while I finish up and clear the table.
12:50 GROSS MOTOR PLAY – If you saw my post of our new playroom set up youll have seen that we scored a nugget earlier this year! Bitty is all about jumping lately and today we were jumping from one piece to the other a lot. Bean is ALL about standing. As in thats honestly the only thing she wants to do…so we brought the Pikler upstairs to offer her something easy to pull on on and she is even starting to cruise on it.
1:10 FINE MOTOR PLAY – after burning a bunch on energy Bitty was ready for some calmer work. We pulled down the threading beads and made necklaces for us all.
1:20 POTTY BREAK – We got so busy beading that we kind of lost track of time before nap so we are running a little beind schedule but we cant skip this most important step!
Our daily routine always includes nap time! At least for them, not so much for me…
1:30 BED TIME ROUTINE – We always read before bed, lately we have been working our way though our library haul, after reading its a quick drink of water, a quick song and a hug and Ieave the room.
1: 42 NAPTIME – Bitty down for her nap. Sometimes I can hear her talk to herself for a while but she never needs me and never comes out of her room early. So I let her just chill and she always sleeps.
1:45 PLAYTIME – This is the only time of the day that Bean gets one on one attention so I am always down on the floor with her for a few minutes tickling her and kissing on those cheeks!
2:10 MAMA TV TIME – once Bean is starting to get a little bored/sleepy we have a little cuddle and Youtube time, because honestly if I dont catch a few minutes now I dont get the chance until after bedtime and im usually too busy then with other stuff.
2:23 PM NAP – Once the sleepy cues start showing up I take Bean into my room grab a little book put on her ocean sounds and we read for a couple of minutes. Then she goes into her sleep sack gets a little cuddle and song and I lay her down awake. She rarely complains. I am SO thankful for this.
Naptime hussle is the name of the game
2:30 TEA TIME – I make myself a pot of tea and get to work. Naptime is my “work” time
2:40 CLEANING – try as I might to stay on top of the kitchen throughout the morning it always needs reset after lunch.
2:53 – COMPUTER WORK – I check Facebook first and get that out of the way and then I work on the blog or homeschooling stuff. Today it was homeschool stuff, I’m trying to get October planned.
3:55 NURSE – Bean woke up first today and is ready for a nurse session
4:00 WAKE UP – Bitty up gets up when her Nest goes off and she comes to find me in the basement. Where we promptly send her back up to go potty.
4:15 SNACKTIME – Bitty gets a quick snack and watches a TV show. This is her choice, its been a lot of Octonauts and True and the Rainbow Kingdom lately.
4:50 OUTSIDE – Daddy is done with work and we need to clean the garage so we all head outside. Here is a blow by blow of how my time actually went…
- Stop what I’m doing to provide the toddler bubbles
- Stop what I’m doing to move the baby from the wagon to the grass
- Stop what I’m doing to pick up the bubbles that have spilled
- Stop to make sure that the toddler isn’t getting into mischief in the house
- Stop to sit with the baby who is bored with being by herself
- Stop to soothe the toddler who has kicked her wobble board
- Stop to move the baby back to the wagon
All of that in less than an hour and believe it or not I did actually get some work done in the garage. Not all of it but SOME.
5:40 BIKE RIDE – We have had a balance bike for a long time and Bitty has never really been all that interested in it. Well, something clicked today and she has a finally figured out how to ride her balance bike! So we finished up in the garage and went for a little bike ride while Daddy made dinner
5:50 NURSE DUTY – Natuallly her first time really riding and she gets tripped up and falls, thankfully it was in the driveway and she didn’t have to go far to get a bandaid.
5:55 FREEPLAY – we are all getting a little hungry, but dinner isn’t quite done yet so we busy ourselves in the living room. Bitty is back at the Legos, I am checking Instagram and the baby is crawling around getting into trouble
6:08 MAMA MODE – cue that trouble, Bean has randomly tipped over and conked her noggin on the floor so in swoops mama to soothe a baby
6:27 DINNERTIME
6:48 CLEAN UP – This is the hardest time for me to do any more cleaning but I always appreciate it in the morning so I persist. Thankfully Dad has to help with this one. We let the girls play in the living room while we clear the table and clean up the kitchen. Bitty helps unload the dishwasher usually but it didn’t need it tonight.
7:15 BASEMENT FUN – Bitty and I are working our way through Paper Mario Origami Kingdom and by us I really mean me. But she LOVES watching me play and I get some good snuggles out of it so I’m not complaining. If we don’t play, then we will put on some TV that Zak and I are watching like Doctor Who or Good Eats. Bitty prefers Doctor Who but we don’t really give her the choice often. This is our tv time. Bean is crawling around getting into trouble as is her new norm.
7:30 NURSE – We always do one more feed before bed for Miss Bean
7:50 BEDTIME SNACK – I am a snacker and most nights I just cannot wait until after bedtime so we do a bedtime snack in the late evening with Bitty. This is often a little bit of chocolate or some other fun treat cause mama’s got a sweet tooth.
8:00 BEAN BEDTIME – Dad is on Bean duty tonight so he takes her up and gets her into jammies and into her crib.
8:20 BITTY BEDTIME – Again we lost track of time and Bitty’s bedtime routine is running a little late today. She takes one more potty break and then Daddy and I both do the bedtime routine with her.
I’m never truly off the clock but this is as close as it gets!
8:30 DATE NIGHT – by date night I do not mean candles and fancy dinner I mean it’s the one night a week that we make sure to set aside to do something together we’ll often watch a TV show that is not kid-friendly or we’ll play a video game that we both enjoy. Tonight we were playing virtues last reward and escape room video game.
10:23 NURSE – We stopped attempting the dream feed couple of months ago, but now Miss Bean just tends to wake up around 10:00 or 10:30 wanting to nurse anyway…
10:30 BEDTIME – I brush teeth, put my hair up in a messy bun (like it hasn’t been up in that all day…lol), Then I play a few minutes of a phone game but knowing that I’m up at least twice a night to nurse Bean I try not to stay up much later than 11:00. 10:30 is my average.
A stay at home mom’s daily routine is what keeps the household functioning
Once upon a time, people used to wonder what stay at home moms did all day. Let me tell you, we do it ALL. All Day Long.
We are chef, We are maid, We are teacher, We are nurse. We fill so many roles in a day that we often forget everything we actually do accomplish in our daily routine.
What is your favorite part of your daily routine? What about your least favorite? Leave your comments below!
If you want to keep up-to-date on our daily life make sure you follow my Instagram where I post pretty regularly about our everyday life and chaos.
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Thanks for the great info. It’s fun to hear about everything.
Its impressive how much you manage in a day when you make note of it all!