In the time it took me to make a latte and pour a bowl of cereal Kaitlyn managed to splash in the cat water fountain and make a huge puddle, get her wet hands far too close to an unprotected outlet, chew on the open end of a plugged-in phone charger, stuff two unknown objects from the floor into her mouth, pull down my pyjama pants, pull out a few yards of toilet paper and pull two workbooks off the coffee table. Luckily, I found the cat vomit on the carpet before she did. What a first morning!
So here's what I learned about how to make mornings work better when I'm doing it solo:
1. Get up before the baby. This is the only hope I have of washing my face (maybe even getting a shower!) or getting a coffee made in peace. Hopefully me being up doesn't also encourage her to wake up early.
2. Sweep every night before bed.
3. Get more plug covers, I'll need them at the new house anyways. Already done.
4. Move the cat water fountain. Already done.
5. Do as much meal planning and preparation as possible the night before.
So tonight I'll be setting an alarm for the first time in over a year and the house will be spotless (haha) before I go to bed. That's okay, we need to start getting ready for a back-to-work schedule anyways. Any other advice to make solo parenting easier?
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| The little trouble maker during our summer family photos. |
Update: My first day planning to get up before Kaitlyn was an utter disaster. She fought sleep until 10 pm, then I couldn't get to sleep until 1 am. She woke up at 5:30 am. I nursed her praying that she would go back to sleep. She did and I returned to bed and shut off my alarm clock thinking "Hey, it's Sunday. So we'll both have a little sleep-in." She got up at 6:30 am, the time my alarm had been set for. On the bright side, my extra baby-proofing meant that I got my coffee and her cereal made without incident.
Two words: Baby cage :)
ReplyDeleteThis thing (actually, two of them attached together to form a huge space) has been my saviour every single morning since we got it.
http://www.toysrus.ca/product/index.jsp?productId=2689375
Thanks for the advice, Carli. I might look into that when we move and I have a bit more space to try it out in. I don't know how well Kaitlyn will do with a cage since her current favourite activity is standing behind me, gripped onto my pants, with her head stuck between my legs. This makes it really hard to move or pick her up to move her but I assume she's at that needy stage.
ReplyDeleteWe started with five to 10 minutes of independent playtime once or twice each day, and over the course of a few months, have worked up to the point where Oliver can be left for 30 to 45 minutes at a time with little or no fussing. I usually put him in there right after his morning feed, and now he has come to expect it as part of his daily routine.
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