Current schedule

I've spent some time over the last month or so trying to find a schedule that works for our family. During the first month of Hannah's life I found that I was too often neglecting Nathan during the day, so much that he would get bored eventually and start getting into stuff he knows he is not allowed to play with. He's such an 'easy' toddler and is great a amusing himself but he still has limits on how long I can let him play by himself. I began reading a blog that talked quite a bit about what categories of activities a toddler should have in his day and started to think about how to make it work for me.

The constant in our day is that Nathan naps somewhere between 12:30 and 3:30 for 2 hours. I also knew I needed Hannah to be on a 3-hour schedule and that I wanted some one-on-one time with each of them throughout the day. A new thing I added to Nathan's schedule is called 'independent play time.' This is a time for him to play on his own in his room. It will help him learn to play without me always interfering and fixing things for him when he gets stuck. The first day or two of this were tough, as Nathan would cry when I would shut the door and periodically pull at his door handle (as an aside - thank goodness he hasn't figured out how to open doors yet!). This only lasted for about 2 days, though, and now as long as he has his favourite toys (his cars and little garage) in his room he smiles as I leave. Yippee! He does independent play for 90 minutes most mornings.

Here is our current schedule, but it is always subject to change!

7:00 am --> Up and feed Hannah, Nathan up and dressed, breakfast for Nathan and I. Hannah goes down for her nap somewhere between 7:45 and 8:00 am.
9:30 am --> One-on-one time with Nathan.
10:00 am --> Independent play time for Nathan in his room. Get Hannah up to eat. Tummy time for her.
11:00 am --> Nap for Hannah.
11:30 am --> Independent play time ends for Nathan. We usually do some laundry right after this since we're already upstairs.
12:00 pm --> Lunch for Nathan and I.
1:00 pm --> Nathan goes down for his nap. Hannah up to eat.
1:30 pm --> One-on-one time with Hannah.
2:00 pm --> Hannah down for a nap. This is my own free time :)
3:00 pm --> Nathan up from his nap. If he's really tired I'll let him sleep a bit longer.
4:00 pm --> Hannah up to eat. Independent play time for her (usually either in pack and play or on activity mat). She goes down for her nap around 5:00 pm.
4:30 pm --> Supper preparation, supper, clean up.
6:30 pm --> Nathan bath and jammies.
7:00 pm --> Hannah up to eat, then bath.
8:00 pm --> Both kids in bed. Sigh of relief :) haha.
10:00 pm --> Dreamfeed (wake Hannah to eat, diaper change, and straight back to bed).

I had to make this schedule so I can do it by myself, since Peter is heading away in less than three weeks. Otherwise I would have put both baths at the same time and we would have done them together.

My original schedule had their naps / independent play time overlapping much more so that I had 3 1/2 hours where they were simultaneously occupied every day. However, I felt that I wasn't getting enough one-on-one time with either of them when I did that, so I like this schedule better.

I just ordered Babywise II, Toddlerwise, Childwise, and a potty training book by Gary Ezzo so when they come I'm planning to start adding in other elements to Nathan's day. I've read a few of them on the blog I mentioned above but wanted to get a basic schedule down first.

And ... starting to potty training with Nathan after we move. Fun, fun! At least I can do it in the summer where fewer clothes need to be removed. lol. I'm sure there will be many posts dedicated to this effort in the coming months. If anyone has any tips I would be grateful to hear them.