Holy cats, I am LATE on answering this question: What’s a typical day like in your house?

Well. Like any houses with babies, our days have been slowly evolving since bringing tiny people into it.

At first, it was nothing but diaper, feed, hold, pump (for me, obv). Lather, rinse, repeat.

In the early days – like, the WAY early days – only Rob and I fed the babies because they still had trouble with the whole suck/swallow/breathe business, and we knew what to watch for and how to handle the moments when they couldn’t breathe well enough.

In those days, it took an hour to an hour and a half to diaper and feed them all. They ate every three hours for a while and needed to be held upright 20-30 minutes after so we had about an hour between the routine to sleep/eat/shower/whatnot.

It wasn’t until June that they all started changing the game and playing with nap routines. Up until that point, they slept at the same time, and they usually napped for a good chunk of time. We’ve finally hit a better stride, and they often take two good naps together. Recent days have been looking pretty fine, and we’re getting back into a routine rather than clinging to one while chaos rains down.

Lately, they sleep until 7-8 in the morning, when we get them up and in fresh diapers and clothes for the day. I breastfeed all three for their first feeding – two and then one – then they read stories, sing songs and play with Grandma and Grandpa (my parents) while I pump. An hour after the first two started eating is when they’re ready for breakfast – oatmeal, fruit (apples, pears, peaches or mango) and yogurt. Sometimes they play a bit more (we were on the swings this morning), and sometimes they’re tired. Soon after, though, they nap.

If they all nap, I clean/do laundry/cook/blog/eat (not all and not in that order). Otherwise, I dance between playing with babies and getting something accomplished in the house. There are some days when the only thing I manage to do in the house is clear away dirty dishes, rotate loads of laundry and vacuum/swiffer the floors.

Then it’s time for bottles for two and one-on-one breastfeeding for one. They play with Grandma and Grandpa while I pump, then it’s time to either play more, nap or run errands – who knows?

Three-four hours later is time for another round of bottles/breastfeeding, then they have dinner about an hour after that – chicken, veggies and fruit is what’s on the menu lately. Rob is usually home around then, so he relieves my parents unless it’s bath night. If it’s bath night, they stay to help (we do baths three times a week).

On non-bath nights, we clean them up after dinner play together in the living room or take them out to swing. We watch for sleepy signs and strip them down for about 30 minutes of naked time before their last bottles/breastfeeding (I nurse two while Rob feeds one a bottle) of the night.

When we’re lucky, they sleep right away. Sometimes one or more needs to play a bit more, sometimes one or more just needs some cuddles and rocking before drifting off.

Once they’re down, Rob and I eat something. We sometimes eat during the break between their dinner and their last bottle/breastfeeding, but they’ve started getting antsy watching us eat, so it’s been easier to eat later.

Then I pump while Rob washes bottles, we hang out for a bit together, then we crash.

Toby often wakes for a midnightish snack, but that’s a quick retrieve, feed, back-to-bed routine that hardly disrupts my sleep anymore.

Then there are nights when they’re all up – at different times, of course. Those are more and more rare, though. Thank God.

On bath nights, the routine changes only slightly. I throw on my bathing suit and hang out in our tub with bubble-filled bath. My mom brings in the first baby for me to bathe. I call out a warning when I’m washing his/her hair, letting Rob, who’s washing dirty bottles and preparing full bottles, know the bottle needs to be ready in about five minutes. My mom retrieves the clean baby for lotion, diaper and jammies and Rob brings in the next customer. The first baby gets handed off to my dad for his/her bottle, and my mom waits for the second to be done in the bath.

Second verse, same as the first.

For the third baby, Rob takes over the lotioning/dressing while I dry off. He feeds the third baby, and I either put babies to bed or pump, depending on whether they’re ready right away or not.

So there you have it – the nuts and bolts of our typical day. Add in three personalities that determine happy/cranky/easy/difficult days, factors like errands, appointments and teeth that can throw off a whole day’s routine, and you should have a good picture of life at Casa de ETC.

We’re lucky to have my parents living in our neighborhood. I call when it’s time to feed the babies or if things are crazy and I need an extra set or two if hands. Having their help is the reason our trio has always been fed in loving arms instead of needing to prop bottles. They’re a vital part of our lives, and we wouldn’t trade them for the world.

So how do we keep track of it all, with three babies and numerous feeders/diaper changers? We chart, of course! We tried to go without keeping record of the nuts and bolts for a whole 18 hours before I frantically searched our home computer for the chart I had saved months earlier. A quick trip to Kinko’s and we were on our way to organization.

A then and now comparison, with a chart from their first month on the left and yesterday’s chart on the right. We’ve gotten less specific as we’ve needed to record less (like for how long each baby breastfed), and of course fewer feedings simplify things a lot. Click the image for a bigger view.

Now I know why I’ve avoided writing this entry. I need a nap after just writing about it all. Whew!