Showering/ cooking tea

[Moomin1000]

Hi just looking for ideas in what to do with lo when cooking tea? And showering in the morning? She's crawling now so no longer safe to leave on the mat!!!
Also I find teatime, feeding etc really stressful trying to cook, eat, feed her and bath etc any tips how to survive? Thanks in advance for any advice x

For cooking I used to put dd in her highchair and give her some toys to play with in there.

If I hadn't showered before Dh went out to work I used to shower with Dd and clean her at the same time.

How old is she? I take 8 month old DD into the bathroom with me and put her on the floor with some toys. She goes in her highchair when I'm cooking, again with toys.

I used to put mine in a baby chair with a baby gym over it, and then talk/sing if they got wrestless.

Do you have a 'cage'? I had a cage and it was fab (until LO was 2 and climbed out )

www.mothercare.com/playpens/safety_playpens,default,sc.html

I showered at night when baby asleep at that stage. cooking: either in playpen in sight or in the highchair or in a carrier on my back.

I used to put dd in bath (filled with toys but no water) while I showered. Make tea when she is napping normally or wait till DH home.

In cot with toys for shower.

At my feet in kitchen but it's big so it's ok. Couple of saucepans and a spoon keeps her happy!

Put her in a playpen or travel cot with some toys, or a highchair if she'll sit still to watch cbeebies you cook. Don't get complicated at teatime, batch cook some favourites so all you need to do is reheat and bung on some pasta/veg to go with it. Let her feed herself while you eat yours and help her afterwards.

Shut her in the bathroom with you while you shower if you like.

Bathtime - sorry, just a matter of getting wet/messy/having fun, no quick way through that!

i used to wheel pram into bathroom so dd could watch me as she screamed if i went out of sight. but my bathroom was on ground floor so that was easy.
and used highchair in the kitchen.
have you got a bouncer that goes on the door frame, maybe put that on bathroom door whiles you have shower.

My DD has always been a late riser (has been known to sleep through the waking up part and through her morning nap when she was under 8mths LOL) so I usually got up a bit earlier than her usual wake up time to run through the shower. DS was an earlier riser so I used to bring a basket of toys into the bathroom for him to play with on the floor and sing/chat constantly :)

When she was crawling we used the Jumperoo in our kitchen but it is a cavern, so high chair would do the same trick. From about 11mths when she was confident on her feet I have used the funpod www.littlehelper.co.uk/ brilliant invention, a friend of mine had her DH knock one together once he saw the concept, the funpod has been great for both my kids - love it!

At this stage, I showered at night and had a quick wash in the morning.
And I found cooking a horror, he wasn't so laid back as to be left to it, or happy with one activity for a few minutes. So I tended to plan and prepare tea through the day eg cut up veg at nap time, then the bit in the kitchen was v limited.

I had a travel cot that i filled up with balls so it was like a ball pit, i put DS in there for a bit when i wanted to do something. He never tried to climb out altho did try and climb in a few times!!

He's 2.2 now and i still put him in his cot bed (still had sides on) when i have a shower with a few books and he's happy enough. This is the main reason why i haven't taken the sides off cotbed yet!!