Help me get out of the house on time for school run with newborn twins

[Spanneroo]

My twins are 3 weeks old, and I have a 2yo and 5yo.

DH is going to be doing an early work pattern until the babies are a bit older to help ensure that no matter what, at least dinner and bed happen in a timely manner, as everything else will go tits up if the big girls haven't slept enough.

So from next week, I will have to get everyone out of the house on my own.

I am looking for any tips to get organised so that I can have a few trial run mornings before Monday and hopefully get there on time. I'm getting a bit overwhelmed at the idea of having to have fed/changed babies, fed/changed big ones, school bags, coats and shoes on (DD2 needs some help, DD1 doesn't), getting hair and teeth done... I'm not even sure which order to do things in - e.g. if babies aren't fed close enough to leaving, they'll be hungry and crying.

I do have a neighbour with a school aged child as back up, but DD has been being bullied, so it's important I'm there if I can be for moral support and to speak to the teacher if needed.

Make sure you shower and dress before DH leaves. I would aim to feed twins @6 then shower while DH does nappies and baby grows before he leaves. I used to put Dd down in the buggy after her 5:30/6am feed so could take her straight to work (was leaving at 7:15 tho). If twins are fed at 6 might they then sleep 7:30 ish ? Allow you time to sort the other 2 out ?. Agree clothes, bags etc done night before.

Can remember when I had 3 little ones number 3 often had half a feed before playgroup and school run and half on return . So different to number 1 poor thing !

Get up and feed the babies/ change nappy and sleep suit as suggested - then you get dressed.

I found that if I’d done all this first - often by the time the other 2 were awake I could manage everything else. Though my third was a singleton, born when the others were 2 and 4 and we had a 15 minute school walk. I pushed my 2 year old though.

The other thing is OP, it gets easier!

Now, I have to get 22mo twins out to nursery for 8.20am then 5yo DD1 to her school 3miles down a narrow country road for 8.40. You would think this is harder than 2 newborns!

But, it isn't. Toddlers are a pita in some ways (as I type, DT1 is throwing his shoes into the kitchen - helpful) but they are much more robust. It doesn't matter if breakfast is off by 20 mins; they can entertain themselves a bit; they can "help" by tidying up a little.

Honestly, this is the hard part, and if you can do this, you are sorted

My now-5-yo is very fond of messing with stuff exploring bags, I think we hung her bag up high all packed? Now she will leave it alone, apart from sneaking in toys.

Honestly, the 2yo is a great walker. We have absolutely no need for a pushchair with her. We never bought a single pushchair anyway as we used a sling before they could both walk. It's the 5yo who will make us late on the walk, if anyone.

Our neighbour has been really good with helping out so far, and she's more than happy to take DD to school when needed, even at a moment's notice. But due to the bullying, I'd like to make it most days and absolutely on her first day back as she'll be anxious about it.

I've decided DH can be in charge of getting random school stuff together, so that's one less thing I have to do, other than collect on the way out the door.

Looking forward to starting our trial tomorrow morning!

Definitely do teeth first, I looked into this and apparently it's better to brush before breakfast to get all the crud off your teeth from the night before adding sugars from foods to it. Brushing too soon after breakfast can also damage enamel because of the acids produced to process the food.

So

Get up, brush teeth upstairs, change for the day (also means no toothpaste dribble on clothes), downstairs for breakfast and hair brushing and out the door.

Hair brushing is the hardest thing I have to do with my DD and new DS. It gets done in front of cbeebies and it's pony tail only, no fancy plaits or clips etc.

When I was born I had a sister who was 20 months older and a 5 year old brother. Even if paternity leave had been a thing I doubt my dad would have been much use. My mum says I screamed the entire school run, whether she had fed me or not.

I’ve no idea how she managed it, but she did.

Be kind to yourself, don’t worry if the twins cry a bit and just do your best!