Evening schedule with 4 month old

[PoppingTomorrow]

How do you work it?

I'm on mat leave, DP is working monday-friday, variable shifts sometimes finishing/home 9pm, sometimes 6pm without total predictability over finish times.

Baby is mostly BF, occasionally we'll use formula to give me a break, but that often means I'll need to pump.

I tend to start DC's day with whichever wake up he does between 6am -8am.

I'm struggling with how to time baby's bath, feed, bed routine and when I eat/get ready for bed. Obviously when DP is home I'd like a bit of time with him sometimes.

Do you start bath at 7 and wait til baby is asleep before eating your own evening meal? Have you prepared it earlier that day?

We are rubbish at meal planning which probably doesn't help.

We didn't really have a schedule at 4 months, he used to fall asleep on me on the sofa around 7 and then used to feed again at 10 when we went up to bed.

Batch cooking is your friend here!! It's the only way I can survive, just need to pull out some portions from the freezer & reheat when H gets home, no worries about juggling the baby and cooking at the same time.

I have 4DC. I've never waited until after bedtime for my dinner - what if they take a long time to settle??? A fair amount can be done with baby in a sling, or I had a nice big table the bouncy chair could sit safely on when eldest was too young to sit up and potentially tip it.