Dinner, bath and bed time with 1 mo and 1yo!!!

[ellensmelons]

How do you do it? DD who is 14 months has dinner at 5, usually when DS (one month) needs a feed. They then need their bath at around 6 before bed. love to read story to DD before bedtime. What to do with the other while i'm bathing / reading etc!!??Yes, i'm a routine freak. Prob slightly asd. Your advice would be hugely apprecated. (Currently relying on DP to do DD but will be working away soon...)

a sling/bouncy seat for DS?

I have a 5yr old, 2yr old and a 17wk old and its taken me a wee while to get into a routine but at first I realised the eldest two would just have to wait until DD3 was sorted if she needed attending to

she's 14months old, she won't starve if her dinner is 10minutes late and am sure she wouldn't even notice

TV is my friend during dinner/bath time but needs must at certain times

am very you were in any kind of routine with a baby at one month, I haven't managed that since DD2 arrived until they were much older

(Ducks in advance) I've Gina Ford-ed both of them... DS has been going to bed at 7 since he was a week old. Been feeling guilty about the TV thing. DD loves it - which is handy with a newborn- and did think that watching the cbeebie bedtime hour in her cot may be something for now, until i can do them both at the same time.

I don't have a tv upstairs or near their bedroom but they're allowed to watch it downstairs after tea to give me a chance to run the bath, bathe DD3 and then they come up and get into it while I feed and put down DD3

I don't have such a small age gap as you though - its never easy

breastfeed dd2 whilst reading to dd1
be flexible with timings
dont bath everyday
put baby in a bouncy chair, cot or just lay on changing mat on the floor whilst bathing dd1

Get into bath with toddler and hold baby in there.

Read to toddler while feeding baby.

bath at a different time of day, it doesn't have to be last thing (or at all).

but mine didn't have routines anyway so it wasn't too bad with 2 at once.

Alternate bath nights - do the bath when the other one has gone to bed. They don't need a bath every night

Don't do bathtime every night.

Feed ds whilst dd is in the bath or watches tv in her pyjamas or is having stories (if you have a hand free or can use your foot to turn the pages).

Dont worry too much about serving perfect meals every night. Sandwiches will be fine if you dont have the time, energy or opportunity to cook something for your ds. You can even prepare them in advance and whip them out for dd if your ds needs feeding at the same time.

I have a bigger gap between mine (21 months) and found the feeding, bath, bedtime part of the day horrific, so my heart goes out to you (I'm a routine freak too). If it is any consolation it gets easier when the little one reaches about 6/7 months, and much easier when they're about 9 months.