How do you manage the school run plus a new born? Tell me your morning routines!

[usernametaken]

It dawned on me this morning, whilst chivvying DD to eat her breakfast and get herself dressed that in September we will have a new born to content with as well. How do you manage to be out the front door on time?

Right now our routine is 7am everyone gets up, DD has breakfast. It takes her 45mins to eat 2 pieces of toast or a bowl of cereal (she is slooooooooow) whilst I make playtime snack. At 7.45am she goes to the toilet, gets dressed (whilst I get dressed), I brush her teeth and do her hair, then we have 10minutes of her playing, then we leave at 8.15am. At the moment it works well except DD needs constant reminding to eat, get dressed, stop staring into space, stop doing sums or spellings, stop dancing around etc etc! I have 4 weeks left of school this term to change a few things, 6 weeks of summer to undo everything, then a week of back to school (she will be starting in Reception) before the baby arrives (fantastic timing...not)!

How does your morning work? Is it like a military operation or do you send them to school in their PJs? I don't want to be encouraging/hassling her when there is a newborn to feed and get ready. I'm more than happy to get up earlier but DD needs an incentive to get her going and be on this planet first thing. She refuses to watch TV so I can't use that as an incentive!

She is currently 4.3yrs and likes to do everything in her own time!

Ah, and the other thing is bibs teatowels are very good for wrapping round the eldest's front while eating breakfast with uniform on.

And babywipes near the front door essential for last minute toothpaste stain wiping and corner of mouth cleaning. So school don't think you're a normal neglectful parent, like.

Or breakfast with polo shirt only; sweatshirt on last to cover up the porridge stains

DP and DD have breakfast together at about 7:15. That way I know she's definitely eaten properly, and it doesn't matter if DS and I don't have breakfast until after the school run. All I have to do is get the 3 of us washed and dressed, and give DS some milk, before 8:30. On a good day we've enough time for us all to be washed dressed and fed by 8:30. On a bad day, DD is washed, dressed, fed and at school on time while DS and I adopt a 'casual dress' code and catch up later in the morning...... I know it sounds like oodles of time - but DS can be very clingy in the morning, I've general had less than 5 hours sleep and need all the time I can get

You have to weigh up the pros and cons of making them get dressed before breakfast, which is an effective way of them getting dressed on time, against the spillage factor - for dreamy messy dd1 this was high.

My other two are far more organised, it was only with dd1 we had this problem, even now at 9 she's the latest, every day, she enjoys a leisurely breakfast, forgets her lunch and homework, drifts off to play with her hamster, while her 2 younger sisters are neatly lined up at the door with bags and scooters at the ready.

Hi.

I have a newborn and a dd (4.5) who goes to pre-school every day. I was really worried about how we were going to manage it but we have.

My dd sounds similar to yours in that she needs a lot of chivvy-ing to get anything done. DH usually has left before any of us are up so he's not much help either.

I didn't have to do the nursery run until dd2 was 5 weeks due to having dh home for 2, my mum then came for 1 as I'd had a c-sec and wouldn't have been able to get dd1 to nursery and then the easter holidays.

I'm not quite sure how we've worked it- I guess at the moment dd2 is awake early enough that she feeds before dd1 gets up so then I can leave dd2 and dash around getting myself sorted and dd1 sorted. Often I don't have breakfast myself and often don't get a chance to shower.

My best advice would be not to worry too much and go with the flow. We have considered a star chart for dd1 to do stuff like get ready on her own, eat her breakfast quickly etc. but don't need it at the moment. However, I guess as we're only at pre-school we have a fairly flexible door policy (although we've always made it before the door has been locked !). School is obv. different.

I think it will be worse though when dd1 starts school in sept as DD2 will probably just be starting to be weaned so I'm going to have to fit in her breakfast and an earlier start time at school (although its about 3 minutes nearer !!).

I'll be in the same boat come September... I am going to have to get better at getting out of bed on time. DH, DD and I are all utterly crap at getting out of bed and it's usually a mad rush to get out of the door with lots of shouting persuading of dd to hurry up. I think the answer may just be to stay up after the middle of the night feed, it may be the only way