A typical routine of a Mother

Living with a baby is a chaos and with two, the intensity is not double but increases exponentially. No matter how hard you try, or how early you rise, the everyday routine is a mess. Life is worse if the children is a fussy eater and the one with short nap. And I have babies with both of these qualities. Me-time is almost null. There is no time for your work, your study, your dress up, your make-up or update FB. Forget everything, you cannot even take shower in peace, you cannot eat on time, go to pee on time and you have to answer your children while doing poo. If your children gets a sound sleep, thank god you will have time to drink a glass of water peacefully and take a power nap.

So, I wanted to record my typical day with the two apples of my eyes, one 3 years old Nayuma and other 5 months old Samin. This record is for my own shake when I would have totally forgotten in future, when both of these babies have grow up and have no time for us.

around 5 am       
- Wake up, check n change the diaper.
- Clean-up the room, collect the night nappies, dirty clothes and head to the bathroom.

- Collect the dry nappies and clothes from the night before.

by 6 am
- Wash and hang up the clothes. 

- Sterilize the milk-bottles and re-fill hot water in flask.                                  

- Prepare breakfast for the older one, make her school bag and wake her up.

Now it depends how fast she wakes up but the smaller one is already awake and need to be taken care of his poop, change diaper and feed him 

by 7 am
-  Talk to Nayu, listen to her dream and take her to freshen up and play.
-  Oil massage to the small one, change the clothes and let him play for a while. 

at 8 am
-  Make Nayu finish the breakfast (which is a tough job and it takes one-one supervision and may take longer time then expected)

by 8.30 am
- Make Nayu brush her teeth, take a quick bath and get ready for school.(And Nayu might demand who would accompany until her bus stop)

                           

by 9.00 am
-  After fetching her school, make your office stuff ready.
- Struggle some time to make the small one sleep (he may or may not sleep)
- Collect the dirty nappies, wash and hang up. Before that collect the dried nappies.   

by 10.00 am
- Eat your food and pack your lunch box.
-  Feed the small one, pump out some milk and store for the day.
-  Make everything ready-nappies, extra clothes, wiper, toys, bottle, milk, water and other accessories required for the baby for the whole day.
-  Get ready and leave for office.

The office time is 10 am but by the time you reach office its already 10.30 am even though there is office drop-service on bike by the daddy-dear. The office is your relax time. Check your work list and concentrate. There is no leisure time to have guff-suff with the colleagues. Then the alarm rings at 2.45 pm as a reminder to leave office. With the work pressure, I forgot twice to collect Nayu from the bus stop, hence alarm is the best option. 

by 3.30 pm   
- Wrap up work, leave office and reach Nayu Bus Stop.

by 4 pm
- Change and freshen up Nayu. Listen to her school activities. Give her bottle of milk.
- Breast feed the small one and get relieved of your breast swelling.
- Play and give some attention to him.

by 5.30 pm
- Pull the dried nappies from the morning. Wash and hang dirty nappies from the day.
- Sterilize and dry the milk bottles.
- Finish Nayu homework. (she needs full attention while doing her homework otherwise she might shed some tears)
- Make the small one sleep. And most probably he won't sleep and need to struggle back-forth with the two kids.

If the small one sleeps, I am lucky to get time to drink n eat something, talk with Nayu and have a power nap with a condition that Nayu is watching video.   

by 6.30 pm   
- Finish Nayu dinner. It is hard as always.
- Finish dinner by all. If the small one doesn't cry, I can take some time to talk with other members.
- Go to the bedroom. Let Nayu play or watch video.

by 7.30 pm
- Make Nayu go to bed. Give her a bottle of milk.
- Go to the toilet. Change her clothes. Read something with her.

Nayu demands story after finishing the milk, before sleeping. Among her books, she picks up one of her choice and she first asks me to read and then she repeats. She reads with fun and its very interesting to see her reading because she reads and makes up her own story with the pictures in the book. 

at 8.00 pm     
- Say good night to Nayu and ask her to close everything and go to sleep. (she may or may not agree, depends upon her mood of watching video. But the light goes off).
- Feed the small one, change the nappy. Put him to sleep.
And the baby cries for no reason before going to sleep. So it may take 15 to 45 minutes depending upon the baby. If the baby sleeps easily, wohoo lucky!

                          

after 9.00 pm 
- Ask Nayu to turn off the video, if she is still watching.
- Collect the dried nappies. Wash and hang the dirty nappies and clothes.
- Check and clean up the rooms.
-  Check and finish other works like sterilizing bottles, washing or ironing office dress, checking bills and accounts. 

                           

So at around 10.00 pm, its peace in the house and I have pain in my back, feet, ankle, tired to death. Still, make calls if there is any. Scroll social websites. Watch TV if there is any interesting program. Do some thinking or remembering random stuffs. And if I cannot meet deadlines of my office work, it has to be done at home at this time. However, sometimes I am so tired that I get fast asleep with the baby and the things scheduled after 9.00 pm gets done after 12.30 am when the alarm rings. My alarm rings at 12.30 am and 2.30 am to check the baby's nappy, and to check if he wants to be feed. The alarm is important not only to check the baby but also for emergencies, accidents which will jumble up your next day routine. 

This is my typical schedule if my activities are set with the time. However, there are things which cannot be set with time. Checking the baby's nappy every 10/20 minutes. The small one's sudden cry, sudden poop. Fulfilling Nayu's sudden demand. Accompany her to play.  Confronting her tantrum. Answer her peculiar questions-Mammy, I am alone, who wants to play with me ?

Apart from the exception cases like my office travel, sick-me/nayu/baby/mom, office late hours, my tight schedule is still operational and I am surviving, able to breathe. But I cannot imagine what would I do if my mom was not there to take care of other household burden. The kitchen has enough food. The food is prepared. The house is clean. The bathroom is clean. The toiletries are there. Most important, sleeps with Nayu despite of her health issues. And my life would have been easier if there was diaper option. But my small one has sensitive skin and the diaper doesn't suit. I would have little less rush time if my husband-dear or my brother-dear is there. I can sleep in the night and should not rush at 3 to leave office. I can work until 5.00 pm and come home and can have a rest time. Still, my time at office is more peaceful despite the work pressure compared to the Saturdays. 

I cannot thank enough to my family members who is with me, around me, taking their time to manage my time.

[But sometimes, my head swells, heart aches, and feel overburden with responsibilities, get scared, feel insecure and worry about future which cannot be managed, I guess.]