Morning routines for working moms outside the home

Just curious what morning schedules are like for those moms who work outside the home. Mine have just started 'sleeping' through the night and I'm trying to figure out if we should feed before we leave the house or if we should be feeding them before we leave. They go to bed at 7:30pm.

Here is ours right now:
5:00 am they wake up but we don't go in until 6am unless we really have to.
6:00 am 4 oz bottle
7:00 dressed
7:30 out the door
7:45 Breakfast at daycare

I can't figure out how to do the signature at the bottom:
Collin and Sydney born 3/27/06

 

I don't have an answer to your question, since I stay home with my girls, but I just wanted to comment that I grew up in Excelsior! I live in Rochester now. So hello fellow Minnesotan

 

2 days a week I take them to Grandma's. I wake them up at 6AM. I change their diapers and we are out the door by 6:15.

I do as little as possible with them in the morning (so I don't have to wake them any earlier). I put them to bed in outfits they can wear for the next day. Anything that needs to go with us that morning gets put in the car the night before. I get to spend about 15 minutes with them when I drop them off.

(The Gma factor helps a lot).

 

We have a nanny come in which makes it a bit easier. But I dress and feed them before she gets here. At 1 yr and even now, they are sometimes awake before 7, but I don't go in before seven unless they are crying. They usually just talk and laugh in the morning. So I have everything else around the house done and myself ready before I go in there at 7, I dress them for the day and then eat breakfast with them. I leave when our nanny gets here at 7:30. I try to do as much as possible before I leave with them so that I get to spend more time with them. I've often thought about just letting them sleep, but then I'd miss out on doing my "goodmorning ritual" wih them

 

I work outside the home. Here is our schedule.

5:45-6:00 - Boys wake up. Feed yogurt or applesauce with prevacid (Owen) with sippie of water. Get them dressed.
6:30 - Give 8oz sippie of milk
6:45-7:15 Either take them to sitter or she (sister) comes and picks them up
7:45 - Breakfast at sitter

Mine will be starting daycare in May, and I will begin feeding them breakfast at 6:30a.m. (which is what we do on the weekend).

HTH.
O.

 

I work outside of the home and get my 3 ready by myself every morning since my husband has his first client every morning at 5am. I wake up at 5:45am and get myself ready - coffee, makeup, hair, clothes - in that order. The boys wake up about 6:15 and play until I come in at 6:30. I wake DD up right before I go in their room and we all hang out in the boys' nursery until about 7:00. During that time they take their bottles and I change diapers and dress the boys. At 7:00 I take DD and dress and feed her. By 7:15 I'm loading the car and then we all brush our teeth together. I usually pull out of the drive about 7:25ish. The boys have their breakfast at "school" around 7:45.

Fortunately, I do not have to teach an 8:00 class next semester so we might be a little more relaxed with that routine. It's such pressure getting everything done in the morning knowing I have students waiting to get in my classroom at 7:45.

 

It probably depends on the length of your commute and what time you have to be there -- and and what your childcare scenario is. I have an au pair, a 1/2 hour commute, and adjusted my schedule so I don't have to be in until 9:30, but here it is:

6:45 I shower and get dressed
7:30 They get up and have their Ovaltine and watch Sesame Street in my room with me.
8:00 They get dressed
8:30 They have breakfast while I chug the rest of my coffee
8:45 Judith (our au pair) comes up from her room
9:00 I leave the house

 

I usually am at work by 7:45am and this is our general morning routine:

6:00am Husband and I get up and get ready (shower, dress, etc.)
6:30am Wake girls up, if they aren't already awake, change diapers,
dress them for the day
6:40am Take girls into living room where they drink about 8oz of
milk from their sippies before leaving for the baby sitter
6:55am Put shoes and/or socks on the girls, feed and water the dog,
put all of my things in the car
7:00am Get husband's attention and each grab a girl and load them
into the car
7:05am Leave to take girls to baby sitter's house where she feeds
them breakfast, usually by 8am

 

My routine seems to be alot later so not sure that it is helpful but when I was working full time I got up at 7:30 and got myself ready, K&K got up at 8. They were ready to eat pretty much right away so we had breakfast, got them dressed and out the door at 8:45.

You can create your signature but clicking on Go, hovering over Personal Zone, click on profile then edit/view complete profile. Scroll down to the signature box and enter your info. Scroll down to the bottom to click submit. We are changing board software this weekend and some siggie info may not convert so you might want to wait until after the weekend to create your sig.

 

Our Aunt comes and watches the boys so they don't have to leave the house but this is our morning:

7:20-7:30 i get up & wake up the girls
7:35 put away dishes straigten up & make breakfast
7:45 tell brooke to get out of bed AGAIN and finish the morning clean up
8:00 get the boys, change diapers kiss & cuddle for a minute and put them in ther high chairs & give them some dry cereal,
8:05 girls r dress and breakfast is usually done, i do there hair they brush there teeth and get ther bookbags i put in snacks for the day.
8:10 i get dressed
8:20 get ready to leave the house, help the girls with there bookbags & jackets, Aunt Rita arrives
8:25 kiss the babies and run to the train station

If gavin wakes up then I'm all screwed up cause he hates when i leave him..so i feel really bad and end up missing my train..

i do my make-up on the train so that saves me time..

i pray everyday that we win the lottery so i can be a SAHM!!!

 

It depends what time they wake up, what time you have to be at work, and what daycare's rules are about breakfast. When my kids moved to the toddler room (at 12 months), the school started making a big deal of the need to feed "a healthy, balanced breakfast" at home. (They do get a snack at school around 9 a.m. -- cheese & crackers or something.)

So, around that time we switched from a morning bottle to sippies of milk with breakfast. I get them up, take off their sleep sacks, and they walk straight to the dining room and get put in their booster seats.

Anyway, here's our routine:
Anytime from 5:30-7 -- girls wake up, but stay in cribs
6:45: parent on breakfast duty (POBD) gets up, showers, makes breakfast
7:00: other parent gets up & showers
7:15: everyone eats (POBD in charge of feeding kids)
7:45: done with breakfast; on to diaper changes & dressing
8:00: last-minute running around, gathering things, brushing teeth, applying sunscreen, putting coats on
8:15ish: out the door (I take the kids to daycare, DH goes straight to work)

It made a huge difference when we started showering before getting the kids up. I did this one week when I was home alone and had no choice, but it worked so well, now it's the routine. It works much better now that the girls just chat & play in their cribs, rather than screaming for food -- this started around 13 months.

It also helps a lot that neither DH or I have to be at work right on time -- we just aim for 9:00, more or less.

You will figure out something that works for you!

 

I have to get up soooo early to make this schedule work!

4:30am I wake up get ready for work. DH takes care of the boys if they wake up
5:45am DH wakes up and gets ready for work
6:00-6:30am Babies wake up, I change diapers and clothes, start feeding
6:30am Nanny shows up and takes over
6:30am DH is out the door for a 20min commute and a 7:00am start
6:40am I'm out the door for a 1-1.5 hour commute and an 8:00am start

 

I work 3 days a week. I have a very nice sitter, so this is our schedule on the days they go:

6-6:15 Force myself out of bed (my alarm starts going off at 5:30!)
6:30-7:00 The girls wake up & play in their cribs
7-7:15 Get the girls up and loaded into the car
7:30-7:40 Drop girls off at the sitter's

We're very lucky that our sitter doesn't mind them coming in their jammies. She only watches 2-3 other kids part-time also; some on different days. So she doesn't have any other kids when I drop the girls off. She dresses and feeds them breakfast by 8am. I've told her to let me know at any time if she needs them to come clothed and fed, but it obviously makes it easier on me this way. Although now I feel really lazy after reading everyone else's schedules!

Marcy

 

Our daycare doesn't serve breakfast and doesn't open until 8am, and I have a pretty flexible work schedule that allows me to roll in anytime between 9 and oh, 9:45ish, so obviously that has a major influence on our morning schedule. Oh, and thankfully my girls aren't early risers!

We generally do something like this:

7:00 we wake up, get showered, and prep breakfast
7:30 we get the girls up and serve breakfast immediately
8:00 we get the girls dressed
8:15 we walk out the door for daycare/work
8:30 arrive at daycare

This can shift by a half hour on either side depending on our schedules, and sometimes the different segments take 15-20 minutes longer just given the vagaries of 2-year-olds. Sometimes breakfast is 5 minutes and sometimes they'd drag it out for an hour if I'd let them, LOL. Sometimes I don't walk out the door before 9:00, but that's pushing it a little too late for my tastes.

They have a snack at daycare at around 9:30. Once we moved past bottles and pureed foods (both of which I provided), daycare no longer serves breakfast. They do hot lunch and a morning and afternoon snack (all provided by her).

 

I am in a situtation where my parents are my childcare providers. Both (they are divorced) live very close to me. So typically they wake up at 7:30 and I change their diaper and put them straight in the car and off we go. Literally a 2 mile drive. They get breakfast and are dressed at their houses.

I know I am spoiled but there are still mornings where I feel stressed because they want to watch a show, grab every toy they can think of to bring, or just snuggle mommy... or even getting the diaper bag packed. I have started to do that before I go to bed in the evening, but it doesn't always get done.

 

I work 5 days/wk and I try to arrive at work between 8:45 and 9:00am. My husband is out the door at 6:15.

6:15 am I wake up, shower, get dressed
7:00 wake the babies, change diapers, put on clothes for the day, head downstairs
7:15 straight into the high chairs for milk and cheerios and/or banana while I let the dogs out. I make their breakfast, usually yogurt or oatmeal or waffles, and let the dogs in while breakfast cools. I get my purse, bag, lunch ready while they are eating. We usually chat a bit but no toys or TV.
7:40 I put their shoes on while they are still in their high chairs and put dishes and trays in the sink (to be done after work...). I clean up one and brush their hair/put their coat on and then let them roam the kitchen while I do the same for the other.
7:45 out to the garage and load in the car for the ride to grandmas.
8:05 arrive at grandmas.
8:45 arrive at work.

I only see them for about an hour at night, so I try to have breakfast with them in the morning. We have a two story house, so I stay in zones to save time. I do everything upstairs and then we all move downstairs and then out the door.

 

Just want to appologize that I posted this message for working moms outside the home. As I was reading the responses I realized that we all have to get up and get going for the day no matter what we do!!

And hi Sarah from Rochester. I live off of Hwy 7 just past Hwy 41 off of Lake Minnewashta. Hope that brings back fond memories.

 

Man, a lot of you get up way early.

Okay laugh at me, but the extra 2 min really help me....LOL

7:02 - Wake up take a shower
Get dressed, fix hair, put make up on
7:30 wake the kids, get them dressed
7:45 out the door to the sitter
I am at work by 8 or just a little after.

 

My DH takes them to Daycare the 3 days that they go so its a little more relaxed for me in the am:

5:30 I *try*to get up to get myself together
6-6:15 the kiddos all wake up and we trek down to the kitchen for a breakfast of oatmeal and sippies of milk
6:35 (ish) James is on the couch to watch micky mouse clubhouse and I take the girls upstairs for fresh diapers and to play in the safety of their room. I used to change them into clothes, but diapers can get bad and that makes a difficult change for DH.

If DH has worked really late I will have to go in and give him the morning report and wake him up a bit, some days the kids let him cat nap until 7:30 or so. If not, he will stumble downstairs to give us all kisses.

6:50 I am out the door for my 5 min commute to the high school...next year it will be 10 mins...

The girls still take a short nap at around 9 while DH gets ready for work the 3 days he goes into the office and they are all out the door by 10. DH will drop them off before his 1 hour commute to a 12 hour(typical) day.