Routine

It's only been 4 days and we are already settling into a nice routine. We received Jacob's schedule from the orphanage and followed it as closely as possible in Russia. But now that we are home it's time for our family routine to take charge. He seems to like our family flow. Here's what our days look like:

6:30am the girls start to wake. Mom scurries through the kitchen getting breakfast ready and lunches packed. Daddy has been a great help getting Amber dressed and ready. And once Caitlin is back to her healthy self the girls will pretty much get ready on their own. By about 7am all three big kids and I eat breakfast together.

Between 7 and 7:30 I wake Jacob up. Because we are still working on convincing his little body that day time is now night time and night time is now day, I don't let him sleep as long as he wants during day time hours yet. Once we are sleeping through the night his little body can pick a wake up time.

Jacob is a major foodie. I need to have breakfast ready and waiting in order to keep peace. He guzzles down his bottle of milk and then plows through a full bowl of rice cereal and fruit.

 

After breakfast Jacob crawls around the family room and plays while the girls catch their rides to school. Then Drew gets his morning TV show while Jacob plays in the playpen next to the dish washer while I clean up the kitchen. At first Drew wanted to play with him in the playpen, now the TV has regained priority.

After TV time Drew gets dressed and ready for school. Jacob just follows us through the house and plays wherever we are. He is such an easy going guy.

After Drew is picked up Jacob has "jumpie" time while I take a shower, get dressed and ready, pick up the bathroom, and make my bed. He LOVES his time in the jumper. I am SO glad I was able to get one. I wondered if he would be too big or already be walking when we got him home. Fortunately he is not. The jumper is awesome!

We try to play something quiet after jumpie time before morning nap. Usually this is when I will hold him and carry him around with me to settle him down. He is still learning to be carried. It seems strange, but he does not know how to relax and just be held. He's always trying to turn around or get down. I have to tell him to "be held" and hold his little hand so that he cannot use it to push off of me. He is getting much better at this already.

About 10 am is morning nap time. I watched the way he soothed himself in Russia before he would let me rock him. He would stand holding the crib rail with one hand while sucking the thumb of his other hand and would alternate bouncing and rocking side to side until he was too sleepy to stand. I have learned that for me to soothe him he wants a combination of bouncing and rocking while being held vertical to settle into sleep. Once I figured this out it became really easy to get him down. It takes about 2 minutes, unless he is over done.

Drew gets home from preschool around 11:30. We have lunch together and I get to hear all about his "day".

If he is not up, I wake Jacob at noon for lunch. Again, gotta have that food waiting. After his meal the three of us play until Jacob fills his diaper. His tummy is figuring out the new food so this is predictable now. Once the diaper is full I change him and get him dressed and ready for the day.

We play until about 1 or 1:15 and then the boys and I take Bella for a walk. Jacob loves the outdoors and is used to daily walks at the orphanage. So I bend the cocoon rule for our daily walk. I wear him in the front pack and he faces me so that we can see each other. No one else is out in the middle of the day so it's a nice quiet way for mama to get some fresh air. It's been so warm I have been putting a short sleeve shirt on him for our walk so his little skin can experience some warmth and soak in some rays. Jay loves his walk.

 

We come home and play until Jacob starts getting sleepy. And then we repeat the nap time ritual and he's out for another 2 hours. After Jay is down Drew and I read stories and have a nap together on the spare bed. I sneak out in time to get a little something done before the girls (or for now, Amber) get home from school. The girls arrive around 3:30 and we work on homework.

If Jacob is not up by 4 I wake him for his "dinner". And lately I have had to wake Drew up around 4:30 to avoid evening grogginess. Then the 5 of us play until daddy gets home and dinner for everyone else is ready around 6pm. Jacob joins us at the dinner table and has a snack of some kind of baby finger food (the dissolvable ones) and watered down apple juice. He knows how to use his teeth really well and has done a surprisingly good job of munching his little snacks. This is encouraging since orphans from Russia are usually kept on a mashed/liquid diet until the age of three and struggle to chew solid foods.

After our family dinner around the table Jacob loves to play with his sibs. He finds Amber the most fascinating and laughs at all her crazy antics.

 

 

Bath time is about 7:30. As soon as Jacob hears the water start he dashes to the bathroom at top crawling speed with a giant grin on his face. He stands there and watches the bath fill and gets very animated as I undress him. He will play in the bath for a solid 20 minutes. He has even been great about washing his hair which is a pleasant surprise. This was another activity we had heard can be difficult for children from an orphanage. No problem.

After bath Jacob gets a body massage with lotion which he loves. Then its time for his bed time bottle. He usually passes out before I burp him so no rocking necessary at bedtime. He's out.

Daddy is superman at bedtime. While I focus on Jacob and help here and there with Drew, Brad gets everyone dressed and ready for bed and checks teeth and hair for quality control. He has also taken over story time and bedtime prayers. By the time Jay is done with his bottle and in bed I just have time to kiss everyone goodnight in the dark.

Last night was the first night I stayed up past 8pm. It was also the first night Jacob made it through without waking. I am hoping we are close to making that the norm. He is the happiest baby known to man during waking hours. What a joy!