The scheduled life.

The Multiples and More question of the week is, How closely do you follow a schedule for your kids?


How old are your kids now? Have you always followed a rigid schedule?
Xan, Hayden and Lily are almost 19 months old. The NICU nurses got them on a schedule while they were there, so we have tried to always keep that going. It really helped us, being first time parents, to know what to do and when. Plus when you are sleep deprived it's helpful to have a set schedule so you can kinda do things on auto pilot to a degree LOL
Do you think that your schedule is conducive to healthy sleep patterns in your kids?
Yes, I think the kiddos do very well on a schedule, and so do we! They started sleeping 12 hours, 8pm-8am, at about 5 months old. Oh that first day they slept that long...what a glorious day that was :) 8pm is looked forward to around here, it's much needed...and deserved if I do say so myself...time off.
Do people give you a lot of flack for being a "schedule Nazi"? How do you respond?
We kinda poke fun at ourselves for being "schedule Nazi's." But no, we don't get any flack. If someone did say something I would ask them how they would care for three babies at once. Actually we get a lot of compliments on how well our ship is run, most people seem to understand winging it with triplets would not be all that great. Talk about never getting a moments peace, if they weren't doing things all together at the same time someone would always be eating or needing a diaper change or needing to rest. It would seriously be go go go all day long, we are busy enough now I couldn't imagine how much more busy that would make us.
Has your routine become more relaxed as your kids have gotten older?
A bit, we will try to push nap time or give them an early nap if we have things to do, meal times can have a little wiggle room too. It is certainly not as busy as it used to be when they were eating and getting a diaper change every 3 hours around the clock. How we ever survived those first 4 months I will never know.
How do your kids react when they are completely off their schedules- and how do you get them back on track?
It depends on when the deviation occurred and how big it was. If things get just a little off track in the morning we can usually get them back on schedule after nap. If it's a no nap or missed bed time situation we are in trouble, they do get pretty cranky and overtired, but the next morning everything is OK and back on track.

In other news:
Sakari is limping a little less today, I think she is going to be just fine! We didn't get to take our walk today and get all the lost dog signs taken down though. Hopefully we can do it tomorrow, I hope Sakari will be feeling up to going with us.

My Colts didn't win today, but I do like the Saints so I am not totally upset about it.