Maybe you don’t know, but we recently had another baby.
Two months ago as a matter of fact.
Naturally having a new baby in the house has caused a bit of an upheaval in our schedules, though thankfully not nearly as large as it could be.
Our biggest challenge these days is not sleep. We know how fortunate we are in this department. And the less said the better. I don’t want to jinx it.
Instead our problems are all logistical these days. With two children in middle school, one in 3rd grade and another in Kindergarten, that would be difficult enough. Having a toddler and newborn in the house in addition to all those children in school it what is killing us.
Let’s take pick-up from school for example.
Xavier gets out at 3, Ciaran at 3:05 with August and Dela getting out at 3:15.
Thankfully the four of them are at the same school. I do need to go to a specific area to pick up Xavier as Kindergarteners are not dismissed with the rest of the general school population, and each child needs to be picked up by a parent (or guardian). This means I am going to pick up the kids from school despite them (mostly) being of an age they can walk the block and a half by themselves.
Picking up from school isn’t the problem, it’s the younger kids and their naps that are the problem. Tevye has his one nap in the afternoon and will usually be up in time to go to the school and pick up his siblings (but not always). It is 2 month old Grace and her current inconsistent, but solid, naps. Why would I want to wake up a sleeping baby? Unfortunately there are times when her nap conflicts with the logistics of picking up the other kids from school.
Fortunately Laura’s schedule is such that she can rush home after her school gets out so that somebody can be home with sleeping children while I pick kids up from school.
How about another example – Monday night is “Scout night” for us. Almost every Monday the Boy Scouts meet. As a den leader for 2 Cub Scout dens I can set the day and time those dens. Last year I chose 7pm because that was the time the Boy Scouts meet and since I was headed to the location anyway, it made sense to just work both meetings at the same time – same building, different rooms. Since I don’t need to be as active a participant with August’s Boy Scouts as I do with the Cub Scouts, it worked.
This year with the addition a second Cub Scout den I have that den starting an hour earlier. The new den, Kindergarteners, meets formally once a month, so it isn’t as big of a change to my schedule, but next year it will be with the Kindergarteners moving up to first grade and into a full-fledged Cub Scout den, but that’s an issue for next year.
Dela’s gymnastics is now on Tuesday, starting at 6:15, which falls right into the window of time where Tevye is supposed to be getting ready to go to bed. That in itself isn’t an issue, but if Grace is asleep, it can be.
Fortunately the two in middle school are busy with their own activities and able to walk themselves to most of them, such as the weekly youth group meeting. It gets out late (well after dark) so I go pick them up. It is nice, however, to have them take a more active role in their transportation to their activities as it makes the logistics at home a little easier.
I am not complaining. We want the kids to participate in various activities. Having another parent here in the house would help immensely.