I left work on Monday March 16th unsure when I would return. My day care had issued a statement on the 15th stating all kids and parents would have their temperatures taken at the entrance and would be turned away if either kids or parent showed a temperature over 99.0, and that kids would be sent home throughout the day for any cold or flu-like symptoms including runny nose and cough. The girls have had a cough since starting day care at 9 weeks old. We affectionately refer to it as "day care crud". At the end of the day on the 16th I miraculously hadn't been called to get the girls for a cough or runny nose yet and my boss told me I could work from home until this all blew over. My department is pretty mobile. He encouraged all of us that could work from home to do so. Day care sent an email that night saying that only children who needed to be at the center due to emergency circumstances (i.e. both parents are essential workers and you have no back up plan) should be in care and that we would only pay for the days we used. At that point it just made sense to keep the girls home.
My mom put on her Mimi cape and drove down to help. On Tuesday and Wednesday I worked in the front room and Alex worked in the basement. Mom stayed in the family room and kitchen with the girls. I helped with feedings and diaper changes here and there, but for the most part she was on her own. Thursday we started hearing rumblings about a shelter in place being dropped and it was supposed to storm all afternoon Thursday and all day Friday. Mom was worried about getting stuck at our house should the order come out on Friday. She left for home Thursday afternoon and missed most of the storms. Friday was my first full day at home with the girls while working. I got about 4 hours of work in and was thoroughly exhausted by the end of the day. Day care officially closed on the evening of the 23rd with the shelter in place order.
It doesn't seem possible that this all happened two months ago. Tomorrow we start week 10 at home. That's longer than my maternity leave was. And when I go back to work on June 1st I won't be in the office full time so as to minimize the foot print in the building and to comply with the social distancing guidelines. I'll probably work 2-3 days in the office and the remaining days at home. Day care should be open by then so the girls will go back to their little classrooms with their little friends. I think June 1st just might be the hardest day of my life. Taking them back to day care after being home with them for so long during such a developmentally rich stage is going to be incredibly difficult.
Prior to covid we had a routine. Alex and I both work full time, me in Blue Ash, and Alex downtown. I dropped the girls off at day care around 7:45 and then headed to work. I worked from 8:30-5:00 and then picked the girls up from day care. Alex would get home between 6-7. If he was home by 6 we'd eat dinner first and then take the girls up and get them ready for bed. If he was home later we'd pause on dinner and put the girls to bed first. I basically had from 5:45-6:45 with the girls before bedtime and a lot of that time was spent in their high chairs.
We, of course, were with them every weekend but weekends aren't every day life. Often times we'd have friends or family over or be jumping from event to event. Weekends aren't structured. They are quality time on no real timeline. I cherished my weekends with the girls but I never knew what I was missing until DeWine closed down the state and it was just me, the girls, my laptop, and my sanity running for the hills trying to figure out how to work from home while being a full time mom.
It took a few weeks to figure out what "worked" for us. Here's our new schedule:
6:45 - Alarm goes off. Alex showers. I ignore the alarm.
7-8 - at some point the girls wake up. I get out of bed when they do. (Sometime I shower, sometimes I don't. It really depends on how many zoom meetings I have on any given day and how much I would rather sleep than shower) I change them. Just because they're home doesn't mean they're wearing jammies all day. (I, however, can wear jammies if I please. I'm an adult. I do what I want.)
8 - breakfast! Alex has usually eaten by now and has bottles ready. On mornings that he has 8 o'clock meetings I'm on my own. On mornings that he doesn't he feeds a kid before going downstairs. Sometimes he makes me a breakfast sandwich. Sometimes I eat cereal. Sometimes I forget to eat or just wait until 10 and eat some cake.
8:30-9 - I usually attempt work for a minute here. I check emails that came in over night and address anything pressing. The girls realize I'm working and demand snacks. I hold them off on the snack front as long as possible. I turn on some music or a movie to try and distract them.
9:30-10 - Snack time. We're talking puffs. We're talking cheerios. We're talking little crunchies. We're talking yogurt bites. The whole nine. It's a baby feast. Once they start throwing the finger food on the floor for the dogs I bring out the big guns - prunes. They each get prunes daily. Without getting into too much detail, whole milk is a lot more constipating than formula. If we go a day without prunes it's just bad. BAD. After prunes they usually get another puree, a fruit or vegetable. They aren't picky. They will literally eat anything I put on a spoon in front of them.
10ish - nap time. This was shaky in the beginning. I couldn't rock them both at the same time. I didn't know how to get them down at the same time. I put one in the swing until she was asleep and then rocked the other upstairs and transferred her to her crib. One day I had to leave at nap time to run into work and grab some documents I desperately needed. There isn't a monitor in the room with the swing so I had to put them both down in their cribs so Alex could hear them if they woke up while I was gone. I put them down and they protested. I didn't want to forget to brush my teeth before leaving the house so I went to brush my teeth. They both fell asleep before I was done brushing my teeth and I was like you mean to tell me I don't have to rock you for naps anymore? From that day on I've taken them both upstairs after snack and dropped them in their cribs. Usually they're out before I've finished brushing my teeth. (And yes, I realize it might be gross to not brush my teeth before 10, but on the days where I want coffee I don't want toothpaste flavored coffee so I don't brush my teeth when I wake up so I can thoroughly enjoy the coffee. I drink the coffee during snack time while the girls are safely contained in their high chairs. Stop judging me.) Zara has been fighting naps lately, but when she cooperates nap time is easy peasy.
10ish-12ish - WORK! Uninterrupted work! That is unless one of them doesn't want to go down and fights the nap for an hour cutting into that time or one only takes a 45 minute nap because who needs sleep?
12 - lunch! I give them more snacky food while I make my lunch. Then I give them part of whatever I'm eating because they always want what I'm eating.
1-2 - playtime. Sometimes I can sneak some work in here while they're playing in the middle of the family room with toys.
2-3 bottle time! We are now down to just two bottles during the day (8 a and 2 or 3 p) containing 8 oz of whole milk. I put Violet on a pillow to my left on the couch kind of wedged in the crevice of the couch cushion and Zara on my lap. They can hold their bottles by themselves so I just have to make sure they don't roll off the couch/my lap.
2/3-5 - playtime. Sometimes they are happy after a full bottle and will play contentedly so I can work. Sometimes they are cranky as all get out and we have to leave the house. I go on a 30-45 minute walk every day that it's not raining or too cold. Usually they fall asleep half way through the walk. We've learned the hard way that they cannot sleep more than 30 minutes in the afternoon or they won't go to bed. Sometimes I throw in more snacks/purees around 4 because you're not really living if you aren't eating every two hours.
5ish - Alex is done working and comes upstairs. He's cooked most of the time we've been home. We watch a show on Netflix while he cooks and we eat. The girls eat what we eat. They've tried so many things while being home! Chicken, steak, beef. Mexican, Italian, American. Alex even gave Violet a piece of buffalo chicken from his skyline wrap the other day and she wasn't mad at it. The only thing that hasn't gone over well is scrambled eggs (unless I hand them bites from my breakfast sandwich, go figure)
6:45 - upstairs for bedtime. We don't have an elaborate bedtime routine. They get changed, they get a bottle, they get put in their cribs awake. They get bathes when I deem them dirty enough to need them. I'm not an overachieving mom who does nightly bath time. If they opt for screaming when we put them down we give them five minutes before going back in. We then rock them for five minutes before putting them back down. We repeat this cycle until they are asleep. Most nights we only have to go back in their room once. They are both teething hard core right now so we've had a few rough nights recently. Just last night it took Zara 2.5 hours to fall asleep. On nights like that the five minute rule gets thrown out the window and I just hold them when they need to be held and I let them sleep on me until I feel I might fall asleep. And then I put them down and go to bed myself because it might be a long night.
8-10 - work. I get the best work done at night. I don't work every night. I see where my hours landed for the day and gauge how much cleaning, packing, netflixing or sleeping I want to do. Sometimes a glass of wine and a TV show wins after the kitchen is clean, the toys are put away and my brain says sis, you're done for the day.
So there you have it. Wash, rinse, repeat. This is what I do day in and day out. Weekends are much the same since we're not going anywhere or seeing anyone. Twice I've made scones and done drive-by drop offs. It was nice to get out of the house with the fam for a brief moment in quarantine time. I'm only averaging about 20 hours of work during the week so I usually put a few hours in over the weekend too. My employer is incredible. My pay check hasn't suffered even though my hours have thanks to extra PTO days and the 80 government hours afforded to people affected by covid.
I've had a lot of emotions during this time. It's not easy being home all the time, but man, I'm grateful. I don't take this time at home with my girls for granted. There have been a lot of stressful moments (did I mention we're getting our house ready to sell?) but there have been so many more beautiful moments with these two little humans we made. They are so spunky and funny. They're hitting milestone after milestone. By the end of all this they may even be walking! What a crazy historic time in history. What a crazy beautiful time in my life. I don't think I'll ever forget this bonus time I got with the girls when they were young.
I know the shelter in place hasn't been awesome for everyone. There is a lot of uncertainty and anxiety surrounding the state of the world at present. I don't view that lightly. We have been so blessed during this season. People ask me how I do it, "it" being "a mom of twins," or "a working mom," or "a working mom of twins working from home trying to get her house market ready" and the answer is simple - I do it with a lot of grace and a whole lot of Jesus.
My mom put on her Mimi cape and drove down to help. On Tuesday and Wednesday I worked in the front room and Alex worked in the basement. Mom stayed in the family room and kitchen with the girls. I helped with feedings and diaper changes here and there, but for the most part she was on her own. Thursday we started hearing rumblings about a shelter in place being dropped and it was supposed to storm all afternoon Thursday and all day Friday. Mom was worried about getting stuck at our house should the order come out on Friday. She left for home Thursday afternoon and missed most of the storms. Friday was my first full day at home with the girls while working. I got about 4 hours of work in and was thoroughly exhausted by the end of the day. Day care officially closed on the evening of the 23rd with the shelter in place order.
It doesn't seem possible that this all happened two months ago. Tomorrow we start week 10 at home. That's longer than my maternity leave was. And when I go back to work on June 1st I won't be in the office full time so as to minimize the foot print in the building and to comply with the social distancing guidelines. I'll probably work 2-3 days in the office and the remaining days at home. Day care should be open by then so the girls will go back to their little classrooms with their little friends. I think June 1st just might be the hardest day of my life. Taking them back to day care after being home with them for so long during such a developmentally rich stage is going to be incredibly difficult.
Prior to covid we had a routine. Alex and I both work full time, me in Blue Ash, and Alex downtown. I dropped the girls off at day care around 7:45 and then headed to work. I worked from 8:30-5:00 and then picked the girls up from day care. Alex would get home between 6-7. If he was home by 6 we'd eat dinner first and then take the girls up and get them ready for bed. If he was home later we'd pause on dinner and put the girls to bed first. I basically had from 5:45-6:45 with the girls before bedtime and a lot of that time was spent in their high chairs.
We, of course, were with them every weekend but weekends aren't every day life. Often times we'd have friends or family over or be jumping from event to event. Weekends aren't structured. They are quality time on no real timeline. I cherished my weekends with the girls but I never knew what I was missing until DeWine closed down the state and it was just me, the girls, my laptop, and my sanity running for the hills trying to figure out how to work from home while being a full time mom.
It took a few weeks to figure out what "worked" for us. Here's our new schedule:
6:45 - Alarm goes off. Alex showers. I ignore the alarm.
7-8 - at some point the girls wake up. I get out of bed when they do. (Sometime I shower, sometimes I don't. It really depends on how many zoom meetings I have on any given day and how much I would rather sleep than shower) I change them. Just because they're home doesn't mean they're wearing jammies all day. (I, however, can wear jammies if I please. I'm an adult. I do what I want.)
8 - breakfast! Alex has usually eaten by now and has bottles ready. On mornings that he has 8 o'clock meetings I'm on my own. On mornings that he doesn't he feeds a kid before going downstairs. Sometimes he makes me a breakfast sandwich. Sometimes I eat cereal. Sometimes I forget to eat or just wait until 10 and eat some cake.
8:30-9 - I usually attempt work for a minute here. I check emails that came in over night and address anything pressing. The girls realize I'm working and demand snacks. I hold them off on the snack front as long as possible. I turn on some music or a movie to try and distract them.
9:30-10 - Snack time. We're talking puffs. We're talking cheerios. We're talking little crunchies. We're talking yogurt bites. The whole nine. It's a baby feast. Once they start throwing the finger food on the floor for the dogs I bring out the big guns - prunes. They each get prunes daily. Without getting into too much detail, whole milk is a lot more constipating than formula. If we go a day without prunes it's just bad. BAD. After prunes they usually get another puree, a fruit or vegetable. They aren't picky. They will literally eat anything I put on a spoon in front of them.
10ish - nap time. This was shaky in the beginning. I couldn't rock them both at the same time. I didn't know how to get them down at the same time. I put one in the swing until she was asleep and then rocked the other upstairs and transferred her to her crib. One day I had to leave at nap time to run into work and grab some documents I desperately needed. There isn't a monitor in the room with the swing so I had to put them both down in their cribs so Alex could hear them if they woke up while I was gone. I put them down and they protested. I didn't want to forget to brush my teeth before leaving the house so I went to brush my teeth. They both fell asleep before I was done brushing my teeth and I was like you mean to tell me I don't have to rock you for naps anymore? From that day on I've taken them both upstairs after snack and dropped them in their cribs. Usually they're out before I've finished brushing my teeth. (And yes, I realize it might be gross to not brush my teeth before 10, but on the days where I want coffee I don't want toothpaste flavored coffee so I don't brush my teeth when I wake up so I can thoroughly enjoy the coffee. I drink the coffee during snack time while the girls are safely contained in their high chairs. Stop judging me.) Zara has been fighting naps lately, but when she cooperates nap time is easy peasy.
10ish-12ish - WORK! Uninterrupted work! That is unless one of them doesn't want to go down and fights the nap for an hour cutting into that time or one only takes a 45 minute nap because who needs sleep?
12 - lunch! I give them more snacky food while I make my lunch. Then I give them part of whatever I'm eating because they always want what I'm eating.
1-2 - playtime. Sometimes I can sneak some work in here while they're playing in the middle of the family room with toys.
2-3 bottle time! We are now down to just two bottles during the day (8 a and 2 or 3 p) containing 8 oz of whole milk. I put Violet on a pillow to my left on the couch kind of wedged in the crevice of the couch cushion and Zara on my lap. They can hold their bottles by themselves so I just have to make sure they don't roll off the couch/my lap.
2/3-5 - playtime. Sometimes they are happy after a full bottle and will play contentedly so I can work. Sometimes they are cranky as all get out and we have to leave the house. I go on a 30-45 minute walk every day that it's not raining or too cold. Usually they fall asleep half way through the walk. We've learned the hard way that they cannot sleep more than 30 minutes in the afternoon or they won't go to bed. Sometimes I throw in more snacks/purees around 4 because you're not really living if you aren't eating every two hours.
5ish - Alex is done working and comes upstairs. He's cooked most of the time we've been home. We watch a show on Netflix while he cooks and we eat. The girls eat what we eat. They've tried so many things while being home! Chicken, steak, beef. Mexican, Italian, American. Alex even gave Violet a piece of buffalo chicken from his skyline wrap the other day and she wasn't mad at it. The only thing that hasn't gone over well is scrambled eggs (unless I hand them bites from my breakfast sandwich, go figure)
6:45 - upstairs for bedtime. We don't have an elaborate bedtime routine. They get changed, they get a bottle, they get put in their cribs awake. They get bathes when I deem them dirty enough to need them. I'm not an overachieving mom who does nightly bath time. If they opt for screaming when we put them down we give them five minutes before going back in. We then rock them for five minutes before putting them back down. We repeat this cycle until they are asleep. Most nights we only have to go back in their room once. They are both teething hard core right now so we've had a few rough nights recently. Just last night it took Zara 2.5 hours to fall asleep. On nights like that the five minute rule gets thrown out the window and I just hold them when they need to be held and I let them sleep on me until I feel I might fall asleep. And then I put them down and go to bed myself because it might be a long night.
8-10 - work. I get the best work done at night. I don't work every night. I see where my hours landed for the day and gauge how much cleaning, packing, netflixing or sleeping I want to do. Sometimes a glass of wine and a TV show wins after the kitchen is clean, the toys are put away and my brain says sis, you're done for the day.
So there you have it. Wash, rinse, repeat. This is what I do day in and day out. Weekends are much the same since we're not going anywhere or seeing anyone. Twice I've made scones and done drive-by drop offs. It was nice to get out of the house with the fam for a brief moment in quarantine time. I'm only averaging about 20 hours of work during the week so I usually put a few hours in over the weekend too. My employer is incredible. My pay check hasn't suffered even though my hours have thanks to extra PTO days and the 80 government hours afforded to people affected by covid.
I've had a lot of emotions during this time. It's not easy being home all the time, but man, I'm grateful. I don't take this time at home with my girls for granted. There have been a lot of stressful moments (did I mention we're getting our house ready to sell?) but there have been so many more beautiful moments with these two little humans we made. They are so spunky and funny. They're hitting milestone after milestone. By the end of all this they may even be walking! What a crazy historic time in history. What a crazy beautiful time in my life. I don't think I'll ever forget this bonus time I got with the girls when they were young.
I know the shelter in place hasn't been awesome for everyone. There is a lot of uncertainty and anxiety surrounding the state of the world at present. I don't view that lightly. We have been so blessed during this season. People ask me how I do it, "it" being "a mom of twins," or "a working mom," or "a working mom of twins working from home trying to get her house market ready" and the answer is simple - I do it with a lot of grace and a whole lot of Jesus.
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