Home How to keep house with a 2 month old baby??

[sbde]

sunkist, you''ve gotten a lot of great advice so far. here is what has worked for me over the past year:

1 - doing my "proper" cleaning on weekends. during the week i just make sure that things are relatively tidy, dishes/counters etc are taken care of but vaccuming and deep cleaning happens on the weekends when DH can watch baby (or i watch baby while DH does the cleaning!)

2 - i don''t even start cooking dinner unti DH is home. luckily he comes home by about 6:30 at the latest and we eat close to 7:30 so i have an hour to get things done, which is usually more than enough time. i also try to make enough of a meal so that it''ll last 2 days. we don''t eat leftovers on consecutive nights but we''re fine eating the leftover from what we eat today on the day after tomorrow.

3 - cut yourself some slack! things don''t have to be in pristine condition anyway - enjoy your time with your son!

 

[Mrs Mitchell]

Not really qualified to offer housekeeping advice here. LOL.

My approach to keeping it above the dysentery line is to have a cleaning service once a week, topped up with a quick run round / tidy up every other night before bedtime (by DH - I am to cleaning what maul stores are to fine diamonds).

Cooking - I''d agree with whoever mentioned crock pots. Also, if you get the chance at weekends, maybe cook a big batch of something and freeze in single portions. Keep lots of salad and fresh veggies in the fridge so you can liven up the frozen stuff quickly. Also, be kind to yourself, don''t expect to be superhuman. Just order takeaway when you don''t have the energy to cook. I ate a lot of tandoori chicken and salad in the first few months, our local Indian restaurant delivers and has some fairly healthy options on their menu. Does your husband cook? Take turns, maybe? DH is as good at cooking as I am at cleaning, but he can defrost and re-heat a lasagne if forced.

Enjoy every minute of your LO, it really does go by so fast!

Jen

 

[Mara]

LOL re: wearing the baby while cooking, the way i cook i imagine the poor kid getting all spattered with spaghetti sauce when i turn him around to check him out. lol!

 

[rockpaperscissors67]

Sunkist, I feel for you! As Jas said, just wait til your little one hits the toddler stage because it gets sooo much worse, lol. The positive thing to keep in mind is that eventually kids grow up and you can put THEM to work so your workload is very much reduced.

You have to cut yourself a little bit of slack or you''ll go crazy. Everyone has great suggestions for things you can do to make things easier. I think right now, the very most important thing is to enjoy your little one, even if it means doing the bare minimum with housework.

I make sure that I am differentiating between clutter and filth. I can live with some clutter, such as baby toys all over the floor. I can''t live with filth, such as food all over the floor or something like that. I think you can keep up with most of the dirt, although maybe I''m the last one to talk since I''ve been noticing this one cobweb for 3 days now, but haven''t done anything about it because it''s too high up for me to reach.

In the early days for cooking, I used to either pass the baby to SO while I cooked or I would put him in a sling and then move him around to my back. When my younger daughter was a baby, she refused to be put down, so there were times when I cooked dinner with her in the sling in front, which requires a LOT of caution.

I also keep foods on hand that can be cooked very quickly. I really like some of those complete meals in a bag that you just have to heat through in a frying pan -- some of them are quite tasty and while they''re more expensive than cooking totally from scratch, they''re cheaper than going out!

We also allow for liberal use of restaurants and take out. Since I work full time, too, there are nights when I know I''m going to be just too worn out to think about food.

Fisher Price has not thrown up all over my living room, but my 3 year old was home today with me while I worked and he did a number on it -- there are throw pillows and throws all over as well as some of his toys. Luckily, even he''s not too young to pick up after himself!

 

[mayachel]

I bow down to your ambition.

 

[phoenixgirl]

Ditto on the maid service, takeout, and easy meals.

I looked up just now and realized that Fisher Price has thrown up on my house. There''s a jumperoo in the corner, a baby swing by the dining room buffet, a box of toys under the tv, a playmat next to it . . . and Claire is only 3 months! And I swore I wouldn''t be one of "those" parents.

I wish I could say that every night I straighten up so it doesn''t build up too much, but that''s not true. I attack it in pieces as the mood strikes me. Since I''m an organized person by nature, the mood strikes me regularly enough that our house stays pretty neat. Plus the maids come every two weeks, and I have to straighten up before they come.

My sister puts on music every night before bedtime and the whole family puts everything away downstairs. It''s a fun tradition and the kids enjoy it. She doesn''t have the anal tendencies that I do, so she says it''s important for her to schedule in the straightening up every day.

You just have to prioritize, and if you don''t get to the stuff on the bottom of the list, too bad. DH and I both value taking time to exercise and being social above everything except taking care of Claire and together time, so if we don''t have anything to prepare for dinner or the house is a mess for a few days, that''s ok. You can''t do everything well all the time. You don''t have to be all 50s Fabulous. You just need to make sure you don''t starve or wind up on the show "Hoarders" due to lack of house cleaning.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Just relax for a few more months.

At some point you have to develop a system or you'll find that you have elementary school children and still find that you do not want to take time away from your kids so that, as a result, your house is messy. lol (like I have. Volunteer at school and never get laundry caught up!)

Make a list of a few things you'd like to accomplish each day and follow that. Mondays are vaccuming day, Tues clean the bathroom, etc. Once your child is a bit older, add on a few more responsibilities.

 

[steph72276]

Date: 1/18/2010 11:21:25 PM
Author: MC
Just relax for a few more months.


At some point you have to develop a system or you''ll find that you have elementary school children and still find that you do not want to take time away from your kids so that, as a result, your house is messy. lol (like I have. Volunteer at school and never get laundry caught up!)


Make a list of a few things you''d like to accomplish each day and follow that. Mondays are vaccuming day, Tues clean the bathroom, etc. Once your child is a bit older, add on a few more responsibilities.

Yep, I break it up into different things on different days too. That seems to make things a little less overwhelming.

 

[TravelingGal]

What? You mean you don''t have that kid on a schedule already to make your life easier? Use CIO, for pete''s sake.

Kidding!

I''m with everyone else...give yourself a break! Well known fact around here that for the first few weeks, if not months, it''s all about survival! I got the crock pot, the cleaner, and also prep at night when I can. I also like take out and have learned to live a lot better in our own filth. Hehehe.

In our apartment, it was really bad. No one should live like that. But in our new rental house, I did get the cleaner and life is so much better with space. I also do one project a day. One day, it''s cleaning the bathrooms. Another, it''s the floors. Another, it''s dusting. Combine that with a cleaner every other week and the house never looks like a complete disaster. It''s also never perfect, so I just learn to live with it. And I also learn to live with it if I don''t want to clean or cook anything some days...TGuy has been great at learning how to just crack open a can of soup.

That being said, I do agree with Mandy that an earlier bedtime helps. As Jas12 said, it doesn''t get any easier...in fact, with a toddler, it''s actually much more difficult. The mess in the house is never ending when they start moving...the darned little tornados! I''ve started to really enjoy playdates at OTHER people''s homes!

 

[Tacori E-ring]

about the same as a 2 year old toddler!

I agree about lowing expectations. I am pretty laid back so most stuff doesn''t bother me. Life is MUCH better that way. I cook easy things, tacos, pasta, baked chicken, pizza...things that only take 15 mins or less to prepare. We don''t have a cleaning service but if you can afford it GO FOR IT! It gets more difficult to keep the house tidy as she gets older. As I put toys away, she takes them out

 

[sunkist]

Tornados, haha! for a second I thought you were talking about the weather warnings here in socal

haha

But how do I get an earlier bed time?? With this huge rainstorm I decided not to go to the bookstore today. I"ll order it on Amazon and let the UPS guy deliver it to me

Anyways, I dont'' know how much a book can really help but hopefully it will give me some ideas.

 

[Mandarine]

Sunkist,

Here is what I did...but as you know, all babies are different!. At this point I hadn''t read any books, so I wasn''t sure what I was doing...all I knew is that I wanted to claim my nights back!

I started lowering the lights, turning TV off, etc by like 7pm. Just basically started to quiet down the house. Then I gave them their 6:30pm bottle and after that we would let them "play" something not too stimulating. Basically they just sat in their boppys and we would talk to them a bit. Then I would go upstairs, like at 8pm (it used to be 10pm!). I would swaddle them, and then rock them until they fell sleep (I don''t necessarily recommend the rocking since that''s another habit to break...but we broke this habit in less than 3 days a month later!). Then they would wake up to eat like at 10pm, we would keep the lights in their room VERY low and made no eye contact. DH and I would say it was a "purely business transaction" so zero stimulation!. I stopped changing their diapers too during the night...it would wake them up too much and I figured one day they would be sleeping through the night (haha) and would have wet diapers anyway!). I only change their diapers at night now if they have poop!.

It took a few nights...sometimes rocking them for 45 minutes! but eventually they got the point...and THEY started moving bedtime earlier. Now they are ready for bed by 7-7:30pm. After their bottle, I let them hang out in the boppys...once one of them starts to make the "I''m sleepy" noises, then they both get swaddled and upstairs they go!.

To break the rocking habit was easy. Now, instead of rocking, I sing to them the same song as I walk them to their cribs. Then I cuddle with them while I finish the song, kiss them good night and down they go. They "talk" a little (but no more cyring!) and are usually sleep within 5 minutes of us leaving them there.

They have a loud fan in their room (white noise) so that we can still watch tv, talk, etc and not bother their sleep.

I hope this helps!

 

[TravelingGal]

Date: 1/19/2010 4:39:24 PM
Author: sunkist
Tornados, haha! for a second I thought you were talking about the weather warnings here in socal

haha

But how do I get an earlier bed time?? With this huge rainstorm I decided not to go to the bookstore today. I''ll order it on Amazon and let the UPS guy deliver it to me

Anyways, I dont'' know how much a book can really help but hopefully it will give me some ideas.

Put him down and buy earplugs?

There are lots of books out there and lots of mamas here currently dealing with it. I''m sure you''ll find what works best for your family.

 

[somethingshiny]

JT was still collicky at 2 months. I was lucky to have clean underwear!! Take out and maids weren''t in the cards for us!

As he got a bit older and out of the colic, I cleaned for approx 15-20 minutes after I put him to bed. I could get the dishes done and straighten the living room basically. Beds were last on my list!! I threw in laundry first thing in the morning and usually had it in the dryer during my nighttime clean-up. So, we had to go to the dryer to find any clothes!! DH would help me do the vaccuuming, mopping, bathrooms on the weekends. We''d swap out baby duty while the other was cleaning.

Naptime was for showering and sleeping myself.

As for meals, that was one thing I had a hold of from the beginning. I froze a ton of stuff ahead of time and mastered the quick meals. DH worked/works 2nd shift so I had to fend for myself at supper or I''d starve. There was lots of pasta, tacos, quesadillas etc. Everything had to be cooked in under 15 minutes. On the weekends when DH was home, I''d cook HUGE food! Like 6 porkchops, a roast, and some sides that we could eat throughout the week. (DH had to bring his suppers to work and had to have real food) Then, of course, the crockpot.


There will never be a time in your life when you say, "I wish I had done more laundry." or "If only I had whisked the couch!"


JT was probably 6-7 months or so before I as able to really get a hold on everything. By then I could depend on his naptimes and get all of the cleaning and cooking done as well as make a few phone calls and watch some tv after he went to bed.


Moms aren''t superheroes. They just seem to have a lot of the same responsibilities.




earlier bedtimes: trial and error, my friend. What eventually worked for us was lingering over the bedtime routine so we could start earlier and then shortening it a bit until he was where we wanted him. So, at one time bedtime took an hour, but then got down to 10-15 minutes (which is what I wanted).

 

[somethingshiny]

Also for bedtimes: Keep in mind we''ll Spring Forward in March. You may want to only take him halfway to what you want bedtime to be and then let the time change do the rest.

 

[sunkist]

Thanks so much for everyone''s ideas and thoughts!

Mandy, great idea about a white noise machine while they sleep so you can still watch TV/talk! I think I''ll try that since we live in a pretty small place, I''m always nervous that it''s our noises that could be waking him even though we do try to keep it down. And I also do try to have some noise, usually the laundry going, while he naps during the day just so he is used to sleeping during noise.

SShiney- "There will never be a time in your life when you say, "I wish I had done more laundry." or "If only I had whisked the couch!" "
Love your quote!

Too true. I will remember that!!

Thanks!

 

[sunkist]

Date: 1/18/2010 10:42:38 PM
Author: mayachel
I bow down to your ambition.

Mayachel, haha! thanks for the cartoon. hahaha!