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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think it just depends on your personality and that of your kids.  I have 3 kids (first two are 19 months apart and then next kid was 3.5 years later).  Husband is big law and I am pretty much solo parenting 75% of the time.  All our kids have gone to daycare/preschool sort of setting and we have never had a nanny.  We are very social and my kids love being around their friends. I have a very flexible job and do all the drop offs and pick ups.  I am used to DH working a lot so I just plan things and if he can come that is great, if not I just pack up all 3 kids and head out.  Never been a problem for me.  BUT my first two are girls and pretty docile.  My third is a boy and he is a bit more rowdy and physical.  [/quote]

Just curious, but do you have additional help, like cleaning, etc? Did you hire a night nurse for the first few months? It's helpful to hear from someone else whose husband is big law. Reason I ask is we love our daycare and it's very convenient, location-wise. If we have a second child, I see them attending the same daycare (therefore I, too, would be organizing drop-off/pick-up). There are a lot of suggestions on here for a nanny - which I appreciate - but I'd love to find a way to keep the daycare situation going, since it's worked out so well with our first. How do you organize two kids around daycare, and do you manage them both at night by yourself w/o additional help? Would love to just hear a little more about how your schedule looks. Thank you!![/quote]

PP here - I do have someone who helps clean every other week and we have lawn maintenance in the summer.  I don't have any night nurse or anything. Usually the baby is home with me for the first 3 months while the older kids go to daycare (thanks to COVID everyone was home with baby #3 and that sucked).  Thankfully all my kids are pretty good and reliable sleepers by 3-4 months. My schedule loosely looks like this:

Morning - everybody is up by 7:30ish and have breakfast, get changed, get bags ready. I drop off kid 1 to the bus, kid 2 to in home daycare and kid 3 to preschool/daycare.  Home by 9 to work for the day.

Evenings - leave home by 5:15 and pick up kid 1 from in home daycare and kids 2 and 3 from the same preschool/afterschool care.  We are home by 5:45ish for dinner.

When they were little I would feed everybody and then get the baby bathed and into bed first (usually by 6pm).  Then the older kids and I would go out for a walk or play on the playground out back.  Then back inside by 7:30ish for bath, books and bed. When baby 2 was little and oldest was only 19 months I would feed the baby on the couch and then run upstairs and put her to bed while the oldest sat and watched TV for 5 minutes.  Thankfully she didn't get into any trouble even back then. [/quote]

It helps that you seem to have naturally good sleepers or ones that are very amenable to sleep training. I have 3 kids and none of them - none! - could be put down for naps easily or put in their crib easily at night. I know all the tips and tried everything. So, OP, maybe you’ll have babies like this where you can “run upstairs for 5 minutes and put them down.” Or maybe you’ll have babies like mine where they’re sleeping on you while you try to deal with a toddler, or [b]“putting them down” is more like a 40 minute trial-and-error process[/b] except you can’t leave a toddler unattended that long.[/quote]

Lmao.  No wonder your kids didn’t sleep.  [/quote]

They do sleep. My first baby slept 12 hrs at 4 months. (My second was another story…) But yes, I am a failure at transferring them to their crib, and I’m a failure at drowsy but awake. I don’t know what to say, they just didn’t work for me. I remember reading the baby whisperer book and she said you had to do shush pat for 20 mins or else you’d be in and out all night. So, I don’t think I’m the only person who can’t just leave the toddler “for 5 minutes” and put the baby to sleep. And yes I know all about wake windows etc etc etc. Like I said, the sleep isn’t the issue - the issue is getting them in the crib. I don’t really care though bc I like babies sleeping on me.[/quote]

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