nehasharma25413: Toddler Dinners: Now with Colic!

Monday, October 8, 2012

Toddler Dinners: Now with Colic!

So dinner time has taken a crazy turn I hadn?t really thought of before. ?We now are having to have family dinner with a colicky infant. A ?I don?t want to be put down or stop being moved? baby at the hour of 6 pm. It is insanity. The hours from 5-8 in our house are pure madness already.

With Landon as an infant, he went to bed at 6. We used to get home around 5 and play with him until about 5:45 when he would meltdown and we would start bedtime routine and he was down by 6-6:15. People thought we were crazy but we never had the ?witching hour? even though he was pretty colicky as well. He went down and we had dinner together. It was glorious. Over the years it has moved back so our usual routine (pre new baby) was:

5pm: Get home
5-5:30pm: everybody play?usually outside
5:30pm ? start dinner prep
6pm: Dinner
6:30pm: Pre bed TV
7pm: Start bedtime

Now enter Oliver. He usually hates his last nap of the day. I am lucky to get 45 minutes out of him before he is just cranky. Sometimes this means wearing him while I cook and eat or Kevin holds him while I play soccer in the backyard and then whip up something quick for dinner while he jiggles him. Now some nights I can get dinner on the table by 5:45. I scarf mine down and take the baby for bed. Kevin mans the toddler. Family dinner turns into man on man defense.

I feel like it is making Landon worse at the table too. With people in and out and some nights just him (we just can?t pull together a whole family meal), I wonder if he is acting out for attention. I can?t say I blame him. We spend most of our time consoling a crying infant in that time frame?so he just wants some attention too. I wish I had a fix but I think it is what it is for now.

But my question to you, family with multiple kids including infant, how do you do it? What is your routine? Tips??