A day in the life with 4 kids ages 6, 4, 2 and 5 months old.  Grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea and peek into our day to see what a random Tuesday was like while my husband was away traveling for work!

Day in the life posts are some of my favorite posts to not only read on other blogs, but revisit here on my site.  I’ve only shared a handful of them – day in the life with a one month old, two month old, three month old, alone with two kids and two toddlers – and  absolutely I love looking back and seeing what life was like at different points in my motherhood journey.  Life changes so quickly now!

This particular day that I capture was definitely a unicorn.  My mommin’ game was on point!  But let me tell you a truth – most days are so much harder.  So so much harder.  Somehow that day I had endless amounts of patience, calm and enjoyment.  It’s a way I strive to be, but often through fatigue and nighttime wake ups, I end up not being the calmest version of myself that I want to be.  But that’s just life and I learn from it all and adjust as needed!  Enjoy this check in of our day!

A day in life with 4 kids (and a husband away traveling)

4:40am

My alarm went off at 4:40am and I snoozed it right away.  I contemplated setting a new alarm because I was up at 2:30am with Holland, but a few minutes later I heard Holland beginning to cry so I headed downstairs to nurse her.

5:00am

Holland was back in bed, I drank a big glass of water and grabbed cup #1 of coffee for the day. It was dark out and chilly in the house.  Typically I get right onto my computer at this time, but with Jacob traveling Mon-Fri that week I committed to myself that I would focus on a little me time first thing in the morning – which included a little movement + showering and getting ready for the day – all before 6am.

Drink coffee and read.

10 minutes core workout.

Shower, decide yoga pants bring me joy today (okay all days), blow dry hair, mascara and straighten hair.

6:15am

I head down to the kitchen and take care of dishes from the night before while I make pancakes.  I always regret not doing the dishes the night before when I wake up with a messy kitchen!

6:20am

The dishes lasted 5 minutes and Holland woke to nurse.

6:25am

I hear Nova crying downstairs (which is how she lets us know she’s awake) so I head down and carefully get her out of the pack n play while nursing Holland, get her set up laying on the couch and I head back to the chair in Holland’s room to continue nursing her. Never missing a beat!

6:30am

Holland is back in bed and I grab a banana for Nova and get back to dishes.  A few minutes later Hunter comes up followed quickly Zoe. And then Holland starts making sounds again (she did not go back to sleep).  Oye!  Everyone being up at 6:30am is so not the norm.

I get the ripe bananas out plus a bowl and set up a space for egg cracking and ask if Hunter and Zoe want to help make breakfast – thankfully it’s a yes!  Zoe peels and mashed bananas and Hunter cracks half a dozen eggs into a bowl. After they finish Hunter, Zoe and Nova head downstairs and play (quite loudly) with cars while I finish making breakfast.  Banana egg oat pancakes, pineapple bacon chicken sausage strawberries. And coffee cup #2 with a scoop vital proteins collagen peptides added in.

7:30am

We eat breakfast which takes a solid 30 minutes.  Holland is semi happy on the ground rolling around, but then needs some snuggles about halfway through breakfast.  It was an earlier wake up time than normal for her.

I realize I forgot to take the garbage and recycling up to the street the night before so Hunter hangs out with Holland while I take care of that.  And it’s raining so instead of walking to school I decide we’re driving which gives us an extra 10 minutes of time before needing to leave – score!

Everyone gets cleaned up, dressed, Hunter’s lunch and backpack are prepped to go, somehow I manage to wash the dishes and start the dishwasher before we leave.

8:40am

Into the car and off to school! To protect the kids from the glaring heat, a product like that sun shade for car can be used. Holland is already asleep in her car seat.  The line up for drop off is long so we park and walk in.  Man, I miss that kid.

We swing into the local store and grab chicken broth since I forgot to get some with my ClickList order the day before.  Then we swing by the house where I grab water, snacks, ballet and tap shoes and we’re off to dance.

9:30am

We get there 30 minutes early with my plan being to nurse Holland in the car (she woke on the drive there), but Nova had a different plan since she peed in her undies in her car seat (lovely).  So we head into the dance studio early, cram into the small bathroom (baby in car seat) and I get Nova’s wet pants off. Thankfully I had a pull up on hand to put on her and her semi wet dress just had to dry.  I wasn’t prepared!

I nurse Holland in the studio while the previous class is finishing up.  Zoe is in her element and loves every minute of being in the dance studio. I get to catch up with a friend who’s daughter is in the same class and it’s just such a lovely part of our morning!

11:45am

We’re back home and the girls head out to the deck to blow the bubbles Zoe was given in her class. Nova is in and out as they fight over who popped the bubble.  And Holland woke from her car nap and is nursing.  They stay out there and turn the bucket into a leaf, bubble and water zone – so fun!

12pm

I plate up last nights leftovers while Zoe unloads the dishwasher.  We all eat lunch and Zoe heads back outside to relax on the chair.

1:15pm

I get Nova down for her nap.  Quick kitchen clean up then Zoe asked me to draw with her outside.  Soon girlie!

1:30pm

Holland goes down for a nap.  During that time I’ve been going to Nova a lot as she cries for daddy and generally resists taking a nap.

After a little bit I join Zoe on the deck – my favorite place to be!

2pm

Holland wakes and joins Zoe and I on the deck while she nurses.

2:30pm

I go inside to change Holland’s diaper and hear Nova crying. She pooped in her pull up (which means she probably didn’t actually nap). I clean her up and we start to get ready to walk to school.

3pm

I load up Nova on my back in the ergo, Holland in the stroller and Zoe walking as we head to school to pick up Hunter.

3:25pm

There’s Hunter!

My absolute favorite part about school is walking and talking and Hunter instantly started talking my ear off.  First he tells me about going to the bathroom once, which is great since his first day of school he went a total of zero times. Next he moves on to the playground.  Then he goes on and tells me about all the other fun stuff of the day and we were home! I went to park the stroller in the garage and he saw his bike and wanted to ride it.

I rolled with it and after he grabbed his helmet we walked up the street to a level area. He doesn’t know how to ride so we worked on him sitting, pedaling and me holding as we went. Let’s just say emotions were high with the new school situation, there were tears, but no falls and we had a fun time! We even talked to Jacob for a new minutes then too, which was so great since he hadn’t seen the kids or even heard their voices since 2 days prior.

4:15pm

We’re back home and I got Hunter a quick snack of a banana with peanut butter and spoonfuls of PB for the girls.  I began to get dinner going – Hunter and I were making mac n cheese from scratch! Not just any, but a butternut squash infused cheesy sauce.

4:30pm

Holland was getting sleepy so I got her swaddled and rocking. This hour is always hard and it took a solid 20 minutes to get her down but she eventually fell asleep on her own.

Mr. potato head for Hunter and Nova.

I also filled the tub and got Zoe going on a bath.

Back to dinner.  I got the butternut squash steaming, kale ripped and Hunter and I made the sauce in the food processor, tasting as we went and adjusting and adding more cheese. We decide to add the sauted bacon and kale in with it and boom dinner was ready!  So good and SO stinking fun creating and cooking with Hunter.

5:15pm

Zoe got out of the bath, we got everything to the table, Holland woke and we started to eat (me while nursing Holland). Hunter told us more about school and it was a really nice dinner.

6pm

I got the bath going for Nova, while Hunter and Zoe went outside with Roxy and played with the frisbee with her. I worked on dinner clean up (Holland on the floor/boppy lounger by me). After Novas bath she joined for a few minutes on the deck then everyone came in.

6:30pm

We read a book (and Hunter ate more dinner), everyone got their teeth brushed and I started to get the girls down to bed around 6:50pm. Nova first. She cried for me not less than 3 minutes after I left her for water.  Zoe came up about 4 times before finally staying down in her bed. And while it took some work getting Hunter to focus and get ready, he was in bed at 7:15pm I didn’t see him anymore.

7:15pm

I sat down to nurse Holland with a la croix and dog chilling on the floor by me.

7:50pm

I get her down to bed and facetime the hubby after a few minutes of last clean up before shutting down kitchen and living room lights.  We catch up on the day until Holland cries at 8:30pm (not normal). I go down and nurse her and put her back to bed, then I get back to talking to the hubs for a little bit longer.

9pm

I hop on my computer to finish writing the story about catching a chicken on fire, then Holland cries again (not normal) so I’m back down and nurse her back to sleep.

9:30pm

I’m back to my computer for 10 more minutes and I get too sleepy. I brush my teeth, plug my iPod in for class the next day, dress for bed, crawl into bed, set alarm for 7 hours later, close my eyes and I AM OUT.

And that’s that!

Heather