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It is so easy to lose yourself after baby.

Finding time for anything is rough, and finding a schedule as a new stay at home mom can seem impossible!

Between the needy babies, added chores, and your world being flipped upside down it can seem like nothing is in our control anymore!

Especially when before baby, nearly everything is in your control.

You wake up at 5 AM every weekday to leave for your job by 7 AM and sit in the same traffic day in and day out. Maybe hit the gym on the way home, or the sale at Target. Either way, you get home and put together dinner, watch Netflix and spend time with hubby. Then on the weekends you might get up early for a hike or stay up late for date night. Either way, your life is pretty consistent. There is a schedule like flow to it.

And then the little pink lines appear. Months fly by. Then you’re home with bab(ies) and everything is thrown off. You’re trying to figure out what their needs are and you’re starting to lose yourself. No more waking up at a set time every day, or going to the same place and driving home during rush hour.

Never thought you’d miss it, huh?

It’s not that this new life isn’t everything you ever wanted, it’s that this new life is SO much different from your old life. And it’s hard. And finding a schedule as a new stay at home mom is what I think took the biggest toll on myself.

It was very hard for me at first. Adjusting to life with two infants was very hard at first. Living life on their terms, without any structure at all, left me in tears by about 3 PM every day. Exhaustion, migraines and anxiety took over and I would just lose it. I was calling my husband, sobbing, everyday at that 3 PM mark looking for his encouragement to keep going.

I was developing postpartum depression (or PPD). My husband and I knew what was happening, and that we needed to figure out how to help myself before the PPD got worse. After about two weeks of the 3 PM sobbing, my husband suggested getting into some sort of routine for MYSELF because that is what always made me so happy before.

After a lot of tweaking over the past month, I have found a generalized routine that has really helped me feel more like myself again. With the inconsistency of almost two month old twins, I treat the routine more like a might-do list some days, but getting a little bit of this and that done each day has been very rewarding.

Embracing the chaos of newborns as a part of my routine has helped me in adjusting in my new life from full time job to full time mom.

Here is how I created a schedule for myself as a new stay at home mom!

The first thing I did was create a daily chore sheet for myself.

Your Sunday morning clean-the-whole-house routine is out the window once you bring baby home. You’ll quickly realize that with a baby (or babies) your life is now lived in time chunks. I also didn’t want a chunk of my weekend spent cleaning. Instead, I wanted to be able to spend as much weekend time as family time as I could!

I decided on spending a small chunk of each week day doing a rooms worth of cleaning and leaving it with that. It keeps my house tidied up to my satisfaction and I am a whole lot happier showering in a clean bathroom.

Next, I wrote down things I would like to get done each day.

I wrote out things like shower, work out, make dinner, go on a walk, and work on my blog. I realize I won’t get to each thing every day, but the whole point was was I would like to get done each day. It’s funny that the most basic things of your old life, like showering, are now things that you hope you have the time to do!

Then I wrote down what I need to get done.

Again, sometimes these things don’t happen on their ‘scheduled’ day, but they will just get pushed to the next day. These are things like baths, budgeting, meal planning and shopping, and daily chore.

And finally, I put together an outline for a week.

The outline ended up looking like somewhat of a daily to-do, check off sheet. I put them in order of importance to myself, not necessarily how I would go about doing them.

I get what I can do done based off of my babies needs. If they’re sound asleep after their first feeding in the morning, I might go get showered and dressed first. But if one or both stay awake for a while I will tidy up the living room while they play or work on my blog if they want cuddles. Everything revolves around them and their needs.

Here is what the outline looked like:

Everyday (I would like to get this done):

• Tidy up house
• Unload/load dishwasher
• Load of laundry going
• Shower/Dress
• 30+ minutes of blog time
• Make dinner
• Fold laundry/put away
• 15+ minutes workout

Notice the workout is last on my importance radar… 

Monday:

• Clean kitchen
• Post on blog

Tuesday:

• Clean living room
• Sweep and mop
• Walk with babies
• Bath night!

Wednesday:

• Clean bathroom
• Post on blog

Thursday:

• Clean upstairs
• Vacuum
• Walk with babies

Friday:

• Pick up backyard
• Budget/pay bills
• Post on blog

Saturday:

• Meal plan
• Grocery shop
• Bath night!

Sunday:

• Meal prep

 

From there I throw it all into my planner along with any other things that might be going on during the week and do my best!

Now I know my plan is a bit ambitious.

Here is what this past week has actually looked like:

 

Saturday:

• Tidy up
• Dress
• Long walk with twins
• Meal plan
• Grocery shop
• Twin baths

Sunday:

• Tidy up
• Meal prep
• Shower/dress
• Hubby/family time
• Make dinner

Monday:

• Tidy up
• Clean kitchen
• Dress (no shower time)
• Post blog
• Make dinner

Tuesday: 

• Tidy up
• Clean living room
• Shower/dress
• Walk with twins
• Work on blog
• Twin baths
• Make dinner

Wednesday:

• Tidy up
• Shower/dress
• Sweep
• Post blog
• Dentist appointment
• Make dinner

Thursday:

• Tidy up
• Dress
• Doctor appointment

Friday:

• Tidy up
• Clean upstairs
• Post blog

Maybe we’ll go for a walk and budget later tonight 😉

Even though the week didn’t go ‘as planned’ it still feels a lot better knowing I did accomplish small things during the day. The whole point of my ‘routine’ is to throw a little structure in where I can.

Go ahead and leave a comment below to share any other things that you might try to plan out for yourself during the week

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