Nightly Routine as a Dad
Master the routine to gain freedom
TLDR: I’m up from 5 am to 1 am. Managed with a great wife, cute kid, and a strategic routine. Allowing me to clean, work on my own projects and write blog before I go to sleep.
While baby girl sleeps peacefully, I’m usually in the living room working on various mobile apps. I LOVE building mobile apps. Well iOS only but we have one for family and friends to keep up with our daughter, search : Evy May Bluford. Might change with kid number two but the keywords might still work. Regardless…
Mom feeds baby girl fruits, carbs, and a meat at about 5:30 pm. My recommendation is to set up a system of who feeds and who cleans. The sucker I am… let me just say, ask for PTO as a dad when the meal involves peanut butter, hummus, or beans.
Once the slow eating, and giggling ends the food splashing begins. That’s usually around 6 pm and that means she’s done. So since I’m designated the clean up duty, I grab the paper towels and get to work.
My clean up strategy is as follows (I’ll write another post about the details):
Before I get into it, please be careful because this was done by a professional. So take notes and reread it a few times. It’ll take some practice but eventually you’ll get it.
Use paper towels to clean up the eating area and anything within baby reach on the table
Keep the bib on, we have the bib that curls at the bottom to catch the food, because baby will still be reaching for food while looking in your face. Babies love challenging you.
Do this quickly. Use a wet wipe to clean one of baby’s hands. As you switch tot he second hand, take off the bib and toss it in the sink or leave it on the table out of baby reach. Immediately clean the second.
Our precious gem of a baby likes to rub the back of her head with dirty hands. Before I mastered this technique, she would clap her hands or rub them together so I’m going back and forth between hands.
At this point all that is left is the face. Babies will hate it initially but using a wet wipe, you can get this done in 2-4 wipes. You know… with practice.
The tricky part is lifting the baby to clean off the legs and back and arms while they squirm. Can’t have them running around the house leaving a trail, right? So move them to a changing table or the couch to gather any remaining pieces.
Now she’s ready to get down and play. By play I mean touch everything at her eye level and be loud. EXCEPT when she knows she should be touching things like the blinds or the Verizon plugin to the outlet, then she gets extremely quiet and keeps looking back at us. Reading, toys, and the occasional sneakiness with happen from about 6:30 pm until we take her up stairs around 7:15 pm.
At 7:15 pm we have an 8oz bottle of milk ready and upstairs we go. Now it’s time for the largest time waster of my day… putting her to sleep. Such a big waste of time and I don’t enjoy it. But as a father you make these sacrifices so that the family can prevail, thrive even. With all my frustration I put baby girls in the sleep sack, bottle to the face, lights off, and then I hold her as she rests on me. Just as she’s nodding off I gently get up, rub her back and place her in the crib.
Again, I’m not enjoying this. Just want to be clear.
I slowly, shut the door behind me and get down the steps by about 7:40 pm. From that point on it wifey time.
We always clean up the house and discuss our day until about 8:15 pm. If it was a real intense day we will talk until about 8:30 pm. LOVE the work tea! Eventually the wife will go to bed and fall asleep to One Tree Hill or How I Met You Mother.
For me, GRIND TIME! Working on finishing different apps, websites, content ideas, you name it. Working on things I truly enjoy until about 1 - 2 am. Then it is nighty night for me.
Back up again at 5 am to finish the code, the blog, the idea from the previous night. Once it hits 6:30 am, the wife and I game plan the day until 7:15 am when the little one is back up and moving around.
A routine is needed and while you shouldn’t do the same hours as me, I do think it is needed to get in a routine so your body can regulate the energy needed at certain times. I don’t know if science supports that but write that in your notes.
