How a typical day looks like

At the park

Me-time is so precious these days it is hard to come by. Life with two very young kids means K and I are constantly exhausted and we crash into our bed every night, praying it would be an uneventful night. But hey, who are we kidding. Isabelle at almost 3 years old, has regressed in her sleep. It's now more than a year, since she slept through the night. The time in Singapore last year (yes last year, not even this year) didn't help because her sleep arrangement changed for a few months and since coming back, she refuses to sleep by herself. Even if she falls asleep, she always wakes up around midnight and either cries up a fit, or come to our bedroom asking to sleep in our bed. For many months, I remained strict in not letting her come into our bed but of late, I am losing that determination because of sheer exhaustion. Sometimes I can't even recall what happened last night.

Gabriel started really well too, but these days, things aren't great on his bedtime either. He needs me to be beside him. Which is why bedtime is the most dreaded time for both K and I. We have to cook dinner, eat in a hurry, prepare and clean up the kids (dinner, shower or wipe down, moisturise (and lots of it for Isabelle due to her eczema), change into PJs, brush teeth). By the time we have done all of these, come bedtime story time, both K and I are ready to sleep ourselves! All 4 of us would stay in the room. K beside Isabelle and me with Gabriel. I be honest to say both me and K would be on our phones, because really, that's the only time we can scroll through our phones properly in peace since waking up in the morning.

Finally, both are asleep and we stumble out of their rooms with fingers and toes crossed. The other night we managed to get both to bed by 815pm and we were beside ourselves. We high-fived each other and discussed what we could eat as a bedtime snack and what we could watch on Netflix. Seriously. And then rolled on midnight... we heard Isabelle crying because she was woken up by her eczema. Eczema is such a dreaded thing. The confounding thing is, she is perfectly fine in the day. But come night time she scratches and screams in pain. Sometimes in the morning we find mild blood traces on her clothes because of how intense her scratches were in the night. Which is also why I have closed one eye with her sleeping in our bed cos I know she wants some comfort from us.

Anyway, I intended to write about a typical day at home, where Isabelle doesn't go to the childminder. Since the clocks moved back, one of the positives is that the kids sleep in a bit later. Isabelle would usually wake up between 7-715am but now she is able to sleep about 30min more. Small wins - I'll take it. Gabriel wakes up a bit later, closer to 8am but even if he wakes up earlier, he would sit quietly in his cot and wait for one of us to bring him out. I make them a bottle of milk each, and I start to pump milk. It is about this time that K starts work and he locks himself up in his study so Isabelle can't barge in to disturb him. After changing their nappies and clothes, we go to the kitchen and I make breakfast for all of us. It's usually Shreddies with milk for Isabelle, and I'll either have toast or oats, shared with Gabriel. He eats whatever I offer to him and always eats with gusto. After that they play for a bit before I bring Gabriel up for his morning nap.

I then start to prepare ingredients for lunch. Isabelle would always ask for the TV and I will usually switch it on for her now, just so I can cook in peace. Gabriel can nap from 45min to an hour so I try to prep quickly if I want to squeeze in a 10min of tea time. I try to cook rice for both lunch and dinner at the same time. It's all about efficiency.

Lunch is ready and K comes down to join us. He wolfs it down, sit with us for a bit and goes upstairs once more. I know I can leave the dishes in the sink to wash together at night but I just can't bear it so I power through the washing up. Sometimes I might even squeeze in a laundry session in the afternoon, but that might be pushing it. Around 230-3pm I bring Gabriel up for his afternoon nap. Don't judge, but I will switch the TV on for Izzy again, because I plan to lie down for a bit while Gabriel naps. I need some shut eye moments to last the rest of the day. And then I will time my next milk pumping session whilst Gabriel continues sleeping. Isabelle will play or hover around me.

Depending on the time, I might start prepping for dinner at 4ish or 5pm. Since rice has been cooked, I will focus on the dishes - a meat and a veg. If I feel up to it, I might do 2 meat dishes and a veg. I wake Gabriel up around 5pm if he is not already up. The good thing with K working from home is that we can have early dinners. We have been eating around 630pm every night, just so we have ample time for their bedtime routine.

And this routine continues everyday... now you know why I haven't found time to blog!

Despite the sheer tiredness of it all, here are some heartwarming pics to share.