Do Everything Together or Separate?

Having two kids with quite a close age gap is a juggling act. I struggle with the decision whether to feed them together or separately... and whether to put them to nap/bed at the same time or one after the other.

In the end, this is what I do....

With sleeping, I find it a lot easier to let them sleep at the same time. So usually, I breastfeed baby while chit chatting or reading stories to My Girl till they both fall asleep. Now, thats not too difficult to do although it was not easy to establish that routine and I had many a sleepless night/day when one of them would wake the other up just as the other was falling asleep and I would have to wait for both of them to get sleepy all over again. It can be quite frustrating! Now, we have established quite a nice routine so its worth the hard work of having a single bedtime for both. I'd say it was worth it to establish the routine. Now, for afternoon naps, sometimes after baby falls asleep, my girl would sit quietly on her side of the bed reading or playing softly by herself and I can even leave them on their own for a while. And they both love and look forward to their bedtime. They love to run to daddy to give him his goodnight kiss, then its off to bed to read and tell stories and rhymes or sing before lights off and they are good. They seldom complain when its time to switch off the lights. :)

As for feeding times, I haven't quite got the groove yet. I used to feed both of them and myself at the same time thinking that would save me time but sometimes the distraction is too much for them, I think. In the end, I find it went a lot faster for me to feed baby first, then followed by my girl. I feed them one at a time or both together depending on the situation and my mood. As for myself, well, I usually eat whenever I can find the time in between, like in between spoonsful of feeding them or while doing the dishes or cleaning up. I literally eat on the go or while standing and moving around. Sitting down to eat is a luxury for me. Hehe.

Where bathing is concerned, its usually one after the other although they sometimes like to bathe together so they can pour water on each other with their toy cups and laugh like its the funniest game ever. Oh well, sometimes they play together like the best of friends and sometimes they fight and cry like all siblings do.