Planner and Motherhood

You have not slept since the last trimester of your pregnancy and hence the foggy mommy brain is getting worse. That is when your little one turned into a toddler. He or she does not do the extra naps and does not want to sit for a second.

You are busy with the toddler meal cooking, sterilizing bottles, washing extra laundry than ever before and your toddler seems to tug on you and nag you forever.

Not many of you might relate to this if you stay with your family or have baby sitters or have help in general. If you are a stay-at-home-mom or a work-from-home-mom you know the struggle is real.

I would like to share few things that worked for me and my toddler that helped me structure our days, stay consistent with routines and not forget the little but important things like Vitamin Drops and introducing new activities, learning new words etc.

I typed out a structure for us like so:

I have printed multiple copies of the same  and glued it onto my notebook with dates and days of the week mentioned. Weekend is different as expected.

I have other sections on my notebook where I plan our meals, weekly grocery list and other household stuff. My random to do’s are penned down on post its. Result?  An alert brain and more productive me. Win- win you see?

It is very simple and basic but, helps me to wake up with a steady mind as we all know writing down a to-do list does wonders to easing our brain burden. From the time I started to stick to the routine I have seen that my son has become less fuzzy as he knows how the day is going to be. There are days when he sits on his little chair and asks for his book after his mid breakfast. No, I am not bragging or showing off but, emphasizing the importance of planners for a Mom and Child. Also, ticking the list off gives a sense of satisfaction  and achievement unlike any other.

I was made fun of by a few when I spoke about me using a DIY planner. Some asked why would a mom and kid staying at home require a daily planner. They asked, “So what do you write down there anyways?  About Meetings?  Next meeting’s agenda? Ideas for a new marketing campaign?  Wait I know !! A new baby food recipe, next diaper change time huh“

They laughed and I was quiet. Will you be stunned to hear that this mockery was not from men but, women.  Let us move on.

How has making notes helped us mom and son?

• I could easily keep track of Shaurya’s food intake
• I could easily tell his doctor about new solids introduced
• Keeping track of allergy to any kind of food was easy once I wrote down the days I fed him new food items
• I have track of last time he fell sick and the medicines given to him
• Few days of loss of appetite and fuzziness indicated his teething and I planned my week accordingly (as not much cooking or work can be done)
• Anything prolonged was addressed to his doctor with full details from my notebook
• It was easy to keep track of his weight and height gains

Thanks to my bad handwriting I prefer printouts. I write further details as the day progresses.  And in case you are wondering where the next page is, it has his night time routine along with mine and hence I have not put it here. The only missing parts of his routine included brushing, night time body wash and bed time stories along with his feed.

In case you are wondering what his play time is like you can read it here and here.

All in all having a planner combined with notes  has enabled us to stick with our routine and caused an overall improvement in our mom son relationship. But, I will admit that I am still learning as a mom and no two days are the same. Our life is not perfect and perfection is not what I am aiming for. Just want to be a better mom and wife than what I was yesterday.

This is what is working for us now. I hope you got some inspiration as that is my sole aim!

Are you a planner fan? Please share your ideas.