My days as a stay-at-home-mom have become so much more productive and organized since I implemented this flexible daily routine. Today, I’m going to share my daily stay-at-home-mom routine and how I get things done while taking care of an infant.
So what’s it really like being a stay-at-home mom? No two days are exactly the same and everything I attempt to do is punctuated with interruptions. But it’s in those interruptions that I find the most grace as a mother. Those moments that disrupt our plan and our schedule are just invocations from the Holy Spirit to respond to our children with love and to be Christian servants to them. In this daily stay-at-home-mom routine, I’ve also included how I find time to pray every day, which helps me keep this perspective.
If you’re trying to develop your own daily stay-at-home-mom routine, don’t put yourself on a fixed schedule. You’ll end up frustrated when things don’t fall into the exact time slots you planned. It’s more important to establish the order in which you’ll do things than the time at which you will do them. I’ve included estimated times for each step of my daily routine, but I don’t pressure myself to stick to them. They’re there as guides, not strict rules.
Daily Routine of a Stay-at-Home Mom with an Infant
This routine walks through a typical day at home with my 10-month old daughter. I don’t get into the nitty-gritty of each and every diaper change or bottle feeding. That’s a schedule of its own nature, but to give you the gist, there are 3-4 bottle feedings and 6-8 diaper changes that occur in the midst of everything else I talk about below.
Here is the breakdown, followed by a detailed look at each part of the routine:
Stay-at-Home Mom Daily Routine with a Baby
- 6:00 AM – Get ready for the day
- 6:45 AM – Baby wakes, breakfast
- 9:00 AM – Play and pray
- 10:30 AM – Housekeeping and chores
- 11:00 AM – Put baby down for nap, tackle to-do list
- 1:00 PM – Baby wakes from nap, lunch
- 2:00 PM – Errands, scheduled activities, exercise
- 6:00 PM – Dinner and family time
- 7:30 PM – Put baby to bed, followed by personal time
- 9:00 PM – Final tidy up
- 10:00 PM – End the day with prayer, bedtime
Get ready for the day (6:00 AM)
I’ve found that waking up before your kids is the best way to ensure you have enough time to get ready for the day. The time I have to myself in the morning is essential for setting a steady tone that will carry me through the rest of the day. If I oversleep, the rest of the day feels rushed and chaotic.
To get ready I shower quickly, dress comfortably, brush my teeth, style my hair, and put on makeup. Since I’ve become a mom, I’ve learned to do this all pretty fast, which means simple makeup and easy hairstyles. How much of my morning routine I get through depends on when my daughter decides to wake up, which is usually 30 min – 45 min after I’ve gotten up.
Baby wakes up, make breakfast (6:45 AM)
This is my favorite part of the day! At this stage, my daughter wakes up in such a happy mood. Going to get her out of the crib is such a treat. When she knows mom is coming to get her and sees me opening her door, she gets the biggest smile on her face, reaches her arms up, and wiggles with excitement.
To continue our morning routine, I make my daughter a bottle and begin to get breakfast ready. During my postpartum period, I experienced iron deficiency, so I use breakfast as an opportunity to eat iron-rich foods like oatmeal and spinach-based smoothies. Oat cereal mixed with fruit is one of my daughter’s favorite breakfast options.
Play and pray (9:00 AM)
After breakfast, we move to the living room/play area. I’ll help her pull toys out from her basket and play on the floor with her for a while (about 30 minutes). When she seems entertained and comfortable, I’ll give her the opportunity to practice independent play. This also gives me the opportunity to spend some time in prayer.
The Blessed is She Daily Devotions make it really easy for me to incorporate prayer into my day. As a subscriber, they get sent to my email every morning (you can get them too when you subscribe here). I pull the daily devotion up on my phone and use it to guide my prayer time. I can do this while sitting right next to my daughter and it only takes a few minutes. If my daughter needs my full attention during that time, I will put down my phone and go back to it later.
Housekeeping and chores (10:30 AM)
While my daughter continues to play in the living room, I’ll begin my daily housekeeping. Our home has an open floorplan, so I can keep an eye on her from most rooms in the house. My daily housework involves laundry, dishes, meal-prepping, vacuuming, and other chores. Cleaning isn’t the most glamorous part of being a stay-at-home mom, but I view it as my contribution to the household and as a service to my family.
Wash the dish not because it is dirty nor because you are told to wash it, but because you love the person who will use it next.
St. Teresa of Calcutta
To keep my daughter happy, I try to involve her in my activities. This might mean letting her play with a pile of clean socks while I fold the rest of the laundry or letting her bang on pots and pans while I clean the rest of the dishes.
Put baby down for a nap, tackle to-do list (11:00 AM)
While my daughter takes her nap, I work on my to-do list. I keep a written to-do list in my planner (find my favorite planners from Mary Square here). This might involve more housework, ordering groceries, making phone calls, or working on a blog post for BGF. This is the best time to do things that require my full attention.
It’s really tempting to use this time to watch T.V. or to scroll on social media, but that’s not going to work if you want to have a productive stay-at-home-mom routine/schedule. Prioritize your most important to-dos and leave the T.V. off and your phone out of reach until you’ve completed them.
Lunch (1:00 PM)
On Sunday or Monday, I usually cook three days’ worth of meal-prep. Then I will do it again mid-way through the week. I find a lot of meal-prep ideas on Pinterest. If I’ve meal-prepped, all I have to do for lunch is pull something out of the fridge and heat it up.
My daughter enjoys finger foods for lunch like cut up avocado, banana, sweet potatoes, or shredded chicken. She’s able to eat many types of solid food now at 10 months old, so lunchtime is a fun sensory experience for her.
Miscellaneous – errands, scheduled activities, exercise (2:00 PM)
After lunch is a great time to run errands because my daughter is rested and fed. I can take her out and about with me and not worry too much about her getting fussy. This is also when I try to schedule any doctor’s appointments or activities. If we have no errands or appointments, I will use this time to do a mommy/baby exercise or go on a walk around the neighborhood.
Dinner and family time (6:00 PM)
Once my husband gets home from work, we enjoy family time together. We’ll both sit and play with our daughter in the living room. She loves having us both there to entertain her. I can also use this time to make dinner while my husband is watching the baby.
Sitting down for dinner together is a great time for my husband and me to catch up and talk about how our day went. Listening to our conversation also helps our daughter develop motor skills. She will babble and try to chime in at times. One of my favorite early childhood development books, The Wonder Weeks recommends that parents always acknowledge their baby’s efforts to talk and to talk back to them.
Baby bedtime routine and personal time (7:30 PM)
To help my daughter wind down for bedtime, we give her a bath, put on pajamas, and read a bedtime story. There are usually a few minutes of cuddles and then I lay her in her crib to go to sleep. It can take a couple of attempts before she falls completely asleep. Once she’s fully asleep, I take time to myself or spend time with my husband.
Final Tidy Up (9:00 PM)
Before heading to bed, I do one last tidy up around the house, which involves putting away my daughter’s toys and picking up other loose items around the house. Lastly, I’ll hand wash her bottles that were used throughout the day so they’re ready to use again the next morning.
End the day with prayer (10:00 PM)
Getting to bed by 10:00 PM ensures I’ll be rested in the morning and ready for another full day. To get ready for bed, I wash my face, brush my teeth, and change into pajamas. I’ll say my evening prayers, which usually involve a daily examen.
There are many ways to perform a Daily Examen. One way is to use the acronym B.A.K.E.R:
- Blessings – Thank God for your blessings and review the day with gratitude.
- Ask – Ask God to help recognize any sinfulness in your actions from the day. Examine how you approached your relationship with God and with others that day, paying attention to your emotions.
- Kill -Ask for forgiveness for your sins. Jesus conquered death and sin when he died on the cross.
- Embrace – Allow Jesus to embrace you with his divine mercy and forgiveness.
- Resolve – Make a concrete resolution for how you will improve the next day as a result of your examination.
Those are the basics of what my day looks like as a stay-at-home mom with an infant. I’d love to hear how other moms approach the day. Do you follow a schedule, stick to a routine, or go with the flow each day? Leave a comment or chime in on Instagram.