Friday, May 9, 2014

Day In The Life | May 8, 2014

Wow, so this was my first time participating in Ali Edwards' Day In The Life! She chose Thursday, May 8th, 2014 and so I played along... it was great since it was going to be a pretty typical weekday in my new life as a stay at home mom... so for all those wondering what a stay at home mom with only one baby who can't crawl/walk yet does, here is my story.

5:15 AM
Natalie woke up for her (?th) time to nurse, so since Chris was awake, he brought her into our bedroom to nurse and sleep a little longer with me. If I'm already awake, I'll just nurse her and put her back in her crib, but lots of time I want the extra bit to "sleep in" when we can.

6:46 AM
Natalie wakes up and pulls off her socks. I remembered that it was time to start documenting Day In The Life, so I pulled out my iPhone and snapped some pics.

6:48 AM
Rediscover our hands.

6:51 AM
Sit her up and think about if I want to shower or give her a bath. She decides for me and spits up a little down herself (plus she was so sweaty and greasy from sleeping).

6:56 AM
Set her down and run around and grab bath stuff and start the bath for US (I have to jump in with her since our bathroom is so small and it would just kill my knees or back to bend over to bathe her).

6:58 AM
Get Natalie and set her down on the floor outside the bathroom

7:00 AM
Bath time with Mama!

7:13 AM
Wow I never realized how quickly I can get her bathed, it always feels like forever with her squirming around and trying to grab the cup I use to pour water over her, and not wanting to give me her hands or feet to wash... got her out and wrapped up in some towels now.

7:18 AM
After she's dried a little more, I get a toy, a plastic piece of cake for her to occupy herself, then come back to the bathroom to take a selfie together!

7:22 AM
First diaper change of the day! Also, we do our "processing" as Chris calls it - I put some cream on her extra dry spots, some lotion all over her body, and tip back a Vitamin D drop into her mouth (if I can). She gets processed twice a day (Vitamin D only once though).

7:23 AM
Sigh, I threw the dirty baby laundry in the hallway to remind myself to get that done today - my only task for the day!

7:26 AM
Finally time to get this baby dressed! She fights it though, of course.

7:33 AM
This is what my husband calls "Lark mode" that I call "Rot mode"... he says she's happy as a lark when all I see is a baby left to rot by herself... but it needs to be done if I am going to accomplish my one task of the day!

7:34 AM
My one task of the day has doubled in size in the past 12 minutes somehow.

7:34 AM part 2
I don't know why but I went back into the kitchen for something (maybe to check on her?) and then passed by the coffee maker which was still on - a wonderful gift from my husband this morning yay! I will try to remember to enjoy that later!

7:37 AM
While I am going room to room to find random baby clothes for this load of laundry, I might as well use the "Lark mode" that I can tell she is still in to do whatever I can to prep for anything else that I can later - or in this case, I prep the nursery for her nap time... oh sad to say, she naps in her car seat with the blanket over it to shield the light.

7:39 AM
Throw the laundry in the wash! Woohoo!

7:44 AM
Sneak back into the kitchen quietly so Natalie doesn't see me and can stay in Lark mode. This is where I have to plan - I get a water from the kitchen to take with me to the living room because otherwise I will have to either let her cry later while I waste time going back to the kitchen to get a water but more likely, I would end up going thirsty all morning - the bane of any nursing mama's existence! Also, I record the day's nap and awake times as well as nursings (marked "F" for feedings) so I know when she will be hungry/tired/awake etc.

7:45 AM
Playtime! How did an hour already go by!?

7:47 AM
I try not to let Natalie see me on the phone too much because then it just becomes a replacement for the television that I also never turn on. But I guess for the sake of DITL it's ok and she can see me taking some pictures of her :)

7:57 AM
She was getting fussy, so I picked her up and then I smelled her first poop of the day and second diaper (we call it, pooperoo) and of course I plan ahead and grabbed a plastic teacup for her to play with before heading to the nursery to change her.

8:00 AM
Time to use the opportunity of me carrying her back into the living room to take our daily tour of the kitchen so I can point to objects and teach her the words. She loves the calendar the best, although she was a little distracted when I went to get a selfie!

8:15 AM
She walked over to the book shelf (with help from her walker toy) and grabbed a bunch of books, so whenever she grabs a book I sit down and read it with her in my lap... unless it's DITL and I need to let her read to herself while I take a picture!

8:16 AM
Attention diverted, there's a stack of just-read books! Let me reach until I land on my belly, she says!

8:17 AM
Oh I HATE being on my belly, I will lay here and cry!

8:21 AM
I sense Natalie is getting tired and just about ready to nurse and go down for her first nap of the day, so I am trying to remember to take more advantage of the time she is awake to do things like clean up the living room - hoping to show her that we clean up before we eat/nap... oh whatever, I just can't stand a mess!

8:24 AM
Nursery is ready - lights out, fan on, commence nursing.

8:25 AM
Oh the horror! I smelled a poop, and because her pants still aren't washed yet, I was able to check her onesie while she was nursing and saw another brown log in there, so I had to... de-latch her to change her diaper ahhh!!

8:41 AM
She's down in her car seat for a nap, the video monitor is on... time to sneak out!!

8:42 AM
Chris checks in on us :)

8:43 AM
Phew still asleep! Time for some COFFEE!!!!

8:48 AM
Other than spending time with Natalie of course, this is the BEST time of the day! Napping baby, big cup of coffee in my favorite mug, computer off, and Bible out! Yes, it is the MacArthur daily Bible, and yes it is open to where I left off on the reading for February 28th. Yes I realize it's May 8th, but I am going at my own pace!

9:10 AM
Who says Mom's don't have time to shower? Not me, not today, not with my 1 child who doesn't walk yet and who is napping! I will remove this part of the post in a few more months :)

9:26 AM
Done with shower, time for my first solo selfie. What's the big deal?

9:30 AM
Contemplate setting the dryer to the star, as Chris repeatedly keeps asking me to do to save money, power etc. But then I decide, what if I do that, then she gets up, then I come down my only chance to get the laundry and it's still wet? Sorry Chris, I can't take that chance! So I set it to where I want to set it - PAST the star... oooh!

9:33 AM
Oops, forgot to have breakfast, now's a good time.

9:51 AM
Finished yogurt, got dressed, brushed hair, brushed teeth, etc. Now 19 minutes trying to edit some pictures, but don't get to it. 19 minutes of guilt that I am not doing any work, nor am cleaning or maybe if I learned to cook am I doing that. 19 minutes of thinking, "she could wake up at any minute now." 19 minutes of free time. 19 minutes on edge and not really accomplishing anything.

10:10 AM
Aaannnd, she's awake! Time to nurse her while she's still groggy and calm and not distracted.

10:20 AM
Do I smell another poop!? Why yes, yes I do!

10:28 AM
I managed to get Natalie into Lark mode again so I could run downstairs and grab the laundry!

10:35 AM
Laundry's half folded and I think she is pooping again... ugh. Let me just finish folding this laundry...

10:42 AM
Just as I suspected - poop #4 (5th diaper)!! Yes, I made her take her toy remote control to play with.

10:45 AM
Back into the living room... oh no, oh no - ANTS!!! Ahhh!!! Panic!!!!!

11:02 AM
Natalie in lark mode in the kitchen while I frantically vacuumed up as many ants as I could find and send messages to Chris about the situation!

11:09 AM
I was planning to wait till 11:30am to get our lunches ready but now we canNOT go back into the living room with the ants! I will have to bump up our schedule! While she's in lark mode in her high chair, I throw together a ham sandwich and bag of chips and get out her baby food.

11:12 AM
She likes to do her sideways look at me while she eats.

11:20 AM
My turn to eat, she can have an empty water bottle to keep her busy.

11:22 AM
Yes, there's my sharing monster. She always wants to hand me stuff and then I say "thank you thank you thank you" really excited, and she loves it! Then she does it like 5 more times until I have to pretend not to see her, poor thing :)

11:32 AM
Lunches are cleaned up and I still refuse to go back in the living room, so we will play in our bedroom in the back of the house for a few minutes.

11:45 AM
This is sad, but this is what I have to do when I want to go to the bathroom when she's not in lark mode, because otherwise she will cry if I leave her. I set her in our closet and open the door to the bathroom and go right in front of her... oh the things you do as a parent... yes I have decided to keep a few toys in there now so I don't have to keep bringing toys around with me!

11:54 AM
This is the part of the day where I might feel the "most" guilty because it feels like I've gotten off the hook from doing work. I get to enjoy 20 minutes outside on a beautiful day with my baby!

12:01 PM
I love that this happened on a random day because it is still fairly "typical"... while I am walking I see these 2 women outside their house on another street in our neighborhood. They say, "Is that Natalie Jordan!?" excitedly, and then they ask if I am Emily. I say yes and then I think for a few seconds... then I decide how they know this, "Oh you must've met my husband Chris" and they both say "Yes!" How is this exchange typical? It is for the girl who married the guy that knows EVERYONE in town! People just love him too and they all remember his name and he always remembers their names, it's so crazy! Just another random reason I love my husband. Anyway, yes I told them briefly how I am doing DITL and they obliged and got in a picture for me! Then they took my picture too :)

12:12 PM
Just an extra beautiful spring day!

12:49 PM
Back inside the house... oh no please don't tell me. ANOTHER poop! That's 5...

12:56 PM
Look how much fun a couple of cupholders can be...

1:07 PM
We need a change of scenery...

1:10 PM
Nope, she was getting sleeping/hungry. Time to nurse her again.

1:23 PM
Ahhh she is back down for a nap!

1:33 PM
Find the ONLY snack left in the house... a frozen surprise bagel! It turned out to be a sundried tomato bagel I think... who cares, it's so good! Maybe I can edit and print some pictures for scrapbooking? Nope, this is when I offloaded the pics from the first half of the day from my phone and camera and just started to organize them.

2:00 PM
She wakes up.

2:12 PM
I guess we can go back into the living room, but I will need to do some more vacuuming!

2:18 PM
Lots of good playtime!

3:03 PM
7th diaper of the day, but this time not a poop thankfully!

3:13 PM
I don't know why I taught her this, but I put the fishbowl up to my face and then looked at her through it, so now of course she does it and it's hilarious! What did I teach her?

4:02 PM, aka the BEST TIME OF THE DAY!!
Daddy's home!!! This is when she really starts saying "Dada" and gets excited!

4:04 PM
Daddy takes Natalie from me and usually gives me a few minutes to go to the bathroom and do some things I might've been waiting to do, like put away some laundry or something.

4:20 PM
Since we're having company later, I decide to lie down and take a nap with her so she sleeps longer and will hopefully be in a good mood!

5:15 PM
I am awake, but Natalie is still sleeping and nursing so I am glued to the bed unless I want her to wake up. I look at my phone one-handed.

5:40 PM
I hear Chris' friend Johnny come over to set up some bait for the ants! I hear them talking loudly but she stays asleep, phew!

6:03 PM
She is finally waking up! Good, my back was starting to hurt lying in that same position so she could nurse while she slept...

6:20 PM
I guess 10 minutes before your guests are supposed to arrive is a good time to have your 6th poop of the day and your pièce de résistance! This one is a poop up the back, wonderful! At least Chris is home to take the onesie and rinse it off while I change her!

6:34 PM
Mommy passes off Natalie to Daddy for a few minutes!

6:34 PM part 2
But Daddy did GOOD while Mommy was glued to bed with the baby and he cleaned the house and ordered a pizza pie!! We don't normally order pizza (anymore), but on your typical day my husband would have dinner ready AND the place cleaned anyway because he is a maniac. Did I tell you how much I love this man!?

6:40 PM
Our guests arrive, and later the pizza and wings arrive and we all eat in the kitchen and enjoy each other's company!

7:49 PM
How cute are these two!? They are about 3 weeks apart (Natalie is younger but of course, slightly bigger hehe).

8:45 PM
Babies are getting tired, so our guests say goodbye.

9:03 PM
Mommy wants Natalie to show Daddy how she can pull herself up in the crib now! This is all she wants to do now!

9:05 PM
It's too late to do any processing because Natalie is wiped out! So I just do her 8th and final diaper change of the day and change her into her pajamas... she would define this as murder.

9:25 PM
Our almost nightly car ride together as a family to get Natalie to sleep.

9:30 PM
Success, she is asleep and lightly snoring.

9:51 PM
Time for a late night snack and some fellowship with my husband!

9:55 PM
Some cross-referencing our Bibles and notes etc. Love this man!!

10:13 PM
I am sad when Chris announces he is going to bed, and since I am tired, I will go to bed too.

10:15 PM
One last picture - the day's nursing/feeding and napping schedule.

In conclusion, this day was pretty typical, but on the easier side because the feedings happened to coincide very well with the naps. I see only 6 feedings during this day. That is EXTREMELY light (two days earlier she had done 13). After that, she woke up to nurse 4 more times throughout the night. I am still one tired, but happy and thankful mama!

2 comments:

  1. Wow so many photos! SHe's a cutie and very active like my lo!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Mel, she's def very active and not even walking yet... :)

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