Day in the Life

Time for a fall edition of DITL — and this one is certainly different since I’m on maternity leave! Being home with a 5-week-old definitely looks different than the “usual” weekday hustle and bustle when I’m working. Here’s what life looked like last Friday, October 9.

(Also: previous day in the life posts.)

3:45 Ah, the wee hours of the morning. I look forward to a few months from now when I (hopefully) won’t be awake at this hour on a regular basis anymore. In any case, Charlotte is starting to stir. She’s currently sleeping in a pack-and-play at the foot of our bed so on the plus side, I hear her when she’s grunting but before she graduates to crying. I get up and plod into the kitchen where I warm her bottle and grab my tupperware of pumping stuff — flanges, bottles, etc. I head back into the bedroom and change her diaper before settling on the bed and giving her the bottle.

4:15 When she finishes her bottles at night lately, I’ve been nestling Charlotte against my leg while I pump. I never wrote a followup on the breastfeeding saga (part 2) but the summary is that I stopped nursing and am now exclusively pumping. I did this with Emma too. It’s working basically the same as it did last time, except I find pumping more annoying this time — especially on weekends, since it’s hard to fit it in with a preschooler in the house.

4:39 I put Charlotte back in the pack-and-play and we all go back to sleep. Note that Jose has been in bed the whole time, barely stirring. Since he’s back at work and doesn’t have the option of napping during the day, he gets a pass on nighttime feedings on “school nights.”

6:27 Charlotte is fussing. She may be getting hungry again, or she may just want her pacifier. I try the latter in hopes of getting another 10 minutes of sleep.

6:45 Emma comes in to the bedroom. It’s 15 minutes before her clock turns green (thus signalling she is allowed to get up) but she needs to go to the bathroom, which is the exception. Jose goes to help Emma while I pull a grumbling Charlotte into bed with me for a snuggle and doze off.

7:00 Emma comes running in to the room again — Jose had put her back in bed for the 5 minutes until her clock changed color. Emma climbs into bed on Jose’s side. I fall asleep again.

8:04 Suddenly it’s 8:00! Charlotte is still nestled next to me but Jose and Emma are gone. It’s definitely time for Charlotte to eat — in fact, I’m surprised she didn’t start some major fussing about it. I get out of bed and take the lovely selfie above, then walk out into the living room where Emma is watching Daniel Tiger. They should be gone by now…but it turns out Jose decided to just give her breakfast at home, so they had a little more time. (Breakfast at daycare drives our morning schedule, and they stop serving it at 8:30.) I take Charlotte to her room and change her diaper.

8:21 I’m feeding Charlotte as Jose and Emma head out the door.

8:40 I’m figuring out my plans for the day but first? Coffee.

8:52 Time to pump again. Charlotte lies next to me making cute faces.

9:22 I’m done pumping and got a whopping 1.7 ounces. For a while I was pumping more often, nearly every 3 hours, but it didn’t make a difference in my supply so now I’m doing it 5 times each day. I put Charlotte in the swing while I take care of dirty dishes and clean up the kitchen. Then I head to the bedroom to get dressed for a walk.

9:35 I’m dressed for our walk — it’ll be our fourth day in a row with a walk this week! Since Charlotte is content in the swing, I decide to take advantage and quickly look online for a couple new sports bras and another pair of the workout shorts that I really like.

10:02 Whew, ok, it’s really time for a walk now. Charlotte has fallen asleep in the swing but I should be able to transfer her to the stroller easily enough. To be precise, I actually have to transfer her to the car seat, which then snaps into the stroller attachment. It’ll be nice when she can sit in the stroller on her own, but that’s still several months away.

10:19 We’re out the door and on our way. I listen to podcasts. It’s overcast today and cooler — nice! I have a rather ridiculous system of two blankets that I use to keep Charlotte out of direct sunlight when we’re walking, but with the clouds, I won’t have to be as diligent about it today.

11:00 As we near the end of our walk, I’ve been texting with my sister about baby stuff. Elizabeth is about 5 weeks older than Charlotte and the questions Katie asks remind me how much I’ve forgotten in the 3 years since Emma was a baby. Ha! As we text, Charlotte is getting fussy. I keep pausing to give her the pacifier again and again. We’re still almost a mile from the house so this could get a little dicey if she doesn’t settle down!

11:15 Whew. We made it home and I quickly got a bottle warming on the counter. We walked almost exactly 3 miles.

11:40 Charlotte is fed and satisfied and I’m hoping she’ll be amenable to sitting in her bouncer in the bathroom while I shower!

12:31 I’m showered and dressed, have put a load of laundry in the washer, and am now sitting at the kitchen island eating lunch. Charlotte is asleep in her bouncer. She got fussy for a bit but once I wrapped her up and snuggled for a bit, she fell asleep. She’s actually been awake most of the morning and didn’t really sleep on our walk, so it’s definitely time for her to nap! For lunch I’m having leftover pasta from last night and some of my favorite edamame salad.

1:02 A half hour later, I’m still sitting at the counter because I got distracted surfing the web and catching up on blogs. Oof.

1:11 It’s time to pump again so I get set up on the couch while Charlotte continues to sleep. While I pump, I read some of Young House Love’s new book. It’s not bad — nothing earth-shattering, but I’ve already gotten a few ideas of minor things I could do in our house too…someday.

1:33 Hooray pumping is done! What I’d like to do now is sew. But what I actually do? I make formula and bottles, fold clothes, move a load from the washer to the dryer and start another one, put clothes away, and unload/reload the dishwasher.

2:10 Ok, “housewife duties” done. Whew. When I’m home all day, it seems like I should just go ahead and take care of all the chores as much as possible, although it makes me realize that 1) I’m glad I’m not a stay at home mom and 2) staying on top of the housework is going to be a big adjustment when I do go back to work. But at the moment I’m feeling like I really want to do something not baby related. I am hanging this new jewelry rack (that I bought last week) RIGHT NOW.

2:35 Done! I replaced my jewelry “frame” with a more functional and less messy-looking rack. And since 3 hours have passed, it’s time for Charlotte to eat. It looks like I’m going to have to wake her up, which I’m always reluctant to do, so I procrastinate a bit. I make a list of things I need from Lowe’s. I fold another load of laundry.

3:00 I’ve gotten Charlotte up and changed her diaper, and she’s sucking down a bottle again.

3:41 Charlotte is zonked out next to me on the couch. Side note: that onesie fits so strangely, wide but short. Another side note: you may notice her belly button sticking out in this picture. She has what’s called an umbilical hernia, where her abdominal muscles didn’t close all the way at birth so her intestine pokes out a little. It seemed kind of alarming at first, but the pediatrician assured us it’s somewhat common, and the muscles will come together over time. So for now we’re just waiting it out!

Anyway, Jose decided to come home early so he is also relaxing on the couch and we’re talking about baseball. He’d been telling his officemate about the general rules (his officemate is originally from the Ivory Coast and despite being in the US for many years now, he knows literally nothing about baseball) in preparation for the Astros game today. One thing that he didn’t really understand was the lack of a clock — i.e. baseball games can last anywhere from 2 hours to 6 or mote. That reminded me of the 18-inning Astros-Braves game I saw in 2005. I feel certain that I wrote a blog post about it so I search for it and voila. And that game was exactly 10 years ago to the day!

3:47 I ask Siri what time the Astros game is — and, um, it started an hour ago!! I quickly turn on the TV…and our cable isn’t working. What the heck! It was working fine this morning so I call Comcast. What a train wreck of a company! Fortunately for all involved, they are able to send some sort of “reset signal” command, and our cable is restored.

4:12 My intentions of running an errand to Lowe’s this afternoon went out the window when I realized the baseball game was on, so now I’m just hanging out at home, watching baseball and messing around on the computer. Charlotte continues to sleep, and Jose has fallen asleep on the couch too.

4:34 Charlotte is starting to stir, so we snuggle.

4:50 Even though Jose came home early, Emma is still at daycare so it’s time to go get her. I offered/asked to do pickup today as a way to get myself out of the house — and alone for at least the 20 minutes it takes to drive there. It’s the little things, right?

5:11 I make a quick stop at the post office to drop Charlotte’s birth announcements in the mail. I’m happy to check that goal off my list!

5:29 As we leave the daycare, Emma is crying because “I’m not ready to leave, I want 5 more minutes!” Nevermind the fact that everyone else is leaving too. On one hand, I love that she loves her school so much. On the other hand…ugh. She calms down quickly enough once we get in the car, since I tell her that we’re going to Chick-Fil-A for dinner.

5:57 We’re home, and I retreat to the bedroom to pump. It’s easier to do it in here when Emma’s home because 1) she can’t trip over the cord that would have to run across the living room floor and 2) she can’t get all up in my business with questions. I’ve explained to her that pumping is how I get milk for Charlotte but I’m sure the whole thing just seems bizarre to a 3-year-old. Heck, it seems kind of bizarre even to me.

6:20 I finish up and we all get ready to go to dinner.

6:30 I realize that Charlotte is due to eat — it’s been 3.5 hours so she’ll probably be waking up at any moment. But it’s also getting kind of late to go out to dinner if we want Emma in bed at any sort of reasonable hour. Crap. Well, Jose and I decide to go ahead and get in the car and feed Charlotte at the restaurant.

6:55 We arrive at Chick-Fil-A after 2 more rounds of “This is Halloween” (Emma’s current song obsession) plus Charlotte waking up and starting to wail. I’m just trying to stay calm while I settle into a booth and start feeding her. Jose and Emma go up to the counter to order. Sticking with our plan to eat out may not have been the brightest idea tonight, but oh well — here we are.

7:31 Emma wants to play at the indoor playground, of course, so I go with her for about 15 minutes. For once, it’s not insanely crowded or overrun with kids that are really too old for an indoor playground!

7:44 Despite the relatively small crowd, Emma doesn’t actually play very much. Instead, she mostly sits next to me and watches the other couple kids — in particular, an ~8 year old boy who is screeching like a monkey. Sigh. Shrug. Whatever.

7:52 We’ve gotten everybody loaded back into the car and are on our way home now. This was actually our first meal out of the house with both kids. We did it! High fives, Jose.

8:10 We arrive at home. Despite prepping her for the fact that it will be bathtime, Emma starts whining about it. She has been a real pill about taking her bath lately and I have no idea why. Maybe she just knows it’s a sign that she has to go to bed soon? But she doesn’t complain about bedtime…

8:14 …In any case, Jose is dealing with bathtime, and I hear screaming coming from the bathroom. SIGH.

8:22 I change Charlotte’s diaper and brush her hair/head. She’s dealing with some cradle cap, and the brush helps loosen some of the dead skin. It’s kind of gross, but I also want to get rid of the flakes! Oh, the things people don’t really tell you about babies. Emma had cradle cap too — worse than Charlotte’s actually, or at least worse than what Charlotte has had thus far.

8:31 Emma is no longer freaking out, and Jose has her dried off and in her nightgown. I pass Charlotte off to Jose, brush Emma’s hair and teeth, and then we sit down in her room to read. She picks a big book of nursery rhymes, so we page through it and read about a dozen of them.

8:55 I close the door to Emma’s room. Normally she’s in bed by 8:30…but hey, it’s a Friday. And either way, I have no doubt she’ll be up and at ’em tomorrow at 7:00. (And indeed, she was.)

9:05 Jose has Charlotte wrapped up in a blanket and sleeping on the couch. We decide to watch an episode of Modern Family from the DVR.

9:51 We’ve now switched the channel to baseball. I’m still on the couch. Let’s just say I’ve been spending a lot of time parked on the couch lately! What else is maternity leave for…?

10:02 After another 10 minutes, I finally decide to do something else. I really should be going to bed, but instead I begin cleaning off dining room table a bit — it’s overrun with sewing projects (more than usual) and toys. I go upstairs to the bonus room for a bit, where I print out our tickets for the Bayou City Art Festival (where we were headed the following day). I filed some papers and also tried to get a new hard drive working but didn’t have any luck. The hard drive works just fine, but my old old iMac is struggling to get it ready for use as a backup drive. I head back downstairs, suddenly determined to sew for a bit.

10:55 I finish one (of 10) blocks for my niece Elizabeth’s quilt! It only took me 30 minutes…and 1.5 months, since technically I started it the evening before Charlotte was born. This is only the second time I’ve sat down at my sewing machine since then, so I’m feeling pretty happy about that.

11:05 I can’t resist taking another 10 minutes to tear out all of the papers from this block. I love how precise paper piecing can be…but tearing out the papers is definitely the annoying downside.

11:09 Jose is feeding Charlotte while I pump again before bed.

11:44 I brush my teeth, take out my contacts, and climb into bed. I have stayed up WAY too late and will be paying for it tomorrow, but I’m hoping Charlotte will sleep until at least 3:00. (And she did.) Good night!